The Centre for Strategic Philanthropy is producing an industry report that will assess initial responses to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis by the global philanthropic community with a focus on emerging markets. It will seek to understand how philanthropy is rising to the challenge and what, if any, measures are being taken, and why. It will aim to understand if there is any shift towards specific geographies (e.g. low-income countries) and/or towards specific sectors (e.g. health care) and how this has impacted decision making.
In the current coronavirus pandemic, many foundations and donors are responding – by changing their behaviour and giving practices, by making more grants, by increasing their rate of pay-out, by moving to unrestricted funding, by streamlining their processes and by switching priority areas. This research will aim to understand these behaviours, what is driving them and the reasons why. It is hoped that the research will provide key insights that can help inform the Centre’s broader research agenda about how to improve effectiveness and impact.
The research will be based on a small sample of foundations working in low- and middle-income countries with a focus on Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia. It will assess whether there has been a shift in their behaviour in response to COVID-19. If so, we will assess what this shift comprised, why the changes are what they are, why there are no other changes, and the extent to which it has been well-received by grantees. It will also include a small sample of foundation grantees to assess to what extent the shift in behaviour has been helpful and would they want to see continue after the crisis. The report will be published in autumn 2020.