The European Foundation Centre has released a report that charts survey responses of how foundations are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report features over 100 responses from 27 countries and looks at how EFC members, affiliates, and partners have handled the health crisis, by surveying the immediate measures taken, both internally and externally.

The survey questions, which focused on the period between March and early June 2020, fell into three broad categories:

• Internal changes made and challenges faced by an organisation
• The value that philanthropy can bring to the crisis
• Actions taken by members to mitigate the impact of the crisis

Almost 70 per cent of respondents said that the programmes and initiatives they run would be harder to implement in light of the current situation. They also indicated facing challenges in evaluating which, if any, activities to suspend, as well as finding ways to modify or restructure programmes to accommodate the new situation. They were particularly concerned about how the situation would impact their grantees – several EFC members have consulted their grantees through surveys.

Some 80 per cent of respondents indicated they had launched new initiatives such as emergency funds, funds to mitigate economic consequences post emergency, and research projects. Research with institutes and researchers, hospitals and health services, and humanitarian organisations and international agencies were among the top three beneficiaries of new initiatives.

According to the EFC, the results of the survey present insight into both the challenges of the pandemic to philanthropic organisations, as well as the opportunities to support communities worldwide.

The report is available to download from the EFC website.