Our Response to COVID-19
In March 2020, United Way of Greater Nashua established a fund to provide financial support to local nonprofits for their extra-ordinary and unprecedented expenses related to Covid-19. Our social services nonprofits, which make up the core of our Community Safety Net, provide for many basic needs, including food, clothing, and shelter. The fund we created, COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for Greater Nashua, provided microgrants to local nonprofits with these emergency expenses. The last thing we wanted is for a food pantry, shelter, or WIC provider to think twice about cleaning or sanitizing because it isn’t in the budget.
Learn more from our fund fact sheet.
Funding and Donations
United Way of Greater Nashua received a $25,000 “Challenge Grant” from AmeriHealth Caritas New Hampshire to support its Coronavirus Emergency Response efforts. Individual or corporate donations to this challenge grant were matched dollar-for-dollar up to $25,000. Any individual donation made at this time to United Way’s “Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund for Greater Nashua” was eligible.
Members of our community made many personal donations to help support our important local nonprofits. 100% of your donations went to this important cause.
Volunteer Opportunities
Many of our non-profit partners were in urgent need of volunteers to keep up with the increased demand of services in response to COVID-19. Opportunities were listed VolunteerGreaterNashua.org.
Donated Goods & Supplies
We supported our non-profit partners by listing items and supplies they needed. Community members dropped off in-kind donations at the United Way office at 20 Broad Street in Nashua and were distributed to our partners.
For Nonprofit Service Providers were able to request funds and items through an online form.
United Way of Greater Nashua also developed an Amazon Wishlist for ease of shopping which were shipped directly to the UWGN office for distribution – consider shopping through Amazon Smile and selecting the United Way of Greater Nashua as your non-profit to support!
Items Provided :
- Shower Caps
- Brown Paper Lunch Bags
- Diapers – All Sizes
- Baby Formula
- Baby Wipes
- Bottled Water
- Reusable Bags with Handles
- Toilet Paper
- Hand Sanitizer
- Sanitizing Wipes
- Bread
- Canned Beans
- Canned Meats
- Canned Vegetables
- Cereal
- Dish Detergent
- Disinfectant Spray/Cleaner
- Ensure Low Sugar Shakes
- Fruits
- Gift Cards to Local Grocery Stores
- Glucerna
- Pasta
- Pasta Sauce
- Peanut Butter
- Plastic Utensils
- Postage Stamps
- Rice
- Shampoo – Conditioner
- Touchfree Thermometers
- HEPA Filter Material Merv16 or highest available by the roll
- Weatherstripping Foam Self-Stick Weather Seal (3/4″ wide x 5/16″ thick)
- Hot Glue Guns/Glue Sticks
- 1/4″ wide Elastic Straps
There is a new financial incentive for Americans to give generously to qualifying charities, including United Way of Greater Nashua and many of our community partners. The new universal tax break for charitable donations was included in the final $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package signed into law last week and will go into effect starting with the 2020 tax year. Learn more here.
Nonprofit Partners Apply for Funding
Nonprofits were able to apply for this funding by filling out this simple application.
Grant requests were able to be made for up to $1,000 and were be for the express purpose of reimbursing extraordinary costs related to the prevention and spread of Covid-19. If an agency previously received a United Way of Greater Nashua Covid-19 Relief Grant, they could apply for up to $1,000 minus the previously awarded grant(s). For example, if they previously received $500, they could apply for an additional $500.
Criteria to Qualify:
- Agencies were required to be a 501(c)(3) organization.
- Agencies were required to be in good standing with the State of New Hampshire.
- Agencies were required to serve a majority of your clients from the 11 communities of Greater Nashua.
Grant Recipients
The COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for Greater Nashua supported the following non-profit partners with grants:
- Humane Society for Greater Nashua
- Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter
- Nashua Senior Activity Center
- Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity
- Corpus Christi Food Pantry and Assistance
- YMCA of Greater Nashua
- Front Door Agency
- Waypoint
- Girls Incorporated of New Hampshire
- Touchstone Farm Inc.
- The Salvation Army of Greater Nashua
- Rohingya Society of Greater Nashua
- The Greater Nashua Dental Connection
- St. Joseph Community Services Meals on Wheels
- Revive Recovery
- Family Promise of Southern New Hampshire
- Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua
- Manchester Acupuncture Studio
- Gateways Community Services
- NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire
- One Greater Nashua
- Regenerative Roots Association
- The Plus Company
- Home Health and Hospice Care
- Greater Nashua Food Council
- Nashua Center
- Marguerite’s Place
- Harvey’s Hope Animal Rescue
- Make It Labs
- Opportunity Networks
- Milford SHARE Outreach
- Nashua Community Music School
- Girl Scouts of the Green & White Mountains
- International Institute of New England
- St. Joseph Hospital
- Grow Nashua
- Special Olympics of New Hampshire
- Operation Delta Dog
- Nashua PAL
- Southern NH Outreach for Black Unity
- The Tolles Street Mission
- Teachers and Paws Project
The COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for Greater Nashua funded the purchasing of critically needed toilet paper and custom making hand sanitizer for our non-profit partners.
Funding Partners
The fund raised a budget of over $100,000, with support from our annual campaign budget and several partners including:
- AmeriHealth Caritas New Hampshire
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation
- Bank of America
- Bar Harbor Bank and Trust
- Brady Sullivan Properties
- Cigna
- Connection
- City of Nashua
- Eastern Bank
- Eaton and Berube Insurance
- Endowment for Health
- Enterprise Bank
- Etchstone Properties, Inc.
- Eversource
- Mint Printworks
- Nashua Prevention Coalition
- Nashua Teacher’s Union
- New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
- New Hampshire Children’s Health Foundation
- Pennichuck Water
- People’s United Bank
- Right Networks
- Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics
- St. Joseph Hospital
- T-Mobile
- Tufts Health Plan Foundation
- United Healthcare
- Xfinity/Comcast
If your organization is interested in becoming a funding partner, reach out to Michael Apfelberg or Liz Fitzgerald via email or at 603-882-4011