This is how Canada’s foundations should respond to COVID-19

As COVID-19’s impact on human health and the economy deepens, philanthropic foundations are coming to terms with how best to use their funds, expertise, and networks of partners at their disposal to help Canadians through the crisis.

“People are adjusting to a new reality that our systems are being stretched and also being transformed as we go through this,” said Jean-Marc Mangin, President & CEO of Philanthropic Foundations Canada (PFC), a member association of philanthropic foundations across Canada. 

PFC recently released a set of five guiding principles for foundations to follow in supporting their grantees, in a joint statement alongside Environment Funders Canada, Community Foundations of Canada, and The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada.

“It’s a call for action to not only dig deeper now, but also to do some of our work differently,” said Mangin. “The key message is that [philanthropic foundations are] here right now. We’ll bring our networks, we’ll bring our intellectual capital, and we’ll bring our funding capital to respond,” he said.

So, how should foundations in Canada be responding to the COVID-19 crisis, and what kind of impact could this have on the social impact sector in the longer term?

The key message is that [philanthropic foundations are] here right now. We’ll bring our networks, we’ll bring our intellectual capital, we’ll bring our funding capital to respond.

Mainstreaming innovative approaches

In the guiding principles, the contributing organizations outlined several things foundations can do right now, and called on them to act quickly and collaboratively. That means “stretching beyond our conventions and norms as organizations to adapt to the new realities imposed by COVID-19,” the statement read. 

The first step is to “be flexible, pragmatic and proactive in grantmaking,” it said. With grant recipients under unprecedented pressure, the guidelines recommend introducing flexible reporting timelines and loosening restrictions on existing grants.

Secondly, it stated they should “collaborate on or contribute to emergency funds” on both community and national levels, making sure to cut out any duplication or red tape. This includes setting up coordination calls between philanthropic and community foundations to establish local COVID-19 response funds.

Beyond these initial steps, the third guiding principle is to “stretch and deploy expertise and funds” directly to non-profits and charitable organizations as they struggle to manage issues like cash flow problems or a lack of resources.

Mangin said now is the time to increase the use of new funding tools “that were at the edge of what we were doing already that may have to become mainstream.” Tools like pooled funding, bridge funding, equity investment are already in the toolkit for some foundations, he said, “but we’re going to have to use all of these tools in a hurry.”

Now is the time to increase the use of new funding tools that were at the edge of what we were doing already that may have to become mainstream.

As a member association, their challenge is to help members with less exposure to these tools in gaining the capacity to use them quickly, and react to a crisis the likes of which very few have faced. Many members “do not have that emergency experience,” Mangin said.

Step up, Ottawa 

As two member organizations with substantial reach across Canada, PFC is working closely with Community Foundations of Canada, including making their respective webinars open to each other’s members, and working to reduce duplication in their efforts to address the crisis, Mangin said. 

With this reach, they are calling on foundations to “support advocacy” – the fourth guiding principle – to “amplify community-based organizations so that their needs are heard and met.” This is especially important for equity-seeking groups like Indigenous-led organizations, those led by people of colour, and LGBT+ groups, which are likely to be hardest hit by the crisis. 

In order to make all of these efforts work, however, Ottawa needs to step up, said Mangin. “We need the federal government in a massive way to intervene,” he said, and take a leadership role in amplifying foundations’ efforts. So far, the government has offered support to non-profits and charities which have seen revenues cut due to COVID-19 with a 75 percent employee wage subsidy. It announced the move last Friday following heavy criticism of their previous offer of 10 percent. 

Both federally and provincially, he said, governments have the capacity to create emergency funds which can leverage the funding power of philanthropic foundations in a coordinated way. Politicians “are sending the right signals,” he said, but they need action as soon as possible. 

“The danger is if you don’t have these national or local [emergency fund] mechanisms in place, then you get a whole range of actions that don’t meet the scale of the challenge and duplicate each other,” he explained. “It becomes a huge mess very quickly,” he said.

These federal emergency relief funds are the “first phase of making several billion dollars available for frontline organizations to keep their lights on and pay their people,” Mangin said. “We’re hearing organizations being forced to close down and lay off staff at the worst possible time.” 
 

Coming back stronger 

As the COVID-19 crisis evolves, it’s difficult to think a week or sometimes even a day ahead. But the organizations’ fifth guideline is to “take the long view” in addition to responding to the emergency.

“This is an opportunity to strengthen the ties that bind us, even though we have to keep two metres apart,” said Mangin. “With leadership, we can come out of this stronger and in a way that the most vulnerable among us get the protection they deserve.”

There will be “new ways and norms of approaching our work,” the statement explained, which can be “scaled up toward equity and justice.” Out of crisis comes innovation and opportunity, even if that seems impossible to see now. 

“This disaster shows the resilience and desire of people to be part of something larger and to step up,” said Mangin. “That desire to step up and be counted leaves me quite hopeful.”

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