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John Lyon’s Charity has ring-fenced £500,000 towards the effort, £500,000 of funding has been announced by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and a further £200,000 has been contributed by the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust.
Thanks to this outstanding collaborative effort the London Community Response Fund now stands at £3.2million, with further funders expected to announce their contributions in the coming days, ahead of applications opening for civil society groups affected by the crisis to apply later in the week.
The fund, which will be coordinated by London Funders, will be available to organisations facing immediate financial pressures and uncertainty because of the covid-19 outbreak – with reports of organisations dealing with increased demand for services, sickness affecting staff and volunteers, and lower donations.
Funders have been working with London Funders to identify the needs of London’s communities, to ensure that resources can flow quickly to those groups who need additional funding – this has included work to focus on the needs of vulnerable groups, children and young people, food, advice, domestic violence, homelessness, arts and culture organisations and more. Details of the funding programme’s first wave of applications will be published on the London Funders website in the coming days, and groups can sign up at https://londonfunders.org.uk/our-blog/new-emergency-support-fund-announced-help-community-and-voluntary-organisations to be kept updated when details are announced.
The new funding announced today comes on top of over 200 funders signing up to a statement showing their support to the sector at this time. The statement, coordinated by London Funders, has signatories from across the UK who can all be seen on the dedicated website www.covid19funders.org.uk
Commenting on the announcement today of the fund rising to £3.2m, the contributing partners have said:
Dr Lynne Guyton FRSA, CEO at John Lyon's Charity has said:
"John Lyon’s Charity is committed to helping its grantees and CYP groups through this unprecedented crisis. To show our support, we are ring-fencing £500,000 to assist groups whose delivery and very existence might be affected at this time. It is our mission to walk alongside our groups and help them through this difficult time in any way we can.”
Moira Sinclair, Chief Executive at Paul Hamlyn Foundation, said:
“The voluntary sector is needed today more than ever before – to provide care and help manage isolation, to run food banks and offer shelter, to provide distraction for our children at home and advice for those most affected. London will simply not cope without these organisations, and funders and government need to come together to support their extraordinary effort. Paul Hamlyn Foundation is pleased to be joining our peers to do just that.”
Julia and Hans Rausing said:
“This is an extraordinarily tough time for everyone across the country, particularly for the most vulnerable in society. We are pleased to support London Funders on this new fund to support the communities affected by this grave pandemic.”
