Statement on Covid-19

Statement on Covid-19

Two Ridings Community Foundation recognises that the Covid-19 outbreak is an exceptional event that will have an impact on voluntary, community and social enterprise groups, and want to offer reassurance that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the VCSE sector during this time. We wish to be as helpful as possible during the coming weeks and months so that the groups that we fund 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 organisation or services are affected by the covid-19 outbreak, and you receive 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 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 going to be affected in this way;
• Discussing dates – please let us know if you are going to experience delays in delivering your project or submitting your end of grant reporting, we will work with you to accommodate this where we can.
• Financial flexibility – we know you may need to use your funding to deliver services differently, and we will be work with you 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.

We also recognise that there may well be further disruption caused by covid-19 that may impact on your other income streams and we will seek to make the case for funding support. Where we have any news on emergency funding, this will be published on our website and we will endeavour to keep you informed.

How you can help us

During this time we may be working from home more than usual and if current advice changes, the office may be closed altogether. This will mean that we will have more limited access to post.

We will be accessible by telephone on the usual number but may not be able to direct your enquiry immediately, it may mean that the relevant member of staff will return your call.

Please direct enquiries by email as much as possible including the return of any documentation such as grant acceptance forms.

17.3.2020