GANDEL FOUNDATION ALLOCATIONS IN SUPPORT OF THE COMMUNITY SECTOR’S RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY
As the situation with the COVID-19 emergency rapidly evolves, and the associated health, social and economic impact continues to be hard to quantify, the Board of Trustees of Gandel Foundation realised that the usual processes for grantmaking would need to be adjusted in order to provide immediate support to the community sector to respond to this crisis more effectively.
In line with the Gandel family’s previously-stated commitment to continue working with the not-for-profit partners, charitable organisations and all levels of government to overcome the challenges and support the Australian community, in mid-April Gandel Foundation held an out-of-cycle meeting to consider the best way to respond to the emerging needs.
The outcome of the meeting was a decision to allocate $1.27 million towards the early emergency response, helping a number of organisations to scale up their services and their capacity to meet the new and growing demand for support.
The unique and unprecedented nature of this crisis and its swift and massive impact on the whole community called for a rapid assessment of needs by the Foundation team and an immediate response by the trustees.
In total, Gandel Foundation trustees approved 15 COVID-related grants to organisations dealing with community needs associated with mental health services, emergency health responses, homelessness, coordination of COVID activities including community outreach, refugee and asylum seeker support, food security for the most vulnerable and social enterprise support.
Below is a full list of grant recipients with a brief description of the funded activity.
COVID-19 Grant Recipients (in alphabetical order):
- Organisation: Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
Purpose: material aid for asylum seekers and most vulnerable in the community - Organisation: Australian Red Cross
Purpose: scaling up the COVID-19 community outreach response - Organisation: Cabrini Hospital
Purpose: COVID-19 response – medical equipment for COVID response (x-ray machines; ICU beds) - Organisation: C Care
Purpose: scaling up food aid for the most vulnerable, elderly and isolated people in the Jewish community - Organisation: Children’s Ground
Purpose: food and material aid for remote NT communities - Organisation: CSG
Purpose: additional Jewish community engagement during COVID-19 and crisis response coordination - Organisation: Gather My Crew
Purpose: activating ‘online support crews’ to assist vulnerable and isolated Victorians via ‘street crews’, ‘volunteer crews’ and ‘kindness crews’ - Organisation: Hatzolah ambulance service
Purpose: COVID-19 – upgrade of radio equipment for more effective emergency response - Organisation: Hello Sunday Morning
Purpose: scaling the technical infrastructure of Daybreak to meet the growing demand during COVID crisis - Organisation: Jewish Care
Purpose: establishment of a dedicated COVID-19 emergency Helpline for the community - Organisation: Launch Housing
Purpose: scaling up support for people experiencing homelessness in response to COVID-19 - Organisation: SANE Australia
Purpose: support for scaling up the online response for complex mental health needs - Organisation: Smiling Mind
Purpose: emergency digital care packs for teachers & parents - Organisation: St Kilda Mums
Purpose: emergency supplies for expectant mums - Organisation: The Social Studio social enterprise
Purpose: scrubs for hospitals initiative
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UPDATE ON GANDEL FOUNDATION COMMUNITY GRANTS (April 2020)
Gandel Foundation is committed to supporting the Australian community and the not-for-profit sector through this difficult period of time.
In order to be able to best serve the emerging needs of the most vulnerable in the community, the Board of Trustees made a decision to temporarily suspend the general Community Grants program of Gandel Foundation in its current form. This decision will be reviewed at regular intervals, as the COVID-19 health crisis develops.
At the same time, the Trustees will retain flexibility to respond to some smaller scale grant requests, related to COVID-19, through direct communication with our past, current and future potential grant partners.
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