September 8, 2020 – Today, the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund announced that it has distributed its final round of funding. An additional $7.5 million went to seven nonprofits across Illinois. The Fund, established by the United Way of Illinois and the Alliance of Illinois Community Foundations, collaborated with the Office of the Governor. This round was focused on funding organizations that primarily serve Black and Latinx communities. With this being the final round of funding, the ICRF has now distributed a total of $31.15 million dollars to 1,650 organizations in Illinois. With the first three rounds of grants, ICRF grantees have now served over 114,000 families and provided 27,000 nights in emergency shelters. The funds also went to more than 11,000 health and mental health care visits.
Funds from the final two rounds are still being distributed by grantees. The ICRF committed to assigning funds where data showed the burden caused by the pandemic was greatest. As the rounds of fundings continued, more information became available about the impact of COVID-19 and showed that Black and Latinx communities were disproportionately impacted and shifted the focus of ICRF’s grantmaking.
