Cobb Community Foundation (CCF) is establishing the Cobb COVID-19 Community Response Fund. According to a news release sent out on Monday, the charitable fund will provide flexible resources to non-profit organizations serving Cobb and meeting critical needs arising from or exacerbated by the novel coronavirus.
Shari Martin, president and CEO of CCF, said we have entered unchartered territory, and that’s why the organization’s previous focus on fundraising for Cobb Community Opportunity Grants is taking a back seat to the current crisis.
“We don’t know what’s ahead, but we know that as a community foundation, it’s our role to build and deploy resources to help our community get through this relatively unscathed, or at least as unscathed as possible,” she said. “For many in our community, those and many other organizations are that domino that keeps all of the others from falling, and because more of our community will need their help, now more than ever, these organizations will need our help.”
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Kim Gresh, a CCF Board Member and owner of S.A. White Oil Company, agrees. As First Vice-Chair of the foundation's board and chair of the organization’s Events Committee, she said the foundation has canceled this year’s Partners in Philanthropy event and will instead put the money where it’s most needed.
“There’s no doubt that this is the right thing to do,” she said. “In the environment we are in, it just makes more sense to use that money to help the organizations that are out there helping people in our community stay afloat.”
Al Martin, Regional External Affairs Manager for Georgia Power Company, serves on the CCF board and also chairs its Grants and Scholarships Committee. He said the process to receive a grant is going to be quick and painless,
“Anyone can give to this Fund and know that, other than credit card fees which don’t come to us, 100% of their contribution will be distributed to non-profits meeting critical needs,” Martin said. “These organizations have enough to take care of, without having to fill out some long application.”
CCF is also urging its own donors to look for opportunities to support local nonprofits currently addressing critical needs, by making direct contributions. General contributions provide the greatest amount of flexibility for non-profits, which is particularly important at a time when needs are rapidly changing.
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