It is an under-appreciated truth that New York City’s community-based nonprofits are critical in a crisis. During the COVID pandemic, they have held many people, households, and neighborhoods together. They were trusted to do so because, over decades, they have proven themselves to be trustworthy as landlords, as sources of quality services and information, and as organizers and advocates. Our crisis is not over. But even as it lifts, we must redouble our efforts to invest in the resilience of these organizations, which are as essential in good times as they will be in the inevitable next time.

Change Capital Fund supports the nonprofit community’s call to restore all of the government cutbacks and effective programs nonprofits have consistently delivered. We believe philanthropy and government can better support these organizations now and going forward. We urge our partners in philanthropy and government to:

• Provide funding at a level that allows for innovation and adequate internal infrastructure.
• Provide multi-year funding where possible to allow for planning and program development.
• Support the organizing and advocacy that addresses the systemic issues of racial division and poverty.
• Provide more flexible, less restrictive funding, trusting the leadership of
  the organizations to know how best to use funding to reach their own goals
  and objectives.
• Address chronic delays in government contracting and payments which
  result in high costs for borrowing and high stress for staff and boards managing cash flow.
• Reject reporting requirements that merely divert staff attention from services and retain reporting requirements that support effective management, for example:
  • Eliminate use of proprietary reporting databases so that nonprofits can track their own data. (Request excel sheets that the funders can upload into their own systems).
  • Ask only for data that will increase the field’s learning about what works.
  • Always report back and allow grantees’ access to data to increase learning and improve outcomes and scale.

  CCF is working to live by these precepts. We hope to expand our collaborative and we welcome other funders to join us in investing in community development organizations that are anchors in their communities in the best and worst of times.