As mentioned in our past statements, MACP has supported our grantees and local community with flexibility and additional funding as they faced the immediate effects of the pandemic, and we have increased funding in our local community to address issues of racism and inequity in Minnesota.
Since then, we have continued to work through our community foundation partners to understand and address local needs. Over the past several months, we have provided additional support in our local community:
- Recently, MACP has awarded $1.5 million in new funding support to nonprofits in our home state that are suffering under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, for a total of $7.5 million in local support since the pandemic began. This includes support for food shelves, housing, mental health services, arts organizations, and other efforts that help individuals and communities who are vulnerable during this crisis.
- In the past two months, we have also provided support to local organizations addressing racism and inequity, directing over $2 million in funding for communities of color in the Twin Cities, focusing on social equity, small business rebuilding, violence prevention, social services, crisis response, and leadership development with an emphasis on BIPOC-led organizations.
The challenges of 2020 have prompted us to re-examine what it means to support underserved populations and issues. BIPOC communities have faced the disproportionate impact of COVID-19. And, in the midst of this pandemic, the death of George Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of police officers is further evidence of the inequities and racism in our country. Moving forward, MACP will continue this attention to helping alleviate racial and social inequities in our local community, in the program areas we support, and in our own practices. Embedded in this work is a commitment to evaluating our efforts, reshaping our approaches as we learn, and sharing and applying our learnings to our future grantmaking.
