Many, if not all, funders in southwestern Pennsylvania have stepped up with exceptional support for nonprofits in response to COVID-19. Another recent project demonstrates what a funder can do beyond providing grant dollars.
The impetus was the recognition that many organizations would need replacement workers during the public health emergency, and that many local workers are losing jobs. Working quickly, Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services, together with several foundations and nonprofits, created an online employment collaborative to match jobseekers with essential health and human services organizations that are short on staff. The platform is open to any provider or nonprofit in Allegheny and surrounding counties and is designed to fill gaps during the pandemic. Feel free to share this resources widely with your grantees.
Lauri Fink, Senior Program Officer, at Hillman Family Foundations, volunteered time and feedback to help get this idea off the ground. Along with Julie DeSeyn of the United Way, she is now also helping to outline how a fund could work to help essential health and human services nonprofits afford the cost of additional or replacement staffing. Once nonprofits have found the right hires, they can then start working to pull together funding for the positions.