Flatten the curve. Stay safe at home.

Beginning in March 2020, these became familiar refrains. The City of Philadelphia and much of the surrounding region ordered all nonessential businesses and government operations to close by March 16. At that point, most people assumed that the shutdown would last for a couple of weeks. But two weeks became a month, then six months, and then a year and more; and during that time, there wasn’t a person in our region who wasn’t touched in some way by the insatiable march of COVID-19.

Even in the earliest days, the level of need escalated quickly, and as the region’s largest philanthropic organization, the William Penn Foundation moved swiftly to take action in significant ways. Over the course of the next 12 months, the Foundation would become the lead or founding funder of nearly every major relief effort in Philadelphia, urging collaborative action along the way. We made grants in areas we didn’t usually fund; organized other funders to leverage the power of many; attracted money to the region from national sources; adjusted expectations and requirements for grants already in the field so that organizations could use the funding to pay salaries and stay whole; and rethought our own processes to unlock and reallocate emergency funding and resources. Ultimately, the response effort totaled nearly $25 million in Foundation investment.  

The first of the emergency response funds was announced by March 19. William Penn Foundation was an early and ardent champion of the benefits of collective action and, with a $3 million lead grant, joined the United Way, the Philadelphia Foundation, and the City of Philadelphia to launch the PHL COVID-19 Fund with more than $6 million raised by that point. The PHL COVID-19 Fund rapidly deployed grants to nonprofits with demonstrated ability to serve at-risk populations, including seniors, people with disabilities, and those experiencing homelessness or who are economically disadvantaged. In a year’s time, the PHL COVID-19 Fund made nearly 600 grants, totaling $18.4 million, to organizations across the city.

At the same time, the staff of each of the Foundation’s program areas was rallying around response efforts to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic on grantees and their sectors. We sought to quickly reassure grantee organizations that grant payments would not be delayed and in fact, in many cases, would be accelerated; we increased flexibility on grant timelines and project work, in some cases making grant dollars available for critical general operating support; and identified other funders regionally and nationally who could invest here, too.

The power of collective action was evident again toward the end of the year when two national funders joined us in supporting the arts and culture sector in the region. In September, the William Penn Foundation joined the Ford Foundation in America's Cultural Treasures, a $156M national initiative to support outstanding arts organizations run by, and serving, people of color in their efforts to recover from the pandemic. The William Penn Foundation organized a local funding collaborative that includes: The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Barra Foundation, Connelly Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and the Neubauer Family Foundation. In its role, WPF  guaranteed the required $5 million match to ensure Philadelphia was a recipient city of this initiative, which in total will bring an additional $10 million to the city’s arts and culture sector. In December, the Foundation announced a new philanthropic partnership when the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, another national funder, joined with us to provide more than $8 million in direct relief grants – with $4 million from the Mellon Foundation – to 37 Philadelphia cultural organizations.

What’s most important about these significant numbers is what they helped make possible. While many arts and culture organizations, as well as the region’s public space nonprofits, were able to pivot to digital programming and at-home instruction during the pandemic, many of them increased their efforts to serve the pressing needs of the people in their communities. Some, like Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association Coalition (SEAMAAC) and the Centennial Parkside Community Development Center, became sites for emergency food distribution; Bartram’s Garden staff built garden beds at private homes in Southwest Philadelphia to help nurture home-grown harvests. Others like the Asian Arts Initiative transformed indoor spaces, including galleries, into safe, supervised, socially distanced places for young people to engage with their virtual school work. And still others did their part to protect the importance of human contact. When the Wilma Theater could no longer take performances to senior centers, individual performers made phone calls to nursing home residents to share conversations, read poems, and connect person to person. All demonstrated the capacity for how arts, culture, and public space organizations can be critical parts of civic infrastructure and real-time solutions for people and communities in need.

By the end of March, the Foundation joined with Vanguard’s Strong Start for Kids Program™ and Reinvestment Fund to form and announce the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for Stabilization of Early Education. With $5 million from the William Penn Foundation, $2 million from Vanguard, and donations from several others, the initiative was administered by Reinvestment Fund and supported early learning organizations for children from birth to age five. Licensed childcare, family childcare, pre-k, and home visiting programs in Philadelphia were all eligible, including Head Start and Early Head Start providers. In total, more than 400 centers, which employ approximately 5,300 teachers and provide opportunities for more than 31,000 young children, were funded.

The evidence illustrates that, due to swift and extensive private and public investment, childcare closures have not been as severe as forecasted. In Philadelphia, these 400 providers received over $50 million to help them stay afloat. About 80 percent of this money came from the federal government, including the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans, and other CARES Act funds. The other 20 percent was provided by philanthropy, bank loans, and even money borrowed from family and friends.

The Foundation’s financial assistance for education continued. In June, $2.6 million in grants were awarded to early learning initiatives, summer and afterschool programming, and urgent community needs benefiting families. Among many uses, Foundation support helped some to shift their practices to virtual operations and enabled others to focus on key areas like COVID testing and safe reopening strategies. Health Federation of Philadelphia (HFP), a health and human services organization that supports families with young children, found that technology, particularly reliable internet service, was a barrier to supporting families in the newly virtual environment. HFP purchased internet-enabled tablets for 750 families enrolled in home visiting programs to preserve their regular contact with the early childhood experts they rely on.

To help minimize the spread of COVID-19 and assist with the safe reopening of childcare centers, the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium provided COVID-19 testing for early learning program staff in high-risk communities of color. Similarly, Public Health Management Corporation provided free childcare health consultation services, personal protective equipment, and disinfectant supplies to some 800 Philadelphia early learning providers to support reopening plans; and others like Public Citizens for Children & Youth consulted with childcare centers on how to access federal PPP dollars.

In August, the Foundation pledged $1 million to support PHLConnectED, which provides reliable internet access for up to 35,000 households, including portable options for the significant number of students who experience housing instability. And, while this program was geared to meeting the needs of school students, it also provides essential connections for the entire household to access online resources, job opportunities, and social connections at a time when they were needed most. The Foundation also provided funding for learning materials at the City’s Access Centers – safe, supervised spaces for K-6 students to access their school’s virtual learning program.

On the Schuylkill Banks, part of the Circuit Trails’ hundreds of miles of multi-use trails, usage was 58% higher in March 2020 over March 2019, prompting the closure of MLK Drive to cars to make more room for pedestrians and cyclists. The same trend played out in parks; for Natural Lands, a regional land conservation organization, visitation to their nature preserves jumped significantly in April 2020 as compared to April 2019, with some preserves seeing as many as three times more visitors.

In addition to serving as places of refuge and retreat, networks like the Circuit Trails also served as an affordable, active mobility alternative for people in the region during the pandemic, as concerns increased about the potential for virus transmission on public transportation. The trails and the bike lanes that connect them became safe routes for commuters, particularly for essential workers.

Among grantees that lead environmental programming and advocacy work, dozens adapted to virtual learning and programming models and developed online training videos and webinars for volunteers. These online tools proved successful and created avenues for reaching new audiences, and many expect to continue using distance learning as a supplement to in-person programs into the future.

It was magnified during the earliest days of the pandemic that our grantees are critical to communities in many ways beyond their environmental programming. Through their after-school and summer programs focused on hands-on environmental education, they often also provide snacks and meals to children experiencing food insecurity, free childcare after school and during the summer months, and critical mentorship for area youth. Many of our grantees stepped up to continue providing these services in 2020, even as in-person programs were cancelled or limited during quarantine. For example, caring adults at organizations such as After School All Stars remained part of the support systems for youth engaged in their longer-term programs, which had temporarily gone online. Many of these programs delivered informal education to supplement virtual classes in creative ways, like do-it-yourself outdoor scavenger hunts. Others like Urban Promise supplied food to neighbors through food banks. With a region focused on recovery, these services became essential to community resilience.

Click here for the most recent financial snapshot of the Foundation's Grant Payments and Statement of Activities.