How Can I Help?

Many people are wondering how they can help our communities in this health and economic crisis. Tolleson Wealth Management’s Philanthropy Services team is continuously communicating with local and national non-profit agencies and service providers who are providing emergent response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic consequences to businesses. The team has compiled information regarding some of the most urgent needs facing our communities.

Healthcare

Dallas-area healthcare providers are preparing for a significant increase in patients with severe illness due to COVID-19. The following have expressed need to the Philanthropy Services team, although all healthcare providers will likely require assistance to provide necessary services:

• Parkland Health and Hospital System
• Children’s Health
• Baylor Scott & White Health
• UT Southwestern Medical Center
• Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas/ Texas Health Resources

Hunger and Housing

Human Services agencies and domestic violence shelters are seeing a spike in immediate needs. Organizations providing assistance are listed below:

• Austin Street Shelter
• The Bridge
• The Family Place
• Genesis Women’s Shelter
• Interfaith Housing
• North Texas Food Bank
• Salvation Army

Community Collaborations

Fifteen foundations including those listed below launched North Texas Cares, a shared grant application that allows collaborative grant-making to maximize impact and avoid duplication. Gifts to those collaborations will be given to agencies selected by the community funder based on applications by agencies. The below have also launched specific funds to address COVID-19:

• Communities Foundation of Texas
• The Dallas Foundation
• Texas Women’s Foundation
• The Dallas Morning News Charities
• United Way of Metropolitan Dallas

Education

The speed and scale of school and university closures represents an unprecedented challenge for the education sector and many institutions scrambling to develop long-distance learning solutions. School districts and higher-education partners identified immediate needs of internet access.

• The Commit Partnership
• DonorsChoose

Childcare

Access to childcare is needed more than ever as essential workers on the frontlines serve our communities.

• YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas

The Elderly

Our most vulnerable populations are experiencing difficulties in addition to the threat of COVID-19. Interaction with others is severely limited and their ability to shop for essentials, make medical visits, and take care of basic needs is curtailed by the need for isolation.

• The Senior Source
• VNA

The Arts

In past financial crises, art organizations experience both the greatest and longest lasting reduction in financial support. The Arts Community Alliance is providing a local and national fund to help sustain smaller arts organizations due to higher vulnerability.

• TACA (The Arts Community Alliance) – Emergency Fund

National Efforts

National funders are working in several areas including funding for medical equipment, research for a vaccine and therapeutic treatments, and medical care in developing countries where the illness is expected to be particularly severe.

• Gates Philanthropy Partners
• The CDC Foundation

Innovative Collaboration

• Get Shift Done for North Texas is a collaboration between North Texas Food Bank, the Dallas Restaurant Association, Communities Foundation of Texas, and Shifts Smart. Through this initiative, recently unemployed restaurant and hospitality workers are employed to pack and deliver food for the North Texas Food Bank and Meals on Wheels. The workers earn $10 an hour and fill the void left by volunteers who no longer work in the food bank or deliver meals.

If you want to know more about innovative work going on to help in our community, please the Philanthropy Services team at philanthropyservices@tollesonwealth.com.