Emergency Fund for Artists

When the COVID-19 pandemic first closed down the economy, freelance and teaching artists suddenly found themselves with no source of income. The crisis required quick thinking and reallocation of resources. In less than two weeks from the stay-at-home order, I helped revamp programs to serve the arts community. I worked with the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council’s administrator of the Emergency Fund for Artists to retool it to help artists cover costs of living until government help was deployed. As Manager of Individual Giving, I completely revamped my spring campaign to raise funds to give away. I additionally organized a virtual web-a-thon to raise money and awareness for the cause. The program raised $68,000 from 530 donors. This was matched by over $200,000 in foundation funds. Thanks to the generosity of the Pittsburgh community, more than 400 artists received direct payments of $500 to help ease their financial burdens in the first two months of the pandemic.