Tens of thousands of lives have been devastated by Ebola. Community-based and international organizations led the response and in many areas the rapid spread of the disease has abated. But the crisis is far from over. Today, one year after the WHO report on Ebola, in a letter published on New Field Foundation’s site, 27 international funders call on the philanthropic community to intensively fund on-the-ground organizations in Africa to support a sustainable response to Ebola and other crises.

As Niamani Mutima of Africa Grantmakers Affinity Group explains, ‘These community-based groups are vastly underfunded compared to international NGOs, but they are the ones that will remain in the communities long-term, and with support they will build long-term solutions to the challenges they face.’

These are groups like NYONBLEE Care Foundation in Liberia, whose local workers were the only ones going door-to-door talking about Ebola in Grand Bassa County.

Or Association pour la Défense des Droits des Enfants et des Femmes en Guinée in Guinea, which released a radio awareness campaign, went door to door, and trained religious leaders to communicate Ebola prevention facts and counter misinformation.

These are just two of dozens of on-the-ground organizations with measurable impacts.

It is these groups that organizers of the letter, spearheaded by New Field Foundation, The Ebola Crisis Fund and Africa Grantmakers Affinity Group, seek to see strengthened with more funding.

To read the letter in full, see the funders involved, and co-sign the letter, please go to http://www.newfieldfound.org/EbolaLetter. For more information, and to discuss directing funds to grassroots organizations, please contact Shira Gitomer at sgitomer@genevaglobal.com.