Brookings Foundation and Brookings Area United Way Create COVID-19 Relief Fund

The Brookings COVID-19 Relief Fund is a collaborative effort through the Brookings Foundation and the Brookings Area United Way. This fund is created to support providing basic needs services to local nonprofit organizations and area residents who are immediately suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants will be allocated on a rolling basis as fundraising continues throughout the cycle of this outbreak and the recovery phases making it possible to move resources quickly and to be able to adjust to the evolving needs going forward.

Donations can be made on both organizations’ websites, brookingsfoundation.org and brookingsunitedway.org or by mailing a donation to Brookings COVID-19 Relief Fund, First Bank & Trust Attn: Jeff Lee, PO Box 505, Brookings, SD 57006. More information regarding Covid-19 changes to nonprofit services, how to request help, and how to volunteer can be found at brookingsunitedway.org/covid-19.

In this uncertain time, many will need to lean on the local community organizations that have always been there. But the reality is that under the circumstances, many of those nonprofit agencies themselves will face financial disruption that can leave them unable to meet the needs of the communities they have long cared for.

The Brookings Foundation and the Brookings Area United Way, in consultation and in partnership with other community organizations, will administer grants from the fund in phases, initially to help address immediate needs and then through the short-term and longer-term impact of the pandemic outbreak and recovery. Grants will be recommended by a joint advisory committee including representatives of the Brookings Foundation and the Brookings Area United Way Board of Directors.

Note: This press release is published on behalf of the Brookings Foundation and the Brookings Area United Way.