Over $110 million has been raised for the NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund over the past few months, which is being distributed in a series of grants and loans to hundreds of theatre companies and performing arts organizations across the city. The aid arrives during an unparalleled need for financial support after the coronavirus pandemic led to a ban on mass gatherings since early March.
Grants totalling $73,098,950 will go to 754 non-profits (380 of which are arts and culture organizations), with the amounts ranging from $5,000 to $250,000. For loans, $35,490,000 has been offered to 43 nonprofits, with $2 million to be decided upon for allocation in August. Loans range from $100,000 to $3,000,000. Individual amounts to institutions were not disclosed.
“The fund, which [Bloomberg Philanthropies] conceived in collaboration with the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and many other generous partners, shows the value of partnerships in a crisis,” said former NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “And the strong support for it shows how critical these groups are to the life of our city.”
“We are grateful to know that we do not face this crisis alone, and that you are with us,” said Jonelle Procope, president and CEO of the Apollo Theater, which is among the many recipients. “We are confident that we will see the other side of the pandemic, and that we will rise stronger than before.”
Additional grant recipients include Amas Musical Theatre, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, Ballet Hispanico, Black Spectrum Theatre Company, Brooklyn Ballet, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Cherry Lane Theatre, Chinese Theater Works, Classic Stage Company, Classical Theatre of Harlem, CO/LAB Theater Group, Coalition of Theatres of Color, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Elevator Repair Service Theater, Harlem Stage, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Ma-Yi Theater Company, National Black Theatre Workshop, National Dance Institute, New Dramatists, New Ohio Theatre, New York Classical Theatre, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York Stage and Film Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Second Stage, Signature Theatre, Soho Rep, St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Flea Theater, The Tank, Theatre Communications Group, TDF, Theatre for a New Audience, Vineyard Theatre, and Women’s Project Theater.
A full list of grant recipients can be found here.
Elevator Repair Service Theater, Home for Contemporary Theatre and the Art Ltd. (HERE), and Theatre Communications Group, Inc. received zero-interest loans. View the complete list of loan recipients here.
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The fund was started when 18 donors came together in March to create emergency response aid, with initial contributions totaling $75 million. Less than a month later, $44 million had been awarded to 276 NYC non-profits in critical need. Additional contributions from nearly 1,300 foundations, corporations, and individuals grew the fund by more than $35 million in the months following.
To be eligible, an organization had to be a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City with no more than $20 million of annual non-governmental revenue, among other requirements.
The founding members of the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund include Bloomberg Philanthropies, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Joan Ganz Cooney & Holly Peterson Fund, Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund, The JPB Foundation, The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The New York Community Trust, Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros, Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović, Charles H. Revson Foundation, Robin Hood, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, UJA-Federation of New York, and the Wells Fargo Foundation.
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