Our Operations During COVID-19

UPDATE:

Vancouver Foundation has joined a multi-sector partnership to launch a Community Response Fund to support community through this unprecedented time. The Fund will rapidly deploy essential relief to charities that provide frontline services to people and organizations that are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and its economic consequences. We urge you to consider making a donation so we can continue supporting both short- and long-term needs in the face of this crisis.

Learn how CRF has supported charities across BC during COVID-19

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To our community,

As we’ve been following news on the COVID-19 pandemic, we know there is a lot of uncertainty. Our priority is keeping our staff and the communities we serve safe and informed. We want to take this opportunity to share with you how we’re responding to the current situation.

• • Starting Tuesday, March 17, our physical office will be closed and staff will work remotely.

• • Staff will remain accessible by phone or email. Please visit our directory page for contact information for the person you are trying to reach.

• • Grant payments and donations will continue to be processed.

• • All our events have moved online or been cancelled.

• • We will accommodate grant application extension requests as best we can. See below for the current deadlines for all our open grants:
    • • Systems Change Test and Scale, and PAR Investigate Grants – April 5, 2020
    • • Develop and Convene Grants – Quarterly granting schedules remain the same
    • • LEVEL Youth Grants – April 3, 2020

During these difficult times, we want to reassure you that we will continue to support our partners, grantees, donors, and communities in whatever way we can. If you have a grant from Vancouver Foundation we appreciate that you may not be able to meet the objectives outlined in your application — but that won’t prevent us from processing the next payment. Our goal is to process cheques according to schedule. We’ll be flexible with all timelines and reporting, and will accommodate extension requests as best we can.

We also want to reassure you that we have prepared our investment portfolio to withstand changes in the global economy. This includes more diversification, lower risk, and more defensive investments. We are confident in the expertise of our Investment Committee and in the measures we’ve taken to ensure our investment portfolio will generate sustainable granting income for community in the years to come.

While we encourage everyone to practice social distancing, we also want to encourage you to stay connected. Social distancing doesn’t have to mean social isolation. Take a moment to send a message, make a phone call, or Facetime a friend, loved one, or neighbour. As we know, staying connected is essential to wellbeing.

The best source of information is the BC Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. We will continue to monitor the situation and respond accordingly and will update this blog post as the situation unfolds.

Be kind to yourself and to each other. We’re all in this together.