The philosophy of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust has always been to start by listening to the individuals and nonprofit organizations who are on the front lines of the communities the Trust serves to understand how and where they can best help build the capacity to meet the diverse needs of the region.
According to Steve Moore, executive director of the Murdock Trust, this philosophy was the exact approach they took and continue to take for their COVID-19 Emergency Support Grants.
“Like most members of the nonprofit support community, we know that this is going to be a very long road ahead with needs emerging and subsiding as the pandemic evolves,” Moore said. “We’ve seen heroic efforts on the part of people working in grocery stores, hospitals and delivery services, but we’ve also seen truck drivers, people working in food banks, volunteers stepping up in very unusual and unique ways.”
“We are committed to our role as a partner in the Pacific Northwest community and we will continue to actively engage and evaluate ways that we can (play a role in serving) the common good.”
As of April 22, the Murdock Trust had awarded nearly $14.7 million through 145 COVID-19 Emergency Support Grants. Total grantmaking across categories includes basic human need serving organizations ($6,945,000); cultural and faith-based organizations ($618,500); medical research ($1,750,000); front line healthcare needs ($2,675,000); community impact funds/community foundations ($2,250,000); and nonprofit support organizations ($450,000).
Moore said that as soon as the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic started to come to light, employees of the Trust immediately pivoted their process, continually asking the question, “how do we redeploy our team in strategic ways to serve our constituencies?” He said they run their organization with a very lean, full-time staff that they augment with part-time support as needed. Moore said they have put some of the adjunct work on temporary hold and also redeployed some of their full-time staff as they repurposed programs and looked for new ways they could serve the common good.
“In early March, we transitioned to a remote-work approach with the majority of our staff continuing their responsibilities from home while we closed our offices to outside visitors and events,” Moore said. “Our technology team has worked tirelessly to help us prepare for this type of situation in advance. They have been working nonstop to keep our efforts moving forward for which we are incredibly grateful. A small number of our staff have been in and out of our office for urgent business matters and we’ve implemented rigorous social distancing practices to keep everyone safe. We have also been fortunate that Gramor has introduced even more rigorous cleaning and sanitizing protocols throughout our building to help keep everyone safe.”
“We all understand that this is not simply a matter of endurance,” Moore continued. “This is a matter of pivoting and gaining a better understanding of how we respond to a new norm.”
Moore said that the needs of social distancing have definitely created some significant adjustments to the Trust’s work – one of the biggest changes being the introduction of their COVID-19 Emergency Support Grants Program, which is running in parallel to their existing capacity building Strategic Project Grants Program.
“Given the unprecedented need raised by the spread of COVID-19, we recognize along with many of our funding partners in the Pacific Northwest, that this is not a time for ‘business as usual’ and we have sought to quickly and thoughtfully provide support to nonprofits impacted by the pandemic,” Moore said. “In addition to our emergency support grants, we have sought to provide valuable resources and coaching to nonprofits to help them navigate this unprecedented moment. This includes hosting several webinars with various national leaders in the nonprofit and community service sector such as Arthur Brooks, Brad Layland, and Andy Crouch and Dave Blanchard.”
As the culture at the Murdock Trust is very in-person – from the way the staff collaborates to the way they work with grantees to the way they convene and connect with nonprofits and partners – Moore said they have had to transition their Enrichment programs for nonprofits to an online format, pivoting multiple in-person convenings and conferences to a webinar format.
“A representative of the Trust visits the home of every organization that applies for one of our Strategic Project or Initiative grants in person,” Moore said. “We’ve had to move all of these site visits online via video conferencing as well. Like many others, we’ve had to become very adept at using platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to remain connected and engaged as an organization.”
COVID-19 Emergency Support Grants Program
Moore said that the Trust’s COVID-19 Emergency Support Grants process is continually evolving. One thing the trust has really taken into consideration is the fact that there will be multiple phases to this recovery that will likely not be completely clean. Moore said there will be overlap across sectors and communities, and they want to remain nimble and thoughtful so they can continue to respond in an impactful way. Because of this, they have broken down this process into three phases – Phase One, Emergency Response and Planning; Phase Two, Stabilization and Reframing; and Phase Three, Planning for Restart and Redeployment.
Moore said the Trust began the process of giving out the COVID-19 Emergency Support Grants by first turning to the organizations who have recently received grants from the Trust and who we could see were directly involved in front line service, such as those conducting COVID-19 testing or treatment research in healthcare or community service groups and food banks providing support to families in need.
“We prioritized our response to serve the most vulnerable and those impacted by the virus and the shutdown,” Moore said. “We also did not presume that we were the only ones engaging in this way. We sought to pay attention and coordinate with government, businesses, other funders and other collaborative efforts being made. In addition, because we work across five states, we realize not every part of our region is the same. The needs and impacts in rural communities will differ from those in suburban communities and urban communities. Not to mention across the states we serve.”
Because those at the Trust were already familiar with these groups, their background and their work, Moore said they felt confident to make awards without a formal application – something that Moore said was actually a small bright spot for the Trust team and some of the nonprofits they serve during this challenging time.
“Under our Strategic Project Grants Program, applicants know the day and time of our grants meetings and when they can expect a decision, so there are no surprises,” Moore said. “In the case of our Emergency Grants, our program directors were able to simply pick up the phone and share the good news with no warning. This was particularly rewarding for our team because the feedback we received many times was that nonprofits were preparing to cut services or make other reductions and this grant would render those conversations moot for the time being. We know that our investment is one small contribution to their overall work and much more needs to be done, but that moment of joy was a big boost for our team.”
“We continue to meet with partners, nonprofits and community members to understand the needs of the communities we serve and what nonprofits are stepping up to fulfill those needs,” Moore continued. “We are constantly evaluating our process and plan to make adjustments as we move into the different phases of this crises and recovery.”
To learn more about the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, visit murdocktrust.org.
