Allentown, Pa., March 15, 2021—Lehigh Valley Community Foundation recently provided $25,000 in grants from its COVID-19 Response Fund to nine nonprofit organizations. The grants support the general operating expenses of these organizations who are providing needed childcare and family support services in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizations receiving the grants are:
- Boys & Girls Club of Bethlehem
- Boys & Girls Club of Easton
- Children At-Promise Early Learning Center
- Communities in Schools of Eastern Pennsylvania
- Community Services for Children
- Family Connection of Easton
- Greater Valley YMCA
- Ortiz Ark Foundation
- Unidos Foundation
These grants build upon the funding that the Community Foundation has directed to COVID-19 relief during the past year. In April of 2020, the Greater Lehigh Valley COVID-19 response fund, a regional partnership of funders distributed over $320,000 to 43 nonprofits providing food, shelter, healthcare, income supports, and other essentials to our neighbors who live paycheck to paycheck, who are elderly, who have disabilities, or who are youth, among other vulnerable or marginalized populations in our community. More than half of the funding went to “small” organizations who cannot always access other supports (e.g. federal stimulus), including grass-roots organizations who are the trusted providers and messengers in deeply impacted neighborhoods. The Community Foundation contributed $50,000 for its discretionary grantmaking to this phase. Learn more…
In May of 2020, the regional partnership of funders distributed $120,000 to 18 Lehigh Valley nonprofits. While food and housing access and income supports remained a top priority, special consideration was given to organizations that focus on mental health or substance use, as well as organizations led by Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. In this round, grant amounts ranged from $2,500 to $15,000, with almost $50,000 in total directed to organizations providing healthcare services such as mental health. LVCF contributed $30,000.
In order to prepare for the recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, during the fall, the Community Foundation publicly launched Project Equity to engage communities in a co-design process of reimagining the Greater Lehigh Valley nonprofit sector to better reflect a new, post-COVID reality. Through a co-design process, stakeholders work together to design or rethink a service. Project Equity has invited the people most affected by COVID-19 and systemic inequities into the problem-solving and decision-making space to begin to shift the power structure that has perpetuated inequity.
LVCF has directed $90,000 to this innovative approach and is co-leading the effort with the United Way and Faces International. Project Equity is also supported by a grant from the United Philanthropy Forum’s Momentum Fund. Project Equity is one of only three recipients in Pennsylvania of this competitive, national grant. To learn more about Project Equity, visit http://projectequitylv.com/.
About the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation
For more than five decades, the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation has helped donors with their charitable contributions with a simple, powerful, and highly personalized approach. LVCF connects people who care to causes that matter, grow their charitable legacies, and fund nonprofit organizations to improve the quality of life in the region. Learn more at: www.lvcfoundation.org