Triangle Community Foundation, others provide coronavirus relief funds to local nonprofits

The Triangle Community Foundation, with the help of its fundholders, made $3.09 million in grants in the month of March to local nonprofits, mainly for COVID-19 relief.

The foundation said 631 grants were made and the $3.09 million total was a 53 percent increase in funding from the same time a year ago. There was a 157 percent increase in grants, the foundation said.

“We are working hard to provide donors with resources and information to make critical gifts and grants where they are needed most, and to provide our nonprofit partners with flexible funding and resources so they feel supported at a time when they are struggling with uncertainty and increased need,” Lori O’Keefe, Triangle Community Foundation president and CEO, said in a statement. “This is an unprecedented time, and as a community, we are in this together.”

The foundation said it has mobilized $75,000 from its unrestricted Fund for the Triangle to immediately assist rapid response efforts, including United Way of the Greater Triangle’s relief fund, Chatham County United Way’s relief fund, and five of our region’s arts relief funds.

United Way’s rapid response funds

The United Way of the Greater Triangle’s Rapid Response Fund plans to distribute $277,400 this week to 26 local nonprofits providing critical resources including food, childcare, rental assistance and more to residents during the COVID-19 crisis.

Devin Desjarlais, director of marketing & storytelling, said Tuesday that during the week-long application period for the first funding round, the United Way of the Greater Triangle received 67 applications with requests totaling more than $1.86 million.

Desjarlais said a total of 125 applications have been received to date with requests totaling about $4 million. The Rapid Response Fund, announced March 16, has raised more than $900,000, Desjarlais said.

The Triangle Community Foundation said $160,000 in new donations has been raised by donors for its Fund for the Triangle in the past two weeks. The foundation said it is working with other local grantmakers and will partner with other community effort, to develop short-term and long-term funding strategies to support local nonprofits.

The United Way of Chatham County, on its website, said the Chatham County response fund has $28,356.