COVID-19 Supplemental Funding

Background

In response to the unprecedented impacts of COVID19, the Board authorized an additional $1 million drawdown of the Vitalyst endowment for FY 20-21. To date, the following has been expended from this budget:

Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change Grants ($250,000 expended) – 5 projects

• $50,000 Policy, Systems and Environmental Change grant to Activate Food Arizona. Funding will support the development of a roadmap to guide future activities around the use of SNAP benefits for online purchases. This multi‐year roadmap will ensure other retailers, especially small, independently owned and rural grocers, are not left out of the process.
• $50,000 Policy, Systems and Environmental Change grant to Arizona Basic Needs Coalition. Funding will support: 1) partial staff time for public policy staff to encourage state agency participation in increased data sharing and barrier reduction activities; 2) a part-time consultant to conduct a qualitative and quantitative assessment; 3) technology, including social media ads and virtual meeting space; and 4) participant reimbursement to incentivize participation.
• $50,000 Policy, System, and Environmental Change grant to Local First Arizona for Arizona Recovery Center. Funding will support an emerging LFA effort to establish the Arizona Recovery Center. This Recovery Center will be guided by a collaborative team of statewide leaders to aggregate funding opportunities and tools, prioritize resources, provide guidance and information, and communicate strategically to maximize equity and impact.
• $50,000 Policy, System, and Environmental Change grant to Corporation for Supportive Housing –pending board approval. Funding will support CSH’s proposal to implement a statewide Academy in Arizona specifically designed to increase collaboration between the housing and healthcare systems. The key audience and partners are developers from across the state and healthcare entities, such as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Developers and health care entities will be paired to create Academy Teams with varying experience in affordable and supportive housing. The Academy will serve as a venue for building their capacity to work together effectively and foster the creation of new supportive housing across the state. The Academy, which will include a curriculum design phase as well as 10 tailored sessions, and individualized technical assistance, will be delivered over a one-year period.
• $50,000 Policy, System, and Environmental Change grant to Pinnacle Prevention – Pinnacle Prevention is primed to work with Arizona’s local food system coalitions to engage community members most affected by the pandemic to better understand impacts and equitable solutions to the food system across the state. Through this proposal Pinnacle Prevention will better connect those with lived experiences to Arizona’s academic and research institutions to better inform data collection and reporting that will inform more robust COVID-related food system policy. Funding will 1) go directly toward honorarium to community members’ time and energy for sharing lived experience (data-gathering) and community solutions (actions) allocated at the regional coalition level with coalitions determining the best methodology for engagement; 2) support Pinnacle Prevention personnel and contract data analysis/design services to connect with academic institutions and local coalitions; coordinate planning activities; and perform data analysis and reporting.

Health Equity Grants ($355,000 expended) 13 projects

• $30,000 Health Equity grant to Pima County. Funding will compliment CDC support to identify and address drivers of vaccine hesitancy, influential community messengers and partners, and development of community-acceptable approaches for improving vaccination availability, accessibility, and confidence. Funding matches grants from the Tucson Foundations to support the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Program that will compensate or incentivize community messengers and includes authentic co-design and collaboration with community members across part of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Tohono O’odham Nation, and areas in South Tucson.
• $25,000 Health Equity grant to Valley Interfaith Project (VIP). Funding will support operational and programmatic efforts of VIP to close the equity gap in vaccinations and bring mobile vaccine clinics to West Phoenix leveraging VIP’s quality neighborhood engagement and trusted relationships with churches and schools, the vaccine equity gap in zip codes in Maricopa County with low incomes and low vaccinations rates is being closed.
• $35,000 Health Equity grant to Women’s Economic Institute for the Black Arizona COVID19 Task Force. Funding will support operational and programmatic efforts of the Task Force, formed early in the pandemic to advocate for marginalized communities in South and West Phoenix. The Task Force has implemented a robust community awareness campaign in low-income and minority communities in Maricopa County, specifically for outreach with COVID19 testing and vaccinations.
• $10,000 Health Equity grant to the Great Lakes Peace Foundation (GLPF). Funding will match a similar grant from the Arizona Community Foundation and support operational and programmatic efforts for refugee population primarily from Central and East Africa including the counties of Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan, Central Africa Republic, and Uganda. Through trust-based relationships, GLPF works closely with the refugee community in West and South Phoenix area, providing sanitizer, hygiene kits, and encouraging people to get vaccinated.
• $25,000 Health Equity grant to Campesinos Sin Fronteras (CSF). Funding will support operational and programmatic efforts of CSF to help meet immediate challenges faced by CSF including: 1) having to “reinvent” CFS to continue providing direct services and support to focused populations via virtual platforms; 2) establishing protocols to protect staff and program participants; 3) increasing Promotoras’ capacity to learn new technology and other virtual platforms; 4) adapting offices to have the maximum protection; 5) identifying funds to purchase Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), sanitizing and cleaning supplies; and 6) developing culturally sensitive, preventive COVID-19 message to air on CSF‐owned radio station.
• $25,000 Health Equity grant to the United Way of Northern Arizona in support of the COVID-19 Social Safety‐Net Services Coalition. Funding will support operational and programming efforts, including: 1) fortify existing service providers to meet rapidly expanding demands for housing, food, and emergency cash assistance; 2) attract and align resources to maximize impact through a coordinated and collaborative effort; 3) communicate information to promote open, inclusive, and timely information sharing among social safety‐net providers in order to develop assistance strategies, involve funders, and inform policy makers regarding the service demands and responses; and 4) mobilize the delivery of emergency resources through a strategic framework that identified service gaps and emerging issues.
• $25,000 Health Equity grant to UPI Fund. Funding will support operational and programmatic efforts of the UPI Loan, including operational costs associated with continued focus on Southwest Phoenix Metro area, as well as additional outreach and marketing efforts to the Southwest Phoenix Metro area.
• $25,000 Health Equity grant to Drinking Gourd Farms. Funding will support operational and programmatic efforts, including operating costs (including labor and supplies) associated with providing emergency food boxes, as well as the expansion of the network of Black-run gardens and farms.
• $25,000 Health Equity grant to Awakening Wholeness, Inc.- Peace and Balance (P&B). Funding will support P&B’s efforts to address the needs of the tribal people during the pandemic, including: 1) mobilizing tribal partners to gather, haul, and distribute resources; 2) raising supplies, food, water, and firewood to haul to reservation communities; 3) distributing hand sanitizers, facemasks, and winter clothing; 4) purchasing water jugs to be filled at local water resources and delivered to those with limited access to water, resources, and supplies; 5) prioritizing elders and medicine people in Tribal Nations; and 6) organizing and mobilizing teams of volunteers to work immediately on various distribution trips.
• $25,000 Health Equity grant to Arizona Community Foundation for Native American Initiative – Funding will be utilized to hire a consultant to assist in the development of the Initiative, which includes writing proposals to address COVID19-specific effects in Indian Country. It is necessary to support staff time for this project, as all the twenty-plus members of the NAI are full-time employees of differing organizations. It is anticipated that once the infrastructure is created, staff support at this level will no longer be necessary as the Co-Chairs can then work the process that’s been created. It is anticipated that the infrastructure process would be completed in three to four months after funding is received, but no later than August 2021.
• $50,000 Health Equity Grant to Arizona Undocumented Worker Relief Fund – Funding will be utilized to support the network of organizations serving the Southwest Phoenix Metro region including groups such as: Aliento, Arizona Dream Act Coalition, Black Phoenix Organizing Collective and Mi Familia Vota.
• $25,000 Health Equity Grant to Arizona Interagency Farmworkers Coalition – AIFC is a nonprofit, community-based organization to serve the needs of the farmworker population in Arizona. The Coalition formed in response to a need to coordinate fragmented services from multi-disciplinary agencies and organizations. Funding will help to coordinate entities providing services to Arizona agricultural workers.
• Pending Board Approval – $30,000 Health Equity Grant to Pima County’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health Program (REACH). Pima County hopes to engage community members as trusted messengers to address vaccine hesitancy and help with vaccine distribution specific to high-risk Latinx/Hispanic Americans, and American Indians/Alaska Natives.

Technical Assistance Support ($240,000 expended)

Staff leveraged existing programmatic funds and the TAP Discovery process to intake and assess specific capacity-building needs, as well as partnered with nonprofits throughout Arizona to provide technical assistance. For the entire year, with both programmatic and COVID-19 funds combined, there were more than 100 TAP Discovery submissions, and 31 capacity building partners were funded. In addition to that work, some interesting partnerships were also developed:

• Lodestar Center Virtual Nonprofit Conference. In collaboration with Piper Trust, sponsored the nonprofit conference with specific workshops and consultation on issues impacting nonprofit because of COVID-19: digital facilitation, understanding financial health and planning ahead in a time of uncertainty, and scenario building and contingency planning.
• Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. In collaboration with CFSA and other Southern Arizona funders, Vitalyst sponsored 500 licensing grants for nonprofits adversely impacted by COVID-19 to utilize the Catchafire platform to connect with skills-based volunteers.

Loan Administration and Losses ($55,000 expended)

This funding was expended for the Arizona Loan Navigator Program. The Arizona Community Foundation committed to co-fund $25,000, so we were able to fully fund the $80,000 request. The Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits has implemented a phased approach to the project. Phase I includes surveying the Alliance member base to assess the identified “loan gap” and the Alliance’s plan to address the lending gap. The Alliance will develop Phase IIa with a workshop series and Phase IIb by developing the Loan Navigator role prior to the launch of the pilot in Phase III.

Arizona Together for Impact /Nonprofit Mergers ($14,875 expended)

Funds are available for nonprofits exploring strategic mergers of organizations, back-office support, and programming. These funds are specifically available to match grants received by partners for the Arizona Together for Impact Fund for organizations adversely impacted by COVID-19 and organizations serving communities adversely impacted by COVID-19.

• $7,375 grant to Community Share. CommunityShare and Big Picture Learning (BPL) have discussed a shared commitment to equity and belief that learning needs to be centered on caring relationships and relevance. That exploration has focused on how CommunityShare’s online platform and offline services could integrate with BPL’s platforms and community-based work in schools. This long-term partnership would expand and deepen collective impact in service of students, educators, and communities.
• $7,500 grant to Stardust Nonprofit Building Supplies. The matching grant towards that earned from the Arizona Together for Impact Fund, is to support the collaboratives engagement with Kim Hartmann of KCH Solutions to facilitate an exploratory phase between Stardust, Treasures for Teachers (T4T), and Arizona Students Recyling Used Technology. (AZStRUT). This phase will explore deeper collaboration opportunities between these organizations.

CoverAZ Enrollment Support and Marketing ($50,000 expended)

Vitalyst contracted with Cox Media to promote the utilization of the Cover AZ website through targeted digital media to zip codes where uninsured individuals reside. These funds were in addition to programmatic dollars in the existing annual budget.

Developmental Learning and Reflection of COVID-19 Investments and Activities ($20,000 expended)

Funds were used to evaluate the execution and effectiveness of the COVID-19 funding to improve internal processes and interactions with the community.