Click here for the Article posted on Amalgamated Foundation’s website to learn more.

Helping the workers, families and communities most devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic

The Ford Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Open Society Foundations, The JPB Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Amalgamated Foundation, and others are partnering to create a rapid response fund dedicated to helping the workers, families, and communities most devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With initial commitments over $7 million, the fund ultimately aims to raise $20 million to provide flexible funding to organizations working to prevent workers and families from sinking deeper into poverty during the initial months of the pandemic, and to support policy and advocacy efforts that center workers and families in long-term economic recovery.

We aspire towards a future in which all workers have increased economic security. While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of our lives, it’s critical to address the low-income workers and their families who have been hit the hardest. We’ve witnessed soaring job losses and longer working hours in grocery stores and hospitals across the country. We’ve seen workers and the families forced to decide between their lives and their livelihoods due to longstanding, structural challenges in our economy. These communities need direct support. We all have a role to support them. 

The Families and Workers Fund is an opportunity to not just recover and return to business-as-usual, but to also build a stronger, more equitable society where there is greater economic security, opportunity, and work with dignity for all.

The Families and Workers Fund Approach:

Direct Relief: The fund will facilitate direct cash grants and loans to individuals and businesses with a focus on those who are most likely to be left out of the government’s emergency policy response, especially workers and families who are reeling from layoffs, temporary business and school shutdowns, and struggling with caretaking duties. 

Centering Vulnerable Workers and Families in the Economic Response to COVID-19: The fund will also advance economic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic that are designed with and for vulnerable workers, families, and communities by providing grants to policy and advocacy organizations, worker groups, community nonprofits, and others advancing and implementing policies and business practices that stabilize working people during the acute phase of this crisis (e.g., paid sick days and unemployment insurance) and ultimately help to center them in the long-term economic recovery.

If you are a funder interested in contributing to the Families and Workers Fund, learn more and get involved here(link sends e-mail).

If you are an individual or small donor who wants to contribute, please consider supporting Amalgamated Foundation’s Frontline Workers Fund here.

Please note, while the Families and Workers Fund is not open to applications at this time, interested organizations can register at www.justfund.us. The Just Fund platform houses a number of funds, including this one, and all funders using the platform can view all registrations. You can also reach out [email protected](link sends e-mail) to share or request information.

Read the press release here.