Donor-Advised Fund Provides $1M in Rapid-Response Funding to Help Children Affected by Covid-19

Donors are stepping up to help children gain access to distance learning while they are sheltering at home.

As communities across the U.S. grapple with how to help those impacted by Covid-19, donors are stepping up grantmaking through donor-advised funds to help those in need.

Donors Rob and Jennifer Waldron, for example, have awarded $1 million in rapid-response grants to 47 nonprofits through The Waldron Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund through The Boston Foundation. 

The grants have focused on helping nonprofits with an immediate focus on servicing underserved children in the wake of school closures.

The couple moved rapidly to deploy the funds because it wanted to help those affected quickly.

“I am deeply concerned about the sudden loss of essential services for our nation’s children due to school closures,” said Rob Waldron. “Having served schools across the country for decades, I know these institutions provide so much more than academics…” 

A number of the grants from the Waldron Charitable Fund are earmarked for Massachusetts.

A number of the grants from the Waldron Charitable Fund are earmarked for Massachusetts, where Curriculum Associates has its headquarters. Grants include $50,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Holyoke, Inc. for the installation of close to 200 Wi-Fi hotspots in target locations to facilitate remote learning.

Examples of grants in other parts of the United States include $40,000 to the Girls and Boys Club of Northeast Texas to provide dinner, snacks, and weekend snack bags as well as supplemental educational resources to Texas children,  $25,000 to the Boston-Thurmond Community Network to provide food and enrichment materials for children in low-income housing in Winston-Salem, NC, and $15,000 to The Arc of Union/Cabarrus to provide educational and other support for children with special needs in North Carolina.

“The Waldrons are demonstrating how donors can partner with community foundations to respond quickly and decisively to urgent needs,” Boston Foundation CEO Paul Grogan said. “And, because they’re focusing their philanthropy on an area where they have expertise, they can be a model for other donors who are eager to meet the urgent needs, but aren’t sure exactly when or how to direct their contributions.”