International Community Foundation's Response to COVID-19
The International Community Foundation (ICF) has served as an impact partner for hundreds of donors since March as we have grappled with COVID-19 throughout Mexico and Latin America. As a community responder, ICF is making grants on a weekly basis to ensure that funds reach local organizations during this critical period.
Between March and May, 2020, ICF granted out almost USD $3.5M and funded over 60 local organizations working to help neighbors, families, students, and their communities through this crisis. We anticipate providing at least another $1.5M in grants before the end of June. This support has come from individuals, donor-advised funds, family foundations, and businesses in both Mexico and the US. We have also matched $1.5M in challenge grants, resulting in $3M in funds toward the COVID-19 response.
ICF’s grants have been invested in four primary categories:
- Emergency food relief – Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, US, Barbuda
- Medical supplies (PPE) and equipment (ventilators, testing machines) – Mexico, Galapagos (Ecuador)
- Operational and emergency support to nonprofits – Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Barbuda
- Migrant-specific issues – Mexico, US
Examples include:
- $30,000 for a mobile health clinic in Tijuana to visit the migrant shelters, assess the health needs and COVID-19 risk of the migrant families, and provide appropriate medical advice and treatment.
- $801,000 to Como Vamos La Paz for emergency food relief in Baja California Sur, Mexico to feed 40,000 families throughout the state who have recently lost work
- $100,000 to Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galapagos to purchase two ventilators and provide hygiene and PPE supplies to local hospitals
- $75,000 to Red Turismo Sustentable y Desarrollo Social to create the “Te Invito A Comer” program, which will support small grocery stores and restaurants to provide food by delivery while quarantine continues in Baja California Sur.
- $433,000 to Dibujando Un Mañana to support medical and food relief in farmworker communities throughout Mexico.
Our next steps are to survey the nonprofits in our grantee network to determine the medium- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. We anticipate that many of them will need creative thinking to return to their daily work and stabilize their operations.
The ICF team is very proud of its local impact and wants to thank the ICF family of donors for their incredible support. Please contact Lety Martinez Hermosillo at lety@icfdn.org to help ICF continue its impact today.
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