Orange County Community Resilience Fund Evaluation Report
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Background
The Orange County Community Resilience Fund (OCCRF) was launched in March 2020 as a partnership
between St. Joseph Community Partnership Fund, the Orange County Community Foundation,
Charitable Ventures, and OC Grantmakers, and was designed to respond to the immediate and lasting
impacts of COVID-19 in the region. As widespread shutdowns began in mid-March, OCCRF readied to
provide emergency grants to nonprofits impacted by COVID, and to nonprofits serving highly vulnerable
individuals. By June, OCCRF had distributed 4.3 million dollars to 164 Orange County serving
organizations.
In addition to rapid response grants, OCCRF committed to continuous communications with both the
nonprofit applicants seeking funding, and the philanthropic community utilizing the relief vehicle. A
preliminary report was distributed capturing the current state of nonprofits at the beginning of the
pandemic. As the pandemic continued, and as a deeper recession loomed, OCCRF commissioned
a broader impact evaluation to look at a cross section of data sources – including grant applications,
surveys, interviews, economic data, news stories, reports from other organizations, and other resources –
to capture the impact of the pandemic on our communities and nonprofits. This report, published in
August, is the result of that evaluation and serves both to describe the impacts of the past five months
and to provide concrete recommendations on how the philanthropic, government, and nonprofit
communities can respond to the ongoing effects.
