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Pierce County Connected Funding Opportunity FAQ

WHAT IS THIS FUND?

As COVID-19 and the necessary public health measures to address it disrupt the normal operations of nonprofits and community service providers in Pierce County, each of us has the ability to strengthen our community by giving to the organizations and causes that matter to us.

The impact of COVID-19 reveals where social systems are not supporting or addressing needs in a sustainable, inclusive, and equitable way. These challenges show how fragile the social safety net is and the limitations of current service providers to continue meeting needs during times of crisis.

To support urgent human service needs, United Way of Pierce County and Greater Tacoma Community Foundation partnered to launch an aligned philanthropic response. The PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Fund was seeded with $750,000 from GTCF.

Current information about PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED FUNDS can be found using the following links:

PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Fund Page
PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Funding Recipients
PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED FUNDING Partners

PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED funding supports organizations providing services to address emerging needs and the disruption of basic human services due to COVID-19.

PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED partners are committed to delivering rapid funding to organizations in a way that supports their continued services to vulnerable populations with the fewest barriers possible.

United Way Pierce County and Greater Tacoma Community Foundation are not taking any fees on this fund. The fund is expected to be open for one year (through February 2021).

Additional funders continue to join in the PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED fund. Please visit the PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Funding Partners page for the most current list of contributors.

To ensure we move resources as efficiently as possible and respond to needs of communities most impacted, we are not considering restricted donations at this time. We also strongly encourage individuals and foundations to directly contribute to organizations and issues.

FUNDING REQUEST OVERVIEW & PROCESS

PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED funds will be distributed in four phases:

Phase	Goal	Funding Awarded
Phase 1: Urgent Response March 30 - April 3, 2020	$1M funding support of food access, shelter, and childcare for first responders, medical providers, and essential workers.	Phase 1 Funding Recipients
Phase 2: Rapid Response April 4 – 30, 2020 Rolling Requests	$2M funding in support of urgent and emerging needs identified through online requests and surfaced through PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Community Response Committee.	Phase 2 Funding Recipients
Phase 3: May – December 2020 (Rapid Response and Emerging Needs)	Funding in support of rapid response emerging needs identified through online requests and surfaced through PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Community Response Committee will continue through the end of 2020.	Phase 3 Funding Recipients
Phase 4: March 2021 — April 30, 2021 (Vaccine Information and Access)	This funding will focus on advancing, aligning, and bridging gaps in governmental relief dollars to support accurate, culturally relevant COVID-19 vaccine information and access supports to be facilitated by trusted service providers and networks across communities in Pierce County. The funding will also support nonprofits providing federally funded COVID-19 relief.	Phase 4 Funding Recipients

INFORMATION & TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

What resources are available to support organizations in requesting funding?

GTCF will host the following technical assistance sessions through the month of July 2020.

Sign up for Technical Assistance session here.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Who is eligible to request funding?

Requests are being accepted from organizations and entities with services based in Pierce County including tribal governments, local governments, school districts, 501c3 nonprofit organizations, intermediaries, and fiscally sponsored projects or collaborations. Vulnerable populations include, but are not limited to, people with food insecurity, people experiencing homelessness, communities of color, frontline workers, immigrants, people experiencing domestic violence, people needing behavioral health supports, people with disabilities, remote or isolated persons or families, and senior citizens.

I’m an individual who’s been affected by COVID-19. Can this fund help me?

We recognize that many individuals and families have been affected by COVID-19 already and more will continue to be affected. PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED funds are for community-based organizations that are directly supporting local residents and families who are most affected by emerging health, economic, and social impacts.

What are the current funding priorities?

From May to September of 2020 (Phase 3) PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Funding is focused on Emerging Needs. During this phase $2 Million in funding will be distributed prioritizing the support of organizations serving vulnerable populations and identifying emerging needs in response to COVID-19 conditions.

Emerging needs, if addressed now, allow organizations to creatively continue, adapt, and/or adjust services during COVID-19 disruptions.

Emerging needs:

Are new challenges or newly critical issues that require significant system changes
Need more than just money, they will also need partnership
Result in new approaches that ideally provide scalable solutions for larger sectors, or at least information that could benefit larger sectors in operating under COVID-19 conditions and beyond

Vulnerable populations include, but are not limited to:

people with food insecurity, people experiencing homelessness
communities of color
frontline workers

immigrants
people experiencing domestic violence
people needing behavioral health supports
people with disabilities
remote or isolated persons or families
senior citizens

Who makes decisions about funding distribution?

The PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Funding Committee will review requests and recommend funding. Recommendations are approved by GTCF’s CEO and Board of Directors. Committee members are:

Brad Cheney, Ben B. Cheney Foundation (Co-Chair)

Dona Ponepinto, United Way of Pierce County (Co-Chair)

Alisha Fehrenbacher, Elevate Health & One Pierce

Cassandra Mitchell, KeyBank

Georgia Lomax, Pierce County Library System

Holly Bamford Hunt, Bamford Family Foundation

Janece Levien, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation

Jeff Woodworth, Woodworth Family Foundation

Lois Bernstein, MultiCare

Richard Woo, retired CEO, The Russell Family Foundation

Seth Kirby, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation

Nick Russell, The Russell Family Foundation

Tyler Zemanek, Windows of Hope Foundation

The funding process is informed by the Pierce County Connected Community Response Committee which serves to enhance community ownership of the issues and solutions by elevating community voice, supporting long-term partnerships, and highlighting system changes that are needed in the wake of COVID-19 emergency actions.

How will the funding committee know what the needs are?

We are working with the Pierce County Emergency Operations Center, Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Pierce County Human Services Department, area schools, and non-profit agencies to surface new and urgent needs. The PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Response Committee supports an aligned philanthropic response to COVID-19 in Pierce County. Through coordinated contacts with organizations in key service sectors, referred to as ‘pods’, real-time on-the-ground information is compiled and shared in a regular report to all participants.

What is the PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED funding timeline?

Requests are reviewed biweekly.  Organizations will be notified within six (6) weeks of request submission date if they are awarded funding or not.  For organizations awarded funding, if there are no significant follow up questions, funds will be distributed by ACH payment on Fridays.  

Phase  3  Schedule: 

Request Submission Date	Internal Staff Due Diligence	Committee Review  Deadline	Org Follow Up (if needed)	Funding Committee Meeting	Funding Notification	Funding by ACH Payment	Notify unfunded Orgs
June 1	June 1	June 15	June 18	June 22	June 22	June 24	June 26
June 8	June 15	June 29	July 2	July 13	July 13	July 13	July 17
June 22	June 29	July 13	July 16	July 20	July 20	July 22	July 24
July 6	July 13	July 27	July 30	August 3	August 3	August 5	August 7
July 20	July 27	August 10	August 13	August 17	August 17	August 19	August 21
August 3	August 10	August 24	August 27	August 31	August 31	September 2	September 4
August 17	August 24	September 7	September 10	September 14	September 14	September 16	September 18
August 31	September 8	September 21	September 24	September 28	September 28	September 30	October 2
September 14	September 21	October 5	October 8	October 12	October 12	October 14	October 16
September 28	September 29	October 19	October 22	October 26	October 26	October 28	October 30
October 12	October 13	November 2	November 5	November 9	November 9	November 12	November 13
October 26	October 27	November 16	November 19	November 23	November 23	December 2	December 4
November 9	November 10	November 30	December 3	December 7	December 7	December 9	December 11
December 7	December 8	December 28	December 31	January 4	January 4	January 6	January 8
December 21	December 22	January 11	January 14	January 18	January 18	January 20	January 22
January 4	January 5	January 25	January 28	February 1	February 1	February 3	February 5

While these dates are guidelines, they are not hard deadlines.

Information about Phase 4 process will be made available in Fall 2020.  

Is there an estimated funding range?

There is not an estimated range. Organizations should request what they need based on what they know about their circumstances currently. Organizations are encouraged to update their information regularly in the grant portal.

Is there a cap on how much an organization can request?

No. Organizations should request what they need based on what they know about their circumstances currently.

If our non-profit received an initial Phase 1 or Phase 2 funds does that prevent us from receiving additional funding?

No. Potential grantees are encouraged to continue sharing their needs with us.

Things are changing quickly. Can a request be edited after it is submitted?

Requests cannot be changed after they are submitted. This is only due to system limitations on our end. If you have an update to share, please contact grants@gtcf.org.

Are there other benefits to requesting PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTD funding?

Yes. Requests that fit the eligibility criteria but are not funded will made visible to GTCF fundholders and shared with PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Funding Parnters for potential support.

What are the reporting requirements for organizations that receive funding?

One month after funding an organization, we will send you a brief questionnaire to complete, Your answers will help inform the next phases of PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED funding distribution. It will also be an opportunity to share updates on your organization’s needs and barriers due to COVID-19 disruptions.

REQUESTING FUNDS

How do I fill out the funding request?

The funding request form is at this link
If you previously applied for funding through GTCF, you can use your same username and password to login and apply again. If this is your first-time requesting funds, you will need to create a new account.

What information do I need to complete the request form?

Organizations will be asked for basic information (name, fiscal sponsor if applicable, address, EIN number). Organizations will be asked to select the vulnerable populations they serve, select the impacts from COVID-19 disruptions, and tell us briefly about the need. Organizations are not required to submit financial statements or lengthy essays. The entire process will likely take 20 minutes or less.

What type of financial information needs to be included in the request?

It is not necessary to submit a budget with your application. If your organization hasn’t received funding from GTCF recently or ever, or if you need to update your organization’s banking information, we will ask you to upload an ACH authorization form with sections A, B, C, and F completed and signed. The ACH form is downloadable from the portal.

Please send the ACH form back along with ONE of the following:

voided check 
cleared check
account and routing numbers and name on the account on bank letterhead

How can the funding be used?

This is not a typical grant application process. This process is designed to surface urgent and emerging needs in the community related to COVID-19 disruptions, elevate these funding needs to a broad networks of funders and GTCF fundholders, and rapidly move PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED funds into the community for those applicants that meet the criteria.

These funds are not intended to be replacement dollars for government funding or lost fundraising revenue.

These funds are not for general operating that would be part of an organization’s annual budget. The funds are unrestricted, flexible dollars for the urgent and emergent needs related to COVID-19 disruptions.

How should our organization estimate the amount of funds we request? 

Each organization’s needs will be different and unique. When estimating the amount of funding needed, consider what your organization needs in order to provide services to address urgent needs related to COVID-19 disruptions. These funds are not intended to be replacement dollars for government funding or lost fundraising revenue.

We serve clients in multiple departments in various ways. Should we combine all requests, or separate them by specific need, population, program, etc.?

To the extent possible, please submit one application with information about aligned departmental responses across the organization. Requests for fiscally sponsored entities can be made separately.

How should our organization estimate the amount of funds we request? 

Can organizations or entities serving undocumented families receive support?

Yes, entities and organizations serving undocumented families may apply for funding. Immigrants are included as a vulnerable population on the request form. Requests will be accepted from organizations and entities with services based in Pierce County including tribal governments, local governments, school districts, 501c3 nonprofit organizations, intermediaries, and fiscally sponsored projects or collaborations.

Are activities with Emergency Day Camps for children of essential workers eligible for funding? What about the development of online/digital learning and student community-building resources?

If these activities fulfill or support an urgent needs for the immediate responses to COVID-19 disruption, then the request would be considered eligible. The Funding Committee reviews all unfunded requests at least weekly basis, so any request will continue to be surfaced with the Funding Committee.

Most of our impact has been from the cancellation of fundraisers. Can we request funding during Phase 3 to address that impact? 

Emerging Needs (Phase 3) funds are not intended as general operating or replacement funds for loss of actual or anticipated event revenue. However, if loss of event revenue means that your organization doesn’t have the flexible funds to respond to a particular emerging need, then please describe the unanticipated need and how your entity or organization can help address it.  

If you would like further assistance on this matter, please sign up for a technical assistance session.

Does this fund support general operating costs?

If you would like further assistance on this matter, please sign up for a technical assistance session.

Our organization would like to apply for funding to support a marketing campaign. Can we request funding to support this?

Emerging Needs (Phase 3) funds are not intended to support marketing campaigns for organizations. However, if your organization is meeting emerging needs in support of the work and funds for marketing to support this would be beneficial, please set up a technical assistance session.

What happens when the funding request is submitted?

You will receive an email from the online portal system saying your application has been submitted. Please add grants@gtcf.org to your safe email list.

The funding committee will review requests and make weekly recommendations.

Who can I contact if I have questions about the process?

Grant portal technical assistance: Jason Hamman, Grants Administrator, jhamman@gtcf.org

Funding request and content questions: grants@gtcf.org

This page will be updated as new questions are asked.