Listening, Learning, and Adapting

During these challenging times, the Barr Foundation has adapted to provide new flexibilities and support to our partners, and to get new resources into our community quickly.  With full support of our trustees, Barr made several changes to our processes in response to this moment, and will be reflecting on these changes and considering which make sense to build into how we work longer-term.

Like many of our peers, as we saw the disproportionate impact the pandemic was having on certain communities in our region, we knew we needed to do things differently. Our program staff reached out to grantees to explore what flexibilities might be most helpful: converting program support to operating support, waiving contingencies, accelerating timing of payments and grant approvals, providing no-cost extensions, and relaxing or completely waiving reporting requirements. We’ve also made changes to our internal processes – like streamlining administrative requirements for program staff submitting grant recommendations. We recognized how important it is for Barr to provide our grantees with flexibility and support, and to provide our own staff with greater flexibility to focus on relationships with grantees, potential grantees, and community partners – as well as to recognize the pressures and uncertainties our own staff were facing.

Early on, Barr contributed to a number of pooled funds providing emergency relief in communities across Massachusetts. And we have made several rounds of grants in direct response to the needs arising from COVID-19 For these, we used an expedited process, and in some cases even accepted proposals and reporting documents grantees had prepared for other funders. To learn more about Barr’s response to COVID-19, visit barrfoundation.org/covid-19.

As a Foundation, we know we don’t have all the answers. While it is still hard to imagine what a post-COVID world will look like, we are committed to continue listening, learning, and adapting, to keep focused on what is most important, to eliminate needlessly burdensome processes, and to demonstrate our enduring commitment place equity at the center of our grantmaking and organizational practices.