This week, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust announced its first round of grants providing emergency support related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In total, trustees approved $5.4 million in grants to 49 nonprofits. This includes $1.2 million for Oregon nonprofits.
- The primary focus for investments with this round of grants has been in three areas:
- Medical research regarding COVID-19 treatment and testing ($1.5 Million)
- Reinforcing supplies and capacity for frontline healthcare providers, including increased COVID-19 testing capacity ($2.7 Million)
- Contributing to community impact funds managed by the outstanding community foundations of the Pacific Northwest to provide immediate resources to those in need ($1.4 Million)
- We remain in discussion with nonprofits and leaders across our community to help inform future grantmaking into areas of emerging need, including addressing capacity needs of food banks and other emergency services. Our existing quarterly cycle remains active and capacity building grants will continue to be made throughout 2020 in addition to our emergency relief funding throughout the Pacific Northwest.
The Murdock Trust funding philosophy has always been to listen to the individuals and nonprofit organizations who are on the frontlines of the communities they serve. These leaders and organizations understand best the unique needs of their community and are instrumental in helping us provide support to the diverse needs of the Pacific Northwest.
As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has grown, there has been much discussion within the nonprofit and philanthropic world regarding how funders can best support the organizations serving the wide variety of needs emerging within our communities. Funders across the country and around the world agree — this cannot be “business as usual.” For the Trust, that has meant the following steps:
- In line with our mission to serve and uplift all communities across the Pacific Northwest, we have worked to quickly engage leaders from across the sectors and region we serve to best understand the immediate and anticipated needs facing individuals, families and nonprofits.
- We have launched an expedited grant process to deliver immediate financial investment to nonprofits to help address the needs raised by the COVID-19 pandemic head on. We continue to pursue strategic opportunities to make investments in areas that have not received significant public or private investment.
- We have provided increased flexibility to our current grantees who may have projects impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- We are pairing nonprofits with some of our region’s best leadership and development coaches, providing hundreds of hours in no-cost support to help organizations prepare to successfully navigate the challenging path ahead.
- We are working to connect nonprofits and their leaders with additional resources and guidance on our website at murdocktrust.org/covid19 so that they can best serve their constituents. If you have a resource that you would like help amplifying to our community during this time, please send it directly to Colby Reade – colbyr@murdocktrust.org.
We share our unending gratitude to the individuals and groups across our region who are putting their own health and well-being at risk to serve others. Our thanks, thoughts and prayers are with our frontline healthcare workers, community volunteers, trucking and delivery drivers, grocery and pharmacy employees and all who are working for the common good.
