Our world has changed dramatically in recent months, and VNA grantees that serve our most vulnerable communities have experienced tremendous hardship. During this difficult time we’ve been doing our best to listen, learn and help.
Emergency Grants
VNA responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by providing emergency funding. To date $100,000 in emergency grants have been provided, to recipients including:
- Illinois Association of Free and Charitable Clinics
- Enlace Chicago
- Mujeres Latinas en Acción
In addition to this direct grantmaking, we were pleased to be able to leverage an additional $120,000 from foundation colleagues to benefit Illinois’ free and charitable clinics. We also participated in several discussions around other collaborative funding opportunities.
The Only Change to Future Grantmaking: More Grants
We have always provided grants for general operating support—which allows agencies to direct dollars wherever they see fit—as well as basic needs for established programs. Going forward, we anticipate some of the greatest need will be for these types of funding and we look forward to continuing to include them in our grantmaking.
In addition, despite the economic uncertainties brought on by unstable investment markets and the unpredictable course of the pandemic, we believe that this is not a time for foundations to pull back their support. For this reason, we are proud to announce an 8% increase in our grantmaking for FY 21.
Throughout this challenging time and beyond, we will stay true to our core mission: to support home- and community-based health services for the medically underserved in the Chicago metropolitan area.