Scranton Area Community Foundation

NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund Distributes a Total of $1,033,369 Over Six Funding Rounds

07.01.20

NEPA COVID-19 RESPONSE FUND DISTRIBUTES A TOTAL OF $1,033,369 OVER SIX FUNDING ROUNDS

Announcing Sixth and Final Grant Round Distribution

Since the NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund was established in late March at the Scranton Area Community Foundation, a total of $1,033,369 has been both raised and distributed to 132 nonprofit organizations across Northeastern Pennsylvania to help address challenges they are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Today, the NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund announces the sixth and final round of grants totaling $124,000, distributed to 27 nonprofit organizations. Funding recipients in the sixth round include Keystone Mission, NeighborWorks Northeastern PA, Greater Carbondale YMCA, and United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania, in addition to many others.

View the Sixth Round COVID-19 Response Fund Grant Recipients

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Scranton Area Community Foundation created the NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund to rapidly deploy responsive and flexible resources to community-based nonprofit organizations working with those who are impacted by COVID-19 and the related economic, social, and health-related consequences that these organizations are facing because of the outbreak.

The NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund has been supported by numerous foundations, funds, and charitable individuals, including Wells Fargo, the Northeastern PA Health Care Foundation, the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund, The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, PPL Foundation, The Robert Cavanaugh Family Trust, M&T Bank, the Robert H. Spitz Foundation, the Willary Foundation and many others.

“We’re extremely grateful to the donors and supporters that have responded so generously to this immense need and who have enabled us to distribute over $1 million dollars in the past three months through the NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund,” stated Laura Ducceschi, Scranton Area Community Foundation President and CEO.

As requests for funding from the NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund have slowed down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation will pause from grantmaking from the NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund. While additional distributions from this emergency fund are not planned at this time, the Foundation will continue to monitor community and regional needs and may reassess the need as funds allow.

In addition to establishing the NEPA COVID-19 Response Fund, the Scranton Area Community Foundation is maintaining a rolling critical needs grants pool and traditional grant funding pool. We have also implemented the NEPA Nonprofit Resources Google Group, a popular discussion-focused group created for nonprofit, civic, government, and funding organizations to be able to quickly share information, needs, questions, and resources with each other. Additionally, we have established a program of webinars to help nonprofits, including training programs on crisis management, operations management, increasing fundraising revenue, and building sustainability, among other topics. Learn more about our response at safdn.org/covid19.

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