Overview

The global novel coronavirus outbreak is rapidly evolving and expanding. Communities are now vulnerable to unknown sources of exposure. The COVID-19 coronavirus has a fatality rate considerably higher than the flu and it has recently been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Many people across the United States are wondering what the impact of the illness may be on their community. The U.S. government and health professionals have been implementing an aggressive containment strategy that requires detecting, tracking and isolating all cases.

In response to the outbreak, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) has launched the CDP COVID-19 Response Fund to support preparedness, containment, response and recovery activities for those affected and for the responders.

The Fund and the Needs

The CDP COVID-19 Response Fund will focus on supporting local nonprofit organizations working in areas identified as having high numbers of affected individuals and those who are working with the most vulnerable populations in these areas to help build their capacity for response. These will include social service organizations focused on supporting hourly wage earners, workers in the gig economy, immigrant/New American populations, older adults, people with disabilities and other communities vulnerable to the physical health, mental health and economic impacts of the pandemic.

CDP is working closely with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to follow what the likely needs will be:

• Supporting healthcare workers: Many public health, low income and other clinics will not have the ability to make significant capital purchases of masks, gowns, gloves and other essential personal protective equipment. These items help prevent the infection of essential medical staff who are at increased risk because of their close contact with people who may be infected.
• Supporting quarantined and especially vulnerable individuals: The use of quarantines is crucial in helping control the spread of any infectious disease, including COVID-19. However, this means individuals are unable to go to work, go shopping for necessities, attend social functions or even see their families in some cases.
• Supporting hygiene promotion activities: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) are key to limiting the spread of any infection, especially those that are spread by close contact. Increasing access to WASH resources will help limit the spread of coronavirus and other infections. Supporting areas with poor access to medical healthcare by supporting healthy populations. This will help limit the spread of all viruses and other infections.

With these factors in mind, CDP will use contributions to the Fund to address any one of these issues, which will allow CDP to be adaptive in our support. The global nature of this outbreak may result in CDP using COVID-19 response funds both in the U.S. and abroad.

Resources

The programmatic expertise of CDP’s board, staff and advisory council – paired with an extensive network of disaster management actors and academics – guides our grantmaking strategy.

To keep up to date on the outbreak and to find links to other resources, please visit our disaster profile page. This will be regularly updated with the latest news and stats.