Dunham Foundation

The Dunham Foundation tackles its community’s most urgent COVID-19 needs in fastest way.

The Dunham Foundation in Illinois seeks to build a healthy, thriving community through grantmaking. When COVID-19 began impacting local organizations, the Dunham Foundation needed the right grantmaking partner to respond as quickly as possible.    

The Dunham Foundation made quick adjustments to its grantmaking process to ensure that it could drive the most impact in its Illinois community during COVID-19. With Blackbaud as a partner, the Dunham Foundation transitioned to an interim grant application that would streamline funding and best honor the vision of its founder, John C. Dunham, to build a healthy, thriving community through grantmaking.

The Dunham Foundation recognized early on the constraints on local nonprofit organizations and set out to make its grant application faster and easier for organizations to apply. That simplified process allowed the Dunham Foundation to respond more efficiently and effectively. Among its changes, the Dunham Foundation removed its deadline, suspended its letter of intent requirement, allowed online applications for small grants, and emphasized applications addressing COVID-19 needs.

“With Blackbaud Grantmaking, it’s kind of business as usual,” said President and CEO Vicki Morcos. “One of the things we can do is easily go and change the application to make things seamless for organizations we’re serving.”