Not unlike many other foundations, the Otto Bremer Foundation responded quickly last winter when the economy started its free fall with no end in sight.
The Bremer Emergency Fund (BEF) was a joint response – with foundation grant dollars supplemented by donations from the Bremer banks. In January, the fund gave 81 grants totaling $4.2 million to community organizations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin to provide emergency financial assistance to families and individuals struggling to provide basics such as food, warm and stable housing, health care and reliable transportation.
“We recognize that timely financial assistance can sometimes make the difference between instability and security, enabling families and individuals to meet emergency needs and retain housing or jobs,” William Lipschultz, foundation trustee, said last January. “Once people are able to meet their basic needs and avert a crisis situation, they are in a better position to access community programs that can help them achieve long-term economic stability.”
Halfway through the one-year grant period, the foundation surveyed its grantees. The results of their responses were released today in an interim report.
“The Resources Available Have Not Kept Pace With the Need”
According to the report summary: “Three-quarters of BEF grantees are seeing more unmet needs than they expected, and many are expending funds much more quickly than they anticipated. Applicants for assistance are in deeper crisis than expected, with broader needs. More people are affected by job loss, and job searches are taking longer than in the past. Homeowners as well as renters are in need of support. Areas with high poverty rates have been especially hard hit.”
Measuring Impact
Grantees are measuring the impact of the BEF grants in a variety of ways, including:
- Increase in number of requests for emergency assistance to which the agency can now respond.
- Increase in amount of assistance the agency can provide to each individual/family.
- Percent of clients’ needs agency could meet.
- Ability to keep clients in their homes, with heating and lighting, and prevent homelessness.
- Ability to provide access to food, assistance for transportation emergencies, help with medical expenses such as purchase of prescription drugs, shelter for homeless clients, assistance in budgeting.
- Ability to help clients retain or find new employment.
- Ability to help clients who have been turned away from all other forms of assistance.
- Ability to help clients meet their goals, resolve the current crisis, prevent future emergency needs, improve family stability, and/or connect to long-term solutions.
- Indirect impacts, which include preventing child abuse/neglect and domestic violence and ensuring school continuation for children.
Sharing What’s Been Learned
Grantees overwhelmingly expressed an interest in learning from each other and sharing resources. Foundation staff are planning to follow up by:
- Facilitating learning among BEF grantees by helping them share information, tools and questions.
- Conducting a final grantee survey in early 2010, the end of the funding period, to explore outcomes, impact and lessons of the grant-supported initiatives and the program as a whole.
- Developing a final learning report on the BEF, including information about the creation, operation, impact and lessons of the program.
- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate
