The Tides Canada team – from coast to coast to coast – are continuing daily operations, working remotely with flexible scheduling so they can be in the best possible position to help others during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
As an organization, we recognize our privilege in being able to continue to work from home with relative ease, and we stand in solidarity with the individuals, communities, and organizations that are experiencing the greatest risk and burden, both to their health and economic security.
Our focus first is to work with our grantees and community leader partners as they support frontline communities and those most vulnerable to the impacts of the pandemic. We are working with the 60 projects operating on Tides Canada’s shared platform as they determine if and how they can respond to urgent need in their communities and by those most affected. We are relaxing grant reporting requirements, providing extensions, and shifting grant timelines and activities. We have deep trust in our partners to do what is needed most for their communities during this difficult period.
We are also connecting with partner foundations and philanthropists to see how philanthropic funding can provide as much flexibility and reliability as possible into the upcoming difficult months. This crisis provides an opportunity and important role for the philanthropic sector. It is a time for philanthropy to lead from behind, to invest in communities and citizens that will move government and industry forward, and in the interim, to help compensate for public and market failure to address the long term well-being of the ecosystems which we are all part of and depend on.
There is both uncertainty around our future and an unprecedented opportunity in the disruption to reshape it, to rethink and redesign an economy with communities that are grounded and rooted in solutions to many of the challenges our work is responding to.
At times like this we are more aware than ever that local responses will save lives and they will be the seeds of our future transformed. Our long-serving commitment to amplify and support community-led solutions will only deepen.
Stay safe everyone and stay connected.
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Tides Canada is launching two rapid response funds to quickly and flexibly drive capital directly into communities as they respond to immediate and long-term threats of COVID-19. Find out more at tidescanada.org/covid19.
We are also working with our friends at Future of Good who are gearing up to offer key tools, inspiration, and stories from within the non-profit sector in response to COVID 19. Please do share any such story ideas with communications@makeway.org
