Joint Community Actions
Covid-19 has overwhelmed the entire planet, bringing to the surface and strengthening the existing inequalities. Its social, economic, cultural, environmental, healthcare consequences are devastating and yet unknown.
As soon as the crisis hit, community foundations stood in the frontline to tackle this emergency and played a pivotal role in their community to face and solve the most pressing needs. Community support organizations, on their hand, quickly revised their whole strategy and offered different kind of supports to community foundations of their respective country.
On February the 26th, the first case of infection was registered in Romania. In just two months, the number of cases reached 10.000, and the country and the public health system went through one of the most difficult health crises in their history
With less than 1.000€ spent on the health per citizen, Romania is the country with the most vulnerable and poorly equipped health system in Europe. Everyone’s fear, looking at blockages in more developed countries like Italy, Spain or Belgium, was that the public system could not cope with the epidemic and the large number of patients who would require special treatments. At the same time, news stories about the acute shortage of equipment and medicines revealed how unprepared hospitals were for a pandemic wave.
Our official researchItaly was the first Western country to be hit the harshest by the pandemic. The Government started to impose social distance measure by the end of February and the nation went into full lockdown on March the 9th until the 4th of May.
The crisis overwhelmed the whole country system in a peculiar way: the North faced an unprecedent health emergency, with people flooding the ER and the ICU beds being quickly filled. On the other hand, in the Centre and the South the stark consequences have been mostly social: with a high rate of off the books labour, a strong digital divide and a high level of poverty (economical but also educational), entire families found themselves isolated and without an income.
Our official research
Their response to medical needs
Most of the CF’s involved, 17 taken into account by ARC, established their emergency fund or their response to the pandemic în the first weeks of March.
By the end of the month, every Romanian Cf had set their first steps and were already mobilizing their donors and their partners. They didn’t know what to expect, but they knew that their communities needed to be protected. They didn’t have a proper background in buying medical equipment or PPEs, and the volatility of the international and national markets didn’t make the task easier, but they learned while doing it.
I felt like we had a duty towards the community that helped us getting on our feet
Claudia Abrudan, director of Oradea CF
Community foundations, in particular in the North of the country, immediately reinvent themselves to assess and coordinate the response to the ongoing healthcare emergency.
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Their response to other needs
The civil society was aware that the pandemic will have immediate effects on the most vulnerable people in their communities, and Bucharest CF decided to invest their energy in a fund that would precisely help them: The Emergency Fund for Vulnerable Communities.
The CF used the knowledge of community foundations in order to respond to other needs in the country. The foundations announced the funding call in their communities, and the proposals were submitted to Bucharest CF. „Everything was extraordinarily urgent and immediate. It was very difficult to choose between the children from Argeș and the children from Târgu Mureș. They were all in the same risk situation”, she continues. In total, during the weekly evaluation rounds, 46 organizations from Bucharest and 22 counties received funding. These organizations were funded with a total amount of 175,255 euro, of which 75,255 euro were raised from donations from the ING bank customers.
Explore our stories and experiences from our Zooming fileEven though the most pressing needs were medical ones, the social, cultural and economic crisis related to the pandemic emerged overwhelmingly, especially in the South of the country.
The lockdown measures have put indeed families and individuals under lot of stress, making emerge the profound inequalities of our system. In the South of Italy, due to the lockdown measures lots of people found themselves without a salary, living mostly on off the book jobs, and distance learning was not a feasible option for lots of families, given the great digital divide and lack of access to digital infrastructure.
In this scenario, community foundations played a key role in addressing these issues, by activating its established network of contacts and organizations and reaching out to the community most in need, finding ad hoc solutions.
Catalyst of human and social resources
The trust of the locals in the foundations took many forms. We have the “financial proof” that shows us that the locals saw the foundations as a reliable player in protecting the community, but we also have the countless materialresources, expertises and time offered by so many people and organizations.
And that is where the added value of community foundations resides. Indeed they were able to fully mobilize and deploy the whole potential of their community through and inclusive and systemic approach in addressing interconnected needs and challenges.
Ciprian Păiuș, director of Iași CF, partnered from the beginning with other local NGOs when they established their fund. “We decided to work on this together with other organizations, so that we don’t scatter our efforts on different directions”, Ciprian adds.
In Romania, among the first steps taken by the community foundations was to reach out to the entire network of Romanian CFs, as well as to ARC – the support organization. Ecosystems were built, which became larger every day and included more and more organizations.
„A remarkable act of generosity that I will not forget is the way local entrepreneurs guided each other to go to Odorheiu Secuiesc CF, because they will find there the support they need”, says Rozalia Csaki.
In Italy, community foundations immediately activated their local connections but also relied on the support of Assifero in finding new partners and possible new collaborations, understanding what others were doing in facing common challenges and asking for strategic support.
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Assifero and ARC proved to be fundamental partner for community foundations in their respective countries.
Firstly, they played a key role in connecting community foundations across the country, and in Europe, to collaborate, by making for instance bilateral connections, share experience (organizing, for instance, working groups) and spread information across their network and through their communication channels to enhance and maximise community foundations impact. They have been a relevant partner backing up community foundations’ initiatives, amplifying their reach and reinforcing their credibility.
In Italy, Assifero proved to be fundamental also in supporting individual community foundations with specific strategic issues and in helping these organizations finding resources (financial and non-financial).
In Romania, ARC has also joined the foundations’ efforts, using the financial resources from its own Emergency Fund. ARC offered grants to CFs or bought medical equipment and devices for the local hospitals with the help of CFs.
Looking at the future: challenges and opportunities for Community Foundations and CFSO
Community foundations and community foundations support organization played a key role in responding to this crisis, proving their incredible resilience and ability to adapt. As a consequence, they strengthened their position and credibility within their community and a national level.
Looking at the future, what emerges clearly from organizations’ representatives is that this a crucial time for rethinking and reimagining community foundations’ role in the sustainable development of their community, especially building on the increased credibility gained in the past year.
In terms of major concerns, economic sustainability of the organizations is one of the most delicate issue on top of practitioners’ mind. The increasing burden in terms of new tasks and responsibilities that community foundations put on their shoulder was not matched with a growth in the organization in terms of staff and tools in place. Furthermore, CFs and CFSOs’ representatives are afraid that donors will keep on addressing their donations towards programs and not encompassing core support.
Some of the questions that representatives are posing to themselves:
- How to untap and access EU funds 2021-2027 to unlock further resources to be directed to the territories.
- How to keep existing and new donors that have approached the organizations engaged
- How to strengthen its organizational structure and competences among staff to face new challenges
- How to build a long term strategy that would take into account the new and yet unknown needs emerged form this crisis
Conclusions
As the evidence show, community foundations have been a pivotal figure in facing the pandemic, being able to identify and address the urgent needs arising within the community in both countries. Thanks to their long-established relationships within the community and the recognition and credibility they have gained throughout the years, community foundations took the lead in responding to the crisis: they managed to pool together, leverage and make available financial, human, and material resources and, at the same time, to connect different stakeholders and actors on the territory and coordinate their response.
It is interesting to underline that even the youngest community foundations, like Fondazione di Comunità Città di Milano or Fundația Comunitară Banatul Montan, born both in 2019, managed quickly to gather the trust of their community in coming up and proposing solutions to tackle the pandemic effects. It is particularly important to highlight the ability of community foundations in not only strengthening the relationship with existing donors but also attracting new ones, that saw in these organizations a credible actor to trust.
Read our full conclusions in the official research:
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