The Ford Foundation has spearheaded the creation of a pledge for philanthropic donors to support the needs of their grantees and partners during the COVID-19 crisis, by being generous with their funding and flexible in their demands.
The pledge was officially released on the 19th of March, and it has already been signed by over 500 organizations, including foundations and other leaders in the philanthropic sector. The American Council of Foundations partnered with the Ford Foundation to promote the initiative. As the introduction to the pledge states:
“The rapid spread of COVID-19 has created a global health and economic crisis that is testing every one of us. We know that the shocks of this “new normal” are severe and unanticipated for our sector and grantee partners.
As leaders in philanthropy, we recognize the critical need to act with fierce urgency to support our nonprofit partners as well as the people and communities hit hardest by the impacts of COVID-19.
We invite funders and other leaders in the philanthropic sector to join us in making these commitments and collectively holding ourselves accountable to them by signing this pledge of action.”
You can find the entire text of the pledge here. A Chinese translation is available here.
