The Greater Washington Community Foundation has a long history of mobilizing local philanthropy and helping our donors direct their giving to impactful nonprofits working to strengthen our region. The global coronavirus pandemic has created a public health emergency and economic crisis across our region, demonstrating that our work is more critical now than ever. We remain committed to ensuring that our community of donors, grantees, and partners are caring for our most vulnerable neighbors.

We are also doing our part to flatten the curve and to help protect the health and safety of our staff and stakeholders. To limit person-to-person contact, The Community Foundation’s main and local offices are closed and all staff are teleworking, while we continue to assess the evolving situation. During this time, we will maintain all essential business functions and do our best to minimize disruptions to services and support for our donors and nonprofit partners.

FOR DONORS

How to reach Community Foundation staff: All office phone lines are being forwarded to staff at their remote offices, and email will continue to be monitored regularly. If you need to speak with someone at The Community Foundation, you can find our contact information here or please use the main line at 202-955-5890 or donorservices@thecommunityfoundation.org.
Making gifts to your fund: We will continue to accept and process all forms of gift payments. If you are planning to mail a check, we encourage you to consider other ways to give, including online gifts or stock or wire transfer (You will find our gift transmission instructions here). For gifts made via check, we now have a bank lockbox collection system to ensure faster and more secure gift processing. You can now mail checks directly to PO Box 49010, Baltimore, MD 21297-4910. (Our office address has not changed - this PO Box is only for mailing gifts made via check.)
Recommending grants from your fund: Our grants review and due diligence process will continue without interruption. All Community Foundation donors are encouraged to use Donor Central, our online donor portal and fund management tool. See the attached tool guide for instructions. If you don’t have access to Donor Central, please complete the grant request form and send it via email to: grantrecommendations@thecommunityfoundation.org. We ask you to please hold any faxes until we return to the office full time.
Grants processing: We are making a concerted effort to move all grantees and vendor payments to ACH, which is a faster and more secure form of payment. This step is even more critical right now. This might mean that grants could take longer to process, depending on the responsiveness of grantees.

FOR NONPROFITS

Grants Processing: We will continue processing grant recommendations from our donors and work quickly and efficiently to move resources to our nonprofit partners. We are encouraging all grantees to work with our finance team to get set up for ACH electronic payments, to ensure continuity of services in case there are any disruptions to mail services. If you are a Community Foundation grantee and would like to receive ACH payments for grant funds, please complete this form and send it via email to grantrecommendations@thecommunityfoundation.org.
Grant Opportunities: The RFP window for the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund has closed. All open grant opportunities will be posted to our website.
Flexibility for existing grantee partners: The Community Foundation recognizes that the COVID-19 crisis has made everyday life and work more challenging for all of us. In light of this, we will provide additional flexibility to current grantees on any outstanding reporting that is owed to The Community Foundation. We have turned off automatic report email reminders and are open to current grantees making requests for reporting extensions. Where possible, we are open to reallocating grant funds to cover emergency needs brought on by the COVID-19 crisis. If you would like to make a budget modification request or reporting extension request on your current grant, please contact your program officer.
Sharing Resources: We are using our social media channels to help share resources from our nonprofit partners providing immediate help, information about public services, and to help connect community members with volunteer opportunities. If you are a nonprofit offering resources, volunteer opportunities, or other services for residents of the Greater Washington region in response to COVID-19, please share it with our community in our Twitter Moment, where we're coordinating an evolving list of resources! To share, send us a direct message on Twitter with a link to your tweeted resource or request.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and at www.thecommunityfoundation.org for updates on our evolving community response.