We stand together in the spirit of European solidarity

European Philanthropy Statement on COVID-19:

We stand together in the spirit of European solidarity

We, the signatories, recognise that the COVID-19 outbreak is an exceptional event that will have an unprecedented impact on civil society organisations and NGOs across Europe and throughout the world. We want to offer our reassurance that we stand together during this testing time, bringing our spirit of European solidarity to this worldwide crisis.

We are committed to being good partners and a source of meaningful support during the coming weeks and months so that civil society groups can focus on the vital work of supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. We understand that there will be times when staff and volunteers will not be available, when beneficiaries may need services to be provided in different ways, or when systems need to be flexible to ensure that needs are met.

If your community, services or organisation are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, and you receive grant* funding from us, we are committed to:

Adapting activities – we recognise that you may experience difficulties achieving some of the outputs or outcomes we agreed for your grant during the outbreak, and would like to be able to maintain our grant payments to you at originally-agreed levels during this period, so please have a conversation with us if you are affected in this way
Discussing dates – we don’t want to add pressure, so if you think you will struggle to meet a reporting deadline please get in touch with us so that we can agree a more realistic time for you to get things to us wherever possible
Financial flexibility – we know you may need to use your funding to help cover sickness, purchase equipment, or deliver services differently, and we will be reasonable if you need to move money between budget headings** to ensure your work can continue
Listening to you – we are here if you want to talk to us about the situation you’re facing, but we’ll wait for you to call us so that these conversations are at the right time for you.

This statement is being coordinated by DAFNE and the EFC and is open for signatures from all funders active in Europe.

*This does not apply to commissioned services or contracts where there will be separate discussions between commissioners and provider organisations.
** If applicable.

Sign up and show your support!

If your organisation would like to sign this statement, please get in touch at jredding@efc.be.

Signatures: 186 and counting…

Acknowledgement:

We thank everyone in the philanthropy sector who inspired us and contributed to this “European Philanthropy Statement on COVID-19”, in particular members and partners of the EFC and DAFNE and the London Funders, who kindly allowed us to use the wording of their funders’ statement as inspiration for our own.