CFGNH CEO Will Ginsberg announcing the new effort Friday on WNHH FM.
A newly established fund aims to pour millions of dollars in coming months into helping New Haveners who are struggling to pay rent, buy food and stay healthy during the spread of the covid-19 coronavirus.
The effort is called the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund. Click here to donate to it.
The city’s two leading philanthropic organizations — the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (CFGNH) and the United Way — have joined forces to establish and administer the fund.
They’re tapping the hundreds of grassroots nonprofit agencies they already work with to learn about the pressing needs in the community and to deliver needed cash fast.
“It’s an extraordinary moment we’re in,” CFGNH CEO Will Ginsberg said in announcing the creation of the fund Friday during an interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
“This is a crisis for our nonprofit community and the people our nonprofits serve” in providing food, shelter, and health and mental health assistance.
“We know it will take all of us doing our part to get through this pandemic,” United Way CEO Jennifer Heath stated in a release.
CFGNH seeded the new fund with over $1 million, about half raised over the past 48 hours from its donors, the rest from money identified from CFGNH’s existing endowments.
In a three-hour virtual meeting Thursday night, the CFGNH board also authorized accelerating payment over the next week another $1 million in payments that were originally scheduled to go out later in the year to local nonprofits. The board voted as well to allow nonprofits to repurpose $400,000 worth of grants already received this year for specific programs, in order to meet needs created by the coronavirus crisis.
Click on the video below to watch the full episode of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with CFGNH CEO Will Ginsberg and New Haven Promise Patricia Melton. (Note: You’ll need to skip ahead for the beginning of the program, as we’re still adjusting to the transition to remote radio production!) Click here to learn more about New Haven Promise.