Philanthropy Rises in Pandemic as Donors Heed the Call for Help - The New York Times

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When the coronavirus prompted states to order residents to stay at home in March, unemployment surged around the country as huge parts of the economy slowed or stopped. Soon after, there were calls for philanthropists, charitably inclined people and even occasional donors to accelerate any giving they were planning to do.

They stepped up, it turns out, giving more and giving faster then they typically do.

The needs were urgent. Virus-related charities and social service agencies, like food banks, were thrust into an immediate role whose size and scope they were not prepared for. At the same time, arts organizations and other nonprofit groups that depend on sales of tickets to their shows and productions suddenly had no audience.

To encourage donations, the CARES Act expanded the amount of cash contributions that could be taken as a tax deduction. But the focus of the call to action was firmly on foundations and donor-advised funds, which have huge pools of money that can go only to charity.

Now three months after the initial outbreak, two reports show that Americans gave at a rate and a level that eclipsed donations during the 2008 recession and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

According a report released on Friday from Fidelity Charitable, which has become the largest grant maker in the country by managing thousands of individual donor-advised funds, those donors have given $3.4 billion nationwide since the start of the year, up at least 28 percent from a year earlier.

Grants to food banks and other food assistance programs were up 667 percent nationally, including more than 800 percent in the Mid-Atlantic. At the same time, donors continued to give to their local and other regular charities, according to the report, which tallied 750,000 transactions to more than 100,000 charities.

“Despite the economic environment, all the uncertainty at a personal level, people looked outside of themselves and gave to charity,” said Pamela Norley president of Fidelity Charitable.

A similar study of 32 community foundations, which manage charitable accounts directed at a specific city or region, reported an 80 percent increase in donations to $203.1 million from March to May, compared with the same period last year. One of the 32, the Boston Foundation, reported a 246 percent increase in March and April from a year earlier. The study was conducted by the Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative.

A donor-advised fund functions like a foundation, though it is managed through a public charity or a community foundation. When people put money into these funds, they get the tax deduction at that moment. They can then choose when they make the grants.

Critics have said that without a requirement to make donations, donor-advised funds could sit on money earmarked for charity. But the data showed that these funds had functioned the way their supporters had long said they would: The surge in grants came from money that was already in donor-advised funds and could be activated quickly.

“They gave big, and they gave right up front,” said Lorie Slutsky, president of the New York Community Trust.

The reports provide a window into how donors thought about what the funds could do to help many different organizations during a pandemic.

Some donors accelerated gifts they were going to make anyway. Lucia Kellar, a semiretired psychologist in Manhattan, normally makes her charitable gifts toward the end of the year, but she began giving in March when a stay-at-home order was issued. She has focused on small arts groups and social services, reasoning that they need the money now.

“What really struck me was what was happening with soup kitchens and food banks — there were these long, long lines that hadn’t been there before,” Dr. Kellar said. “I wanted to give and help in some way.”

But she also realized that the arts organizations she had supported were struggling. She gave $8,000 to the Kate Weare Company, a small contemporary dance ensemble.

“Their whole season was wiped out,” Dr. Kellar said. “It wasn’t that large, but it made a huge difference to their survival.”

Likewise, Dr. James C. Liu, an internist in Boston, said he had looked through his usual charitable organizations and focused on the smaller ones that he felt added a lot to the community but might struggle to survive. A classically trained baritone, Mr. Liu donated to Emerson Music, a group known for performing Bach cantatas. Another recipient was the Peabody Essex Museum, which he enjoyed taking his children to visit.

“I’m generally shifting away from the biggest organizations,” Dr. Liu said. “I’m hoping to support groups that would not always get your attention.”

To that end, his donations to medical charities focused on those doing specific work during the pandemic, like Partners in Health, which has helped out in Haiti but is now focused on contact tracing in Massachusetts.

“They’re doing good work, but this is one that I have naked self-interest in,” Dr. Liu said. “As a physician, I know that doing rigorous contact tracing is one of the ways to keep a pandemic under control.”

Dr. Kellar and Dr. Liu typically make one grant a year to an organization, but both said they might make additional grants later in the year if the same recipients were still struggling.

The Coronavirus Outbreak

• Frequently Asked Questions and Advice

  Updated June 24, 2020

  • What’s the best material for a mask?

    Scientists around the country have tried to identify everyday materials that do a good job of filtering microscopic particles. In recent tests, HEPA furnace filters scored high, as did vacuum cleaner bags, fabric similar to flannel pajamas and those of 600-count pillowcases. Other materials tested included layered coffee filters and scarves and bandannas. These scored lower, but still captured a small percentage of particles.

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    A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise “comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort” and requires “balancing benefits versus possible adverse events.” Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. “In my personal experience,” he says, “heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask.” Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico.

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    The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

  • What is pandemic paid leave?

    The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

  • Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?

    So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

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    Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

  • How does blood type influence coronavirus?

    A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

  • How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.?

    The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

  • What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

    Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

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  • What should I do if I feel sick?

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Other donors said they needed a moment to process the shock of what was happening, both in the world and in the portfolios from which they made donations.

Ms. Mailman initially slowed her giving. “Then I held my nose and said, ‘Forget that — the money isn’t mine anymore. It will do more work out there,’” she said.Credit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Debra Mailman, who has spent the two years since she retired as an executive at Microsoft volunteering in disaster zones, initially slowed her giving, shocked by the sudden drop in value in the investments in her donor-advised fund.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, I did the same thing everyone did: I looked at the stock market and said, ‘Oh, my God,’” she said. “Then I held my nose and said, ‘Forget that — the money isn’t mine anymore. It will do more work out there.’”

She said she expected to give double her usual amount this year to groups focused on crises worldwide. One is the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which has a program in Ethiopia that is doing work she values.

The pandemic has changed how Amanda Millerberg and her husband, Spencer, evaluate charities. Mr. Millerberg sold his data analytics company, One Click Retail, in 2018, and Ms. Millerberg said they had spent the last few years learning what it took to engage in philanthropy on a larger scale.

“I had an aha moment,” said Ms. Millerberg, who lives outside Salt Lake City. “Usually, I’d spend the year researching what I wanted to give to, and then in October, I’d sit down and make all my grants. During the epidemic, I knew my local food bank needed the money now, so I said, ‘Let’s get it out now.’”

She has increased her giving, but worries about what she calls her hobby charities, like the Utah Symphony. “All nonprofits will be struggling,” she said. “Everyone still has a need.”

That reality has kept some donors focused on what they were doing before the pandemic: holding firm to where they were donating. Judy Fireman, who lives with her sister, Janet, in Tucson, Ariz., said they continued to give at the same rate to a local women’s shelter, where they also volunteer to cook.

“No one needs less now that the pandemic exists, and I’m not convinced everyone needs more,” Judy Fireman said. “The pandemic has made everything a little horrible or a lot horrible for everyone.”

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