In January 2019 IFSSA restructured the Benevolence Fund, we did this for three reasons…
Success for IFSSA means a person in distress is able to find the resources necessary to resolve their situation. Ideally, this happens because we use our knowledge and insight to help them. If we can’t open a door then we have the blessing to be able to help people by opening the purse. We do this work confidentially and transparently.
The fund is a resource, not a program. Its purpose is to financially support people in non-chronic challenging, stressful circumstances related to safety, security & health when they do not have other viable options.
The Benevolence Fund was started because concerned community members wanted a means by which they could make a more direct and impactful interventions for people experiencing financial distress. The fund helped people facing evictions, utility bill short falls, and other similar short-term financial crisis. It did not address non-emergency requests such as training, medical needs (because of liability), etc. The fund emphasized significant scrutiny of applicants with a typical application taking 4 hours of staff time. In winter of 2017 the fund faced a significant drain because a technical glitch with the processing of the child-tax benefit for refugees meant a large number of refugee clients faced a delay in their payment.
Based on these challenges a new criteria was developed with the goals of being cost effective, clearer & broader applicability.
We are now testing the following criteria before dispersing funds.