The Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund (ICRF) recently announced it distributed its fourth and largest round of funding thus far, an additional $6.95 million to 42 nonprofit organizations across the state. Of that total, $60,000 of the funding went to 15 organizations in southeastern Illinois providing essential resources to vulnerable residents who have been largely impacted by COVID-19.
The Fund, which was established by the United Way of Illinois and the Alliance of Illinois Community Foundations in collaboration with the Office of the Governor, focused this round of funding on serving the state’s most vulnerable populations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With this most recent round, the ICRF has made grants of $23.65 million to 87 unique organizations, which have re-granted to over 800 organizations across the state. The Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund, chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, will continue with its fifth and final round of grantmaking to nonprofits across the state to help Illinoisans in response to this crisis.
“This crisis has decimated far too many families and especially among our most vulnerable communities,” said Penny Pritzker, chairman of PSP Partners. “In this round of funding, we have used data to prioritize and target our most vulnerable fellow Illinoisans who have borne the disproportionate and tragic share of impact from this terrible pandemic.”
As ICRF moved into its fourth round of funding, the Fund took a data-driven approach to identify the populations facing a disproportionate share of the burden from this pandemic. ICRF focused this round of funding on these most vulnerable populations: African Americans, Latinx, Undocumented, Rural impacted, and Seniors. In the fourth round of funding, ICRF awarded $4.5 million to these priority populations and $2.45 million to serve additional populations especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation partnered with United Way of Crawford County to quickly re-distribute funds to organizations with increased demands for services in Crawford County:
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Crawford County
- CAISA
- Catholic Charities
- City of Oblong
- City of Robinson
- ERBA
- Hutsonville Schools
- Lawrence Crawford Associations for Exceptional Citizens
- Oblong Schools
- Palestine Schools
- Robinson Assembly of God Food Pantry
- Robinson Food Pantry
- Robinson Schools
- Upper Room Street Ministries Mobile Food Pantry
- Village of Hutsonville
“Oblong was fortunate to receive $3500,” expressed Teresa Fielder, Village of Oblong Mayor. “We used our funds to help residents who were most in jeopardy of water/sewer shut off situations and residents who were so far behind in their payments that it was not beneficial to them nor the Village to set them up with payments. This money will help not only our water/sewer customers get caught up, but will help our Public Works Department tremendously as many of these past due bills can be taken care of and a new start given.”
