The Johns Hopkins Neighborhood Fund has paused grant disbursements to local organizations as donations to its fund have dwindled through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
The chairs of the fund sent a letter to friends, donors, and grantees that they are “temporarily pausing the disbursement of grants offered for fiscal year 2025.”
The fund began in 2007 as a partnership between Johns Hopkins and United Way, providing support to nonprofit organizations serving the communities around Hopkins campuses and associated with Johns Hopkins. The money is raised through payroll deductions and internal fundraising by Johns Hopkins.
The Neighborhood Fund used pledge donations made through the Johns Hopkins United Way campaign, which helped local nonprofits address a variety of needs, including community revitalization, education, employment, health, and public safety.
In the letter, the chairs wrote that they have seen a decline in money specifically designated for the Neighborhood Fund through they are calling the “post-COVID years.”
“With fewer and fewer raised in the last two years, we lessened the previous grant amounts of $15,000 in order to provide some funding to as many applicants as possible,” they wrote. “Facing a third year, we recognize this is neither effective nor sustainable.”
The chairs wrote that they would communicate plans for moving forward once they are developed.
The Neighborhood Fund is one of five neighborhood initiatives Johns Hopkins undertakes to help the communities that surround their institutions. They include Expungement Clinics, offered twice a year with multiple legal volunteers to provide pro bono advice on helping people clear their records.
Another is the Vernon Rice Holiday Memorial Turkey Program began with the late Hopkins employee after whom it is named, who began his own unofficial charity in 1976 providing meals and other necessities to needy people over the holidays. Johns Hopkins partnered with him and the program is carried on today by his son, Sam Rice. The other two are a program for small businesses linking learning to action, and the Innovation Fund for Community Safety.
