Nonprofit and Philanthropic Leaders Come Together to Work with Commonwealth

PANO and 40 other state associations and philanthropic organizations came together to write this letter, laying out the following requests to Governor Wolf, all 203 members of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, and 28 heads of state agencies.

The letter details the immediate additional measures that the state and local jurisdictions can take, with most occurring within current state appropriations and not requiring additional resources.

Please feel free to borrow language from this letter to draft your own.

1. Special attention and funding are needed for homeless individuals, victims of domestic violence, and those living in residential facilities.
2. Support nonprofit access to emergency response resources from the federal government.
3. Individual relief from loss of household essentials due to COVID-19.
4. Maintain customary payments to nonprofits that have current grants and contracts.
5. State agencies should be allowed to temporarily loosen grant and contract reporting, application, and renewal requirements.
6. Pay current invoices quickly.
7. Ensure Unemployment Insurance holds nonprofits harmless.
8. Utilize Nonprofit-Appropriate Tax Relief
9. Please direct local jurisdictions and intermediary organizations to apply the same principles of maintaining customary payments, prompt payment of invoices, and loosening the regulatory and contract requirements described above.
10. Provide tort liability protections for nonprofits involved in providing life-sustaining services during the COVID-19 crisis.
11. Provide training resources to support a safe return-to-work and re-opening of full services for nonprofits that have been engaged in service delivery within their physical locations during the COVID-19 crisis.