Dear Friends,
Our communities are feeling the financial impact of COVID-19 and at Reinvestment Fund, our goal is to help alleviate some of the immediate financial pressures and ultimately to preserve local assets.
We have been reaching out personally to our borrowers and partners to better understand challenges and how we can be helpful. We are currently supporting several small businesses and nonprofits in our portfolio to access local, state, federal and philanthropic emergency resources as they become available. In some instances, our role has been to help our borrowers navigate the application processes.
We are also working with investors and philanthropic partners to tailor responses to challenges we are seeing on the ground. This week we announced two new initiatives, outlined below, to support childcare providers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We remain grateful for your support and will share more updates in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we hope that you and your family stay safe and healthy. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to any member of our staff at Reinvestment Fund or via email at info@reinvestment.com.
Sincerely,
Don Hinkle-Brown
President & CEO
Reinvestment Fund has partnered with the William Penn Foundation and Vanguard Strong Start for Kids Program™ to launch the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for Stabilization of Early Education (PEFSEE). The Fund supports childcare providers who are struggling to sustain their businesses through closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seeded by $7 million in grants from the William Penn Foundation Vanguard, PEFSEE is administered by Reinvestment Fund and will continue to accept donations to sustain early learning providers.
PEFSEE will provide grant funds to minimize the loss of capacity and expertise in the sector so that children and families continue to have access to high quality early learning opportunities once this crisis has passed. Tiered grant awards of up to $20,000 will be available to provide immediate relief to eligible organizations with operations located in the city of Philadelphia. The application period will begin on April 6th.
In partnership with the national funders collaborative Home Grown, Reinvestment Fund has developed a toolkit for funders and intermediaries that provides the guidance needed to create an emergency fund for home-based childcare providers or include a focus on home-based childcare in existing emergency funds.
Home-based childcare serves over 7 million children under the age of 5. Given the closure of center and school-based childcare in response to COVID-19, dependence upon home-based childcare is increasing, particularly for the essential workforce. Historically underfunded, many of these providers cannot survive a closure or disruption of two weeks or more.
This toolkit outlines actions funders and intermediaries can take now to establish emergency funds that can maintain the supply of home-based childcare for essential workers and stabilize the economic and housing status of home-based caregivers and providers.
Calling Philadelphia #ECE providers effected by the #COVID-19 crisis! With support from @WilliamPennFdn and @Vanguard_Group emergency grants are available. Learn more at: bit.ly/PEFSEE #GrantOpp @ReinvestFund
Help support childcare providers effected by the #COVID-19 crisis. Donate today to the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for Stabilization of Early Education (PEFSEE). Donate at: justgiving.com/campaign/PEFSEE
Act Boldly. Act Now. Philanthropy can act swiftly & boldly to support early education effected by the #COVID-19 crisis. Explore the Home-Based Child Care Emergency Fund toolkit, for action funders can take now.
www.reinvestment.com/hbcc-emergencyfundtoolkit
The Renters’ Access Act (RAA) articulated what the City of Philadelphia defines as uniform tenant screening criteria, creates a right to dispute a landlord’s decision to decline an application from a prospective tenant, and right to a next available unit should the dispute produce evidence that the prospective tenant was a qualified applicant.