Responding to Covid-19
Unrestricted Grants for Valued Partners
Years: 2020
The advent of the Coronavirus brought with it many challenges for us all. Charitable sector organisations rapidly and dramatically faced a massive drop in revenue overnight. The cancellation of the London Marathon and the inability to hold key fundraising events meant that many successful organisations were suddenly looking at large holes in their cashflow.
At the ALMT, we worked swiftly to support our existing partners through this crisis. As such we published guidelines showing that:
- We understood the need for flexibility with targets and reporting schedules and that during this period many of our partners would not be able to achieve their initial aims. We committed to working with partners to identify new goals and to find the best way forward.
- Project funding could be used to pay for freelance fees and workers even though they were unable to deliver projects.
- We had identified a specialist accountant who was able to provide free advice to partners about accessing government support (for example: furloughed workers).
- We encouraged applications which responded to the impact of Covid-19 and would prioritise applications from existing partners.
- We would compile and share funding information and resources which could be useful for partner organisations.
- We would fast-track annual payments and approval of reapplications from existing partners.
For existing partners, who found themselves struggling as a result of Covid-19 we offered emergency unrestricted funding of £5,000 per organisation.
To date (and with the generous support of our corporate partner RenaissanceRe and our co-funding partner The De Winton Trust) we have awarded £35,000 to 7 different organisations through this funding stream; enabling partner organisations to continue to deliver their valuable work.
