The COVID-19 pandemic has upended public health and economies around the world, challenging governments, organizations, and individuals. As the crisis continues to unfold with remarkable speed and scale, the philanthropic sector has used different strategies and tactics to support people in need. How might it do more?
SSIR's publisher, Michael Voss, speaks about philanthropists' response to COVID-19 with Patricia McIlreavy, CEO and president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, and Fred Kaynor, vice president of business development and marketing at Schwab Charitable. The full transcript of the episode can be read below.
* * *
MICHAEL GORDON VOSS: Welcome to season two of Giving With Impact, an original podcast series from Stanford Social Innovation Review, developed with the support of Schwab Charitable. I’m your host, Michael Gordon Voss, publisher of SSIR.
In this series, we hope to create a collaborative space for leading voices from across the philanthropic ecosystem to engage in both aspirational and practical conversations around relevant topics at the heart of achieving more effective philanthropy.
The philanthropic sector has weathered many challenges, but nothing matches the scope and speed of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a short period of time, a health crisis in China turns into a global pandemic and economic shutdown. While some parts of the world are seeing a leveling off of infections and deaths, others are still experiencing an increase in the number of new cases and hospitalizations. Even as the medical and public health aspects of the pandemic become more manageable, the economic impact will continue for some time, with tens of millions of people having already lost their jobs, and many businesses closing. As with other crises, the philanthropic sector is working to rise to these challenges, and to do so as effectively and efficiently as possible.
To help us better understand how donors can rise to the challenge, we’re joined today by two individuals whose organizations have unique understanding of the current crisis and donors’ response.
Patricia McIlreavy joined the Center for Disaster Philanthropy as its President and CEO at a very unique moment in time, March of this year, while we were only starting to wrap … our heads around the extreme scope of this pandemic.
Prior to joining CDP, Patty served as the Vice President of Humanitarian Policy and Practice at InterAction, the largest alliance of international NGOs and partners in the US, working collectively to serve the world’s poor and vulnerable. During that time, she led the organization’s efforts to assist the humanitarian community, including InterAction members, UN agencies, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement.
Our other guest is Fred Kaynor, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Schwab Charitable. A past guest on the series, Fred brings over 20 years of financial services experience to today’s discussion. In addition to his role at Schwab Charitable, he has formerly held senior-level positions with MasterCard Worldwide and VISA.
Patty, Fred, thank you both for joining me today, as we explore ways to respond efficiently and effectively to C-19, to best support those in greatest need. Let’s get started.
Patty, as I mentioned in your introduction, you came into your role at CDP in March. At that point, the COVID-19 pandemic had already been ravaging parts of Asia and Europe, and we were beginning to feel its impact here in the US, most notably in New York and here in the Bay Area. Where are you and the Center currently seeing the areas of most acute need, both here in the US and globally?
PATRICIA McILREAVY: Michael, thank you for having me on the podcast. As you know, CDP is looking both domestically and globally, and there really isn’t any one place where we’re seeing the same need. So it’s very hard to say where we’re positioning ourselves in terms of any one thing, because it changes daily. Anyone tracking the Johns Hopkins site, anyone looking at the different spaces that are happening, places that we feel were flattened are seeing resurgences. Places that we expected to stay low are actually seeing increases. That is the nature of a pandemic. It is incredibly difficult to stay on track of it, especially something which has no idea of borders. I mean, this is going to take us some time and we need to be prepared for that in the long run.
CDP’s approach that we’ve taken on the pandemic, is beyond the medical, it will have many, many waves of how we look at it, and we’re trying to keep that in mind as we progress and as we proceed. And so while we are attentive to the immediate medical needs for the response—you know, of course we’ve given support to PPE, to respirators, to medical staff—we’re also very attentive to the needs of the most vulnerable. Those who are… because of their community, because of their roles, because of their job, just because of their situation in advance of the pandemic, are more vulnerable to the impacts of both the medical and the follow-on waves. So, for example, income, or socioeconomic, or mental, identifying basic needs, feeding programs in schools. All of these things are being impacted by this pandemic.
And so we’re looking both at some of that immediate need and how we can support and advise, but we’re also looking at the longer-term needs, and how do we address some of the inequities that have created the vulnerabilities that we’re now seeing in certain communities more than others.
MICHAEL: So Fred, Patty made a point about the follow-on waves and the range of needs here. You know, we’ve seen health crises before, certainly, we’ve seen economic crises before, but we’ve never seen a situation quite like this. How are you seeing donors responding to some of the unprecedented, wide-ranging, acute needs that Patty mentioned?
FRED KAYNOR: It’s a great question, and thank you, Michael. As much as there is overwhelming and oppressive negativity with what’s happening around the pandemic, we have seen extraordinary generosity come from our donors in many, many ways, to find the most effective and impactful way to extend the impact of their charitable giving to really help meet the need, both for people that experienced the impact initially, with the initial outbreak, and those that are being impacted both long-term and in these second waves that unfortunately are now occurring.
Our donors have been really, as I say, exceptional in their generosity. Just for perspective, up ‘til mid-June, so from mid-February to mid-June, we’ve seen a roughly 50% increase in overall giving relative to the same period in the previous year. That means that over $1.3 billion during that period had been granted to charity. And it includes about $140 million earmarked specifically for COVID.
It’s an extraordinary story and it’s extraordinary generosity, in that they give not only to organizations which they typically and consistently support with their philanthropy, but they are identifying, with the help and resources of organizations like CDP, non-profits that are really boots on the ground, providing a variety of different kinds of relief and recovery support for people that are impacted directly. These donors are prolific in their giving to a variety of different causes and needs. It can be local, through community foundations or food banks. It can be national, with the help and support of the guidance from organizations like the Center for Disaster Philanthropy that are providing us with names of organizations that are fully vetted, and providing the most efficient relief and recovery services they can. And it can be globally around research efforts. For example, organizations that are putting resources into identification of viral therapies and research associated with the acceleration of vaccines.
So to answer your question, Michael, it’s really been an inspiring story to tell, the generosity and the engagement of these philanthropists.
MICHAEL: That significant increase in giving is remarkable. And you mentioned identifying non-profits. Patty, let me ask you a question. Once you’ve identified specific needs, how does the center determine the most effective and efficient non-profits to help address those needs?
PATTY: I just want to highlight that I can’t agree more with Fred’s thoughts on the generosity that we’re seeing right now. It is not just in terms of finances, but just in everyday heroes who are going out there and helping communities in every way possible. And it’s just really important to keep that in mind as this crisis goes on.
In terms of how we identify the organizations to help, I mean, Michael, this is what we do, right? We explore and advise on how donors can make a greater impact during disasters. And we have an internal expertise that’s preexisting this crisis that brings a breadth of experience, both in our own capacity to respond and in having staff who have actually been there and done that, but as well as funding the responses.
That experience allows us to have a great understanding of what the needs may be on the ground, and also having preexisting relationships with organizations who are working in response and recovery. We have quite a number of partners that we’ve already vetted, that we continue to vet. We are constantly looking at that. And by vetting, we look at their program experience, we look at their financial history. It’s a deeper dive than you would be doing if you were looking at Charity Navigator or GuideStar. We go much deeper than you may as an individual, but we make sure that we have a very reliable accountability and transparency matrix of whether this organization is one that we know can be entrusted to not only get the work done, but to spend the money appropriately.
We also continually track the crisis. We are looking to make sure we understand it well. We are looking to ensure we track the impacts, identifying the gaps, working with understanding what is going on within the crisis, so that we can best target the partners. And then we work with organizations in those areas where we’ve identified the greatest needs. We’re open to new ideas, we’re open to new approaches, and we adapt as needed.
MICHAEL: Patty, to that point, you know, understanding of needs and any gaps, you mentioned that wave after wave that we’re going to see of the impact of COVID-19. As needs change over time, the… supporting non-profits that might be able to help meet those needs may change with them. How do you pivot to keep pace with that?
PATTY: Well, there’s two key ways we’ve been doing that so far. First, it’s geographical adjustments. We started with organizations that had a large multi-country presence or a national presence, and they were able to work through affiliates. We’ve now started to transition to a more local approach. Now that things have gotten to be a bit more settled, organizations have recognized how are they working within this pandemic? How are they able to get out and about in communities? More guidance from different cities, from governments, on what can be done. You have more organizations stepping in, and we’re working with them, identifying where they are and how we can work with them.
The second thing we’ve pivoted over time is the programming. What programs can we work on? So, initially, very much looking at large-scale projects, such as feeding programs or support for PPE. Now we can get much more granular with support to local community, organizations, businesses in certain communities that have been hit harder by the economics, just trying to really explore with them where can we make the most impact.
Overall, though, and for COVID-19, especially, we’re being flexible with our grantees. We’re getting very comfortable with them not knowing how their program may run from start to finish. No one knows how and when this pandemic will end, nor do we have a full picture of the socioeconomic impacts across the communities, and so we’re trying to be very flexible in that. Additionally, we are very attentive to the fact that people of color and essential workers are being disproportionately impacted by this pandemic, and so we’re proactively searching for partners who work with these communities, who support the people in communities who are most at risk. And so really trying to first identify what those needs may be, work with those communities, and as much as possible, the response is led by those very communities.
MICHAEL: So that leads me to another question. So, supporting the communities, supporting the programming, obviously, funds are needed to support all of this work. And, Fred, obviously, from that 50% increase you talked about earlier, we know that, lately, Schwab Charitable and other donor-advised funds have been encouraging donors to do even more than they might usually in response to the crisis to support the programming and the organizations who are serving people at this time. What kind of guidance are you offering donors who want to give with maximum impact to support the battle against COVID-19 and its effects?
FRED: We have a variety of different thoughts on how to provide guidance to our donors that would really help them to achieve maximum impact with the philanthropy that they choose to extend during this pandemic. First of all, we would encourage donors to continue to support the non-profits that they already support. It’s interesting and obvious to everyone that there are organizations providing relief and recovery efforts now that are critically important. What’s not necessarily as obvious or intuitive, but equally important, is there are these other non-profit organizations that may not necessarily be specifically focused on a particular kind of relief or recovery effort around the pandemic, but need to operate, nonetheless. And a lot of the philanthropic support is understandably being directed to organizations that are providing that boots on the ground support, and these other organizations are struggling to maintain their operation. So it’s important for people to remember that there is a need to support those organizations that they support on an ongoing basis just as much now as the organizations that are focused on relief and recovery.
Another thought in terms of guidance would be the consideration to giving without restrictions. It’s critically important that these organizations that are supporting the needs on the front lines everywhere need the resources from these philanthropists right now. They need to deliver these critical services right now. And the less restrictive those gifts are, the more efficiently they can receive those funds and use them where the need is greatest.
Third, we provide information and guidance to our donors about how they can give with a maximum impact on a localized basis. Be it in the community that they’re domiciled, or a community where they were previously living or have a personal tie, it’s really important to understand that localized support is just as important as that that reaches nationally and ultimately globally.
Then, of course, giving internationally. There are countries that are facing what we were facing just a few months ago, and many of those countries are ill-equipped or don’t necessarily have the commensurate level of resources to combat the significant challenges that they face. So it’s worth considering how to give with maximum efficiency on an international, a global basis to those countries that are now just ramping up to face the challenges of the first wave of the pandemic.
Lastly, from a guidance perspective, I think it’s very important that we reinforce among all donors that when they give they should do so in a way that’s sustainable. So not only supporting on an episodic basis when the crisis hits and feels most acute, but doing so in a way that provides a sustained level of support to the organizations so that they can continue to deliver those critically important services, throughout the year or throughout an extended period of time.
MICHAEL: And, Patty, how can donor support the efforts of the CDP?
PATTY: you can support our COVID-19 Response Fund, which, to date, has dispersed over $10 million to 41 organizations in less than three months, and we expect an additional 4-1/2 million to go out in the coming weeks.
So to give you a snapshot of some of the areas where we are funding through our COVID-19 Response Fund: We’ve assisted quarantined individuals in overwhelmed healthcare systems, we’ve provided assistance to organizations supporting childcare providers across the United States, assistance to grassroots advocacy work that is looking at the acute needs of people of color, direct relief funds to food chain workers, programming that is supporting immigrants, both in the US but also refugees overseas, we’ve given sub grants to local partners and women-led organizations in 13 countries across the globe, who are looking at how to support the pandemic response, and mitigating the economic impacts of COVID-19 through financial coaching, mini grants to small businesses, economic resilience programming, just a very wide breadth of programming.
I highlight them because it’s really critical, as Fred said, that you look at how do you support and how do you be unrestricted? Because the needs may be different from what you anticipate they may be, and we really need to be open to those who are feeding that information to us, to be able to tell us where the needs are and how they’re going to address it.
In terms of other ways that CDP is working right now, we’re also remembering that there are other crises beyond this pandemic and the residual effects of this pandemic. There are currently programming that we’re assisting right now related to the Tennessee tornado, the wildfires in California, hurricane recovery in Bahamas, Venezuela and Yemen, and the complex emergencies there, we are still looking at how do we help those locations, as well. That’s just a model, an example of some of them.
We’re tracking what other crises are coming. Hurricane season is just started. June 1 was the launch of the Atlantic hurricane season. We are expecting it to be a very bad season. And not just us, but NOAA is expecting it to be a very bad season. They expect 19 named storms. We’ve also heard that there are, unfortunately, fires expected in California again this year. We know that there’s a fire already going in Arizona.
So all of these crises are just going to make lot of people, both donors, but also those in need, have to make some really hard choices about where they’re putting their funds, how they’re helping. And so what we say is, if you want to stay informed, look at our website, DisasterPhilanthropy.org. We keep an update on there about what we’re tracking, what we’re watching, and how we’re helping. And it will give you a good idea, hopefully, of how you can get involved, where you might want to help give, and be part of the solution, overall, that we need right now, both for the pandemic but the other crises that are coming.
MICHAEL: And, Patty, that range of areas that CDP is funding, and the reminder of the fact that there will be other disasters that we’ll be dealing with, while sobering, is important for us to keep in mind, as we think about being more effective in philanthropic giving.
You mentioned some of the resources that you’re providing. Fred, what resources would you suggest donors explore as they look to further their support of communities and organizations in most need?
FRED: Michael, we would encourage our donors to review our website, where we have a host of different resources, tools, and information designed specifically to help inform exactly how and where they choose to deploy their philanthropic support. We have a tool that provides them the capability of identifying community foundations where they would like to deploy their support locally within the communities that they live in, or communities that they have an association and an interest in. We also provide a list of charities that are pre-vetted and approved by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, which are extraordinary organizations providing very efficient and critically important support boots on the ground right now to people that are really desperately in need of that support. And then we provide a variety of different content. We provide thought leadership, guidance on how to really maximize your support of disasters philanthropically, how to deploy it in a way where it’s going to have the biggest impact, the least restrictive, the most efficient manner of doing so.
So we have a variety of different assets and tools, all of which are available on our website for their convenience.
MICHAEL: So, Patty, you and I were talking briefly before the podcast started, and you shared what I thought was a very moving and profound perspective on this current crisis. Would you mind sharing that with the audience?
PATTY: Something we’ve been talking about quite a lot of late related to COVID-19, and how people are thinking about it and how their giving has changed, is that this is the first time, ever, in many I don’t who may have any memory of the Spanish flu, but this is the first time everyone is part of this crises. There is no other. Often, when we’re looking at how to give or our empathy is for something that’s occurring, it’s because we’re distanced from it, we’re looking at it from afar, we’re seeing it on our TV, or we’re reading about it, and we can become very connected to it, but for a short-term and in an impact story-type way.
With COVID-19, this is us, this is everyone. And we are impacted in different ways, many of us are blessed in not being as impacted as others, but we have to keep in mind that this is a game-changer for the disaster philanthropy world, because it allows us all to suddenly realize we can put ourselves a bit more firmly in the place of what it is for some people who are living these different crises, how do we actually help people move beyond this and recovery appropriately?
That’s the only thing I would say for this crisis that is different from a philanthropic disaster realm, is we suddenly have an opportunity to talk about a crisis is a way that we’ve never been before, to really get everybody to say this is truly all in. We can all understand what this means, and we can suddenly all look at the solutions together in a way that we haven’t been able to in other crises or other disaster responses.
FRED: …And, Patty, I wanted to add I think your point is incredibly well-taken, it really is a game-changer. And, indeed, it’s a game-changer not just for disaster philanthropy, but for philanthropy. You know, the broader impact on the sector is really pretty extraordinary. You know, as oppressive as the news is and as negative as the experiences are that we’re seeing on a daily basis, if there’s any kind of silver lining, it’s seeing and witnessing the extraordinary generosity with which people have given to support people that are most severely impacted by the pandemic.
PATTY: We should launch a silver lining campaign. We have enough negatively right now [amen], you know, let’s celebrate [clap] some of the good stuff happening, let’s celebrate those everyday heroes, let’s celebrate those silver linings, because we all can use it. We can all use a bit of positive energy.
MICHAEL: Patty, Fred, I’d like to thank you both for your time today. I know that this is just a start of discussions that we’re planning for this season of the podcast around the ways that donors can and are rising to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, you know, I think it bears repeating that… we have mentioned a few times we’re likely to be dealing with this for some time, and I think we all agree with that. And, hopefully, though, discussions like today’s will help further the path forward for donors and the communities they support.
FRED: Thank you, Michael, very much.
PATTY: Thank you. Thank you, Michael.
MICHAEL: Thank you for listening. We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. Please consider leaving us a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite listening app, as it helps others discover the show. We encourage you to listen to other episodes in the series, as well as other podcasts from SSIR. This podcast series is made possible with the support of Schwab Charitable, who played an important role in the selection of topics and speakers. For important disclosures and a transcript of this episode, visit SchwabCharitable.org/ImpactPodcast.
