How a Community Foundation’s Disaster Framework Guided Rapid Pandemic Response

Abstract

Serving as an intermediary between donors and a wide variety of regional causes they support, the foundation provides philanthropy and civic leadership to address community challenges. Since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in August 2005, the foundation has become a recognized expert in philanthropic response to disasters, lauded for the strategic principles underlying deployment of its standing Disaster Response and Restoration Fund and broader disaster response framework (Greater New Orleans Foundation, 2022b). [...]the city and its surrounding region have endured 16 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster declarations, including three hurricanes during the record-breaking 2020 season in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (FEMA, 2021a;National Oceanic Key Points * Disasters create opportunities for philanthropy to rebuild equitably by prioritizing the most vulnerable community members in disaster response and addressing existing disparities and structural inequities in the recovery phase. According to Easterling, these foundations acting as community leaders go beyond traditional grantmaking to convene diverse stakeholders and catalyze cross-sector solutions to community challenges. [...]during the BP oil spill, the Greater New Orleans Foundation pressed Congress to amend provisions for citizen engagement and permanent set-aside funds for unforeseen issues to the RESTORE Act1 providing federal relief (Barry et al., 2012). [...]community foundations might take advantage of brief opportunities created by disasters to address otherwise entrenched deficits and disparities facing their communities, introducing largescale social innovations which might in turn enhance community resilience (Westley, 2013).