What Is an Emergency Funding Grant?
During times of distress, such as those following natural disasters, terrorist attacks, in weak economies and other emergencies, people need help fast to return to normalcy. That help often comes through emergency funding grants.
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Grants vs. loans
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Unlike loans, grants do not need to be paid back. In general, governments, community foundations, private foundations and corporate grant makers provide emergency grants. Typically, they are not made directly to individuals, but to charities that aid individuals.
Non-emergency grants
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Usually, grant makers require a nonprofit to submit to a lengthy grant proposal process that can take many months before a grant is awarded. An emergency grant is made swiftly--sometimes within hours of a disaster--outside of a grant maker's normal grant-making cycle.
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Basic Necessities
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Emergency grants are often aimed at providing the basic necessities of life. For example, to help with the 2010 response to the earthquake in Haiti, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided $1.5 million to two organizations for shelter, food, water, sanitation and health needs for those affected by the earthquake.
Decision-making
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The Council on Foundations' "Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Plan" says that, in a disaster, a foundation's "priorities will shift to address time-sensitive, disaster specific issues, while maintaining normal operations as much as possible. . . . Grant making will focus on areas of greatest community need."
Organization Needs
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Sometimes, emergency grants are for a charity that is floundering. The Regional Access Project Foundation's definition of an emergency is "an event which threatens an organization's ability to deliver core services."
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Hey Paul
