WARWICK – The Rhode Island Foundation, along with state elected officials, on Wednesday announced at Westbay Community Action that $11.7 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds were distributed to 149 organizations over the last four months to aide their efforts in addressing hunger, housing and behavioral health across the Ocean State.
The latest grant announcement was the result of a partnership between the foundation and state elected officials for the foundation to distribute a portion of Rhode Island’s $1.1 billion share of the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to help with the state’s recovery from the pandemic. In total, the foundation since December has awarded $20 million in grants, the single-largest grant pool in the foundation’s 107-year history, to 240 nonprofits.
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The grants, the foundation said, were targeted to organizations that experienced negative economic impacts from the pandemic. Priority was given by the foundation to nonprofits serving communities where the need was greatest, the foundation said.
Organizations received grants as high as $150,000. The Mt. Hope Community Center in Providence, the East Bay Community Action Program in East Providence, the Galilee Mission in Narragansett, the James L. Maher Center in Middletown, YWCA Rhode Island in Woonsocket and Westbay Community Action were among the organizations that received funding.
“We are grateful that state leaders believed in our capacity to quickly get this funding into the hands of the nonprofit organizations that are doing the boots-on-the-ground work helping those in their communities recover from the pandemic’s continuing impact on their daily lives,” foundation CEO and President Neil D. Steinberg said in a statement.
A full list of organizations that received grants can be found here.
(Updated: Link to full list of recipients added at end)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
