There has been a sharp decline in philanthropic giving for the COVID-19 response among U.S. foundations, especially corporate foundations — suggesting a drop in interest for pandemic-related funding, according to new data from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Candid.
The philanthropic research organizations’ report examined the pandemic response from U.S. foundations between 2020 and 2021, finding that COVID-19 funding among community, independent, and corporate foundations plunged 31% in 2021 compared with 2020. That includes both domestic and global giving.
Some 323 foundations provided $1.5 billion in COVID-19 support last year, well below the 398 foundations that gave $2.1 billion in 2020, the report said. It did not provide a breakdown of funding areas but said the biggest drop was from corporate foundations, which gave 76% less in 2021 than they did in the previous year.
Foundations may keep some changes adopted during pandemic, report says
A report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy raises questions about whether foundations will maintain pandemic-era changes — such as more unrestricted funding and a focus on racial equity — in the long term.
The data indicates that the sector may be experiencing funding fatigue for areas such as COVID-19 vaccine equity and health care access for communities impacted by the coronavirus. Foundations appear to be shifting away from those issues in their grant-making, despite the ongoing need for funding, according to philanthropy experts.
The pandemic is “far from over,” said Natalie Ross, vice president for membership, development, and finance at the Council on Foundations, during a webinar Wednesday on the report’s findings. “We know we need to recognize that vaccine access is not equitable globally. And because this is a global pandemic, none of us are safe until all of us are safe.”
She urged high net worth individuals, as well as corporate, private, and family foundations, to increase their COVID-19 giving globally rather than let it decline.
Recovering from COVID-19 is a multidecade proposition, added Regine Webster, vice president of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, during the webinar. CDP, a grant-maker and philanthropic consultancy organization, has called on donors to help fund an equitable recovery from the pandemic and to direct money to the most underserved communities.
Vaccine equity is among the areas with the most need for funding, Webster said, highlighting that 21% of people worldwide who had received at least one COVID-19 vaccination are from North America or Europe. The 30 wealthiest countries, with just 11% of the world’s population, have access to around 15% of the vaccines, she added.
“We really encourage grant-makers and donors to intentionally approach their COVID-19 philanthropy with that equity lens, which really entails explicitly addressing the needs of marginalized populations that are disproportionately affected by the pandemic,” Webster said.
Another area in need of more funding is mental health, she said. The pandemic has taken a “really terrible” toll on people of all ages, she said. The intersection of mental health and disasters is one of the most sensitive aspects of response and recovery work and it’s also one of the least funded among philanthropic disaster investments, according to Webster.
“We have to, as philanthropies, stay on top of this and stay attentive with financial support,” she said.
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The Candid-CDP report is the latest effort within the philanthropy sector to monitor the COVID-19 response over the past two years. The Center for Effective Philanthropy also released a report in the fall showing that at least some foundation leaders considered making permanent the administrative changes implemented during the pandemic, since they allowed for more flexibility in their grant-making.
Candid will continue to track the sector’s response to COVID-19, Research Director Grace Sato said during the webinar. The organization is still collecting data for both 2020 and 2021 to get a fuller view of pandemic response philanthropy, she said.
Candid and CDP have collaborated on tracking philanthropy for disasters and humanitarian crises for the past eight years, Sato said, adding that the response to the pandemic in 2020 had been in “magnitudes more than any other crisis we had ever tracked before.”
Candid and CDP allowed survey respondents to self-determine what they considered to be COVID-19 funding and “use their own criteria, with the analysis focusing on the relative change from year to year,” the report said.
About the author
Stephanie Beasley@Steph_Beasley
Stephanie Beasley is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global philanthropy with a focus on regulations and policy. She is an alumna of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Oberlin College and has a background in Latin American studies. She previously covered transportation security at POLITICO.
