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Greater Houston COVID-19
Recovery Fund

Helping our neighbors through the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Prior to establishing the Greater Houston Disaster Alliance in 2023, United Way of Greater Houston and Greater Houston Community Foundation established the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund (Fund) in March 2020 to serve our region’s most vulnerable neighbors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The joint Fund helped vulnerable neighbors meet basic needs and supported impactful nonprofits serving the community through the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath. The Fund was endorsed by Lina Hidalgo (Harris County Judge), KP George (Fort Bend County Judge), and Sylvester Turner (Houston Mayor).

The Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund has now closed. You can continue to make an impact by donating to the Greater Houston Disaster Alliance, which supports year-round disaster preparedness and resilience efforts, enabling us to maintain our collective readiness to accelerate recovery from any future disasters for our neighbors.

Our Impact

Thanks to the incredible generosity of individuals, foundations, and companies throughout Greater Houston, the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund raised and invested more than $18.4 million in 87 nonprofit partners that were able to serve nearly 210,000 individuals living in over 100,500 households located in Fort Bend, Harris, Montgomery, and Waller counties.

Between April 2020 and March 2021, the Fund distributed resources through eight grant rounds, addressing urgent needs including food insecurity, emergency financial assistance, housing support, and specialized services for vulnerable populations.

Read the Final Impact Report

Thank You, Donors!

We are so grateful to the generous lead donors whose gifts helped launch the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund.

$2,000,000 – Houston Endowment Inc.
$250,000 – David and Bonnie Weekley
$150,000 – Wells Fargo Foundation
$100,000 – Houston Texans Foundation
$100,000 – JPMorgan Chase & Co.
$25,000 – Texas Instruments

Major Donors

Thanks to the many generous organizations and individuals, the Fund has raised and invested $18.4 million in 87 local organizations that have served more than 209, 802 individuals living in 100,578 households in need through eight rounds of grant.

$1,000,000
Anonymous | Arnold Ventures | The Brown Foundation | Phillips 66 | The Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation & Westlake Chemical Corporation

$500,000 – $999,999

Mr. Charles Butt | Huffington Foundation | The Powell Foundation | Randa and K.C. Weiner

$100,000 – $499,000

Bank of America Charitable Foundation | BHP | Burns & McDonnell Foundation | Calpine Corporation | CenterPoint Energy Foundation | Chevron | Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP | ConocoPhillips | Crown Castle | Laurel and Mike D’Antoni | Deloitte | Ecolab, Inc. | The Elkins Foundation | Enbridge Inc. | Richard and Patti Everett | Doug Foshee | Freeport LNG Development, L.P. | Bob and Annie Graham | Hawkins Family Foundation | HCA Houston Healthcare | Houston Texans, Reliant, the Coca-Cola Company, Amegy Bank of Texas, and BHP | The Humana Foundation | The Kroger Co. Foundation | Mr. Carl W. Kuhnen, Jr. and Mrs. Linda Farrell Kuhnen | Ryan and Lisa Lance | Macquarie Group | Mike and Vanessa Manners/The Manners/Coole Foundation | Janice McNair on behalf of Texans employees | Motiva Enterprises | Reliant and NRG | SABIC | Truist Charitable Fund | Margaret Alkek Williams

For a full list of major donors and nonprofit partners, please download the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund final report.

Note: $70K was allocated for external fund evaluation and donation credit card processing fees.

Read the Final Impact Report

Fund Governance & Leadership

The Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund Task Force oversaw response and recovery actions and expenditures. The Task Force, comprised primarily of Board members and appointees of United Way of Greater Houston and Greater Houston Community Foundation, provided oversight and leadership for the Grants Committee, which was responsible for developing grant-making strategy and recommending grants to nonprofits.

Advisory Task Force

  • Tony Chase – ChaseSource, LP
  • Irma Diaz-Gonzales – Employment and Training Centers, Inc.
  • Lynn Elsenhans – Formerly Sunoco
  • Bob Harvey – Greater Houston Partnership
  • Laura Jaramillo – Wells Fargo
  • Nancy McGregor – GHCF Board Member
  • Ping Sun – Rice University / Yetter Coleman

Grants Committee

  • Stephanie Blair – Greater Houston Community Foundation
  • Chris Hensman – Arnold Ventures
  • Annie Hurwitz – Greater Houston Community Foundation
  • Elizabeth Love – Houston Endowment
  • Curtis McMinn – United Way of Greater Houston
  • Margaret Oser – United Way of Greater Houston
  • Mary Vazquez – United Way of Greater Houston
  • Renee Wizig-Barrios – Greater Houston Community Foundation
  • Diana Zarzuelo – Greater Houston Community Foundation

Disproportionately Impacted Communities

Multiple factors were considered in order to determine zip codes disproportionately impacted by health and economic circumstances related to COVID-19, including diagnosed cases of COVID-19 per 1,000 residents, unemployment insurance claims per 1,000 residents, and the percentage of households living in poverty. In general, zip codes for which two or more of these factors exceeded certain thresholds were considered to be disproportionately impacted.

Additional consideration was provided to zip codes previously defined as COVID-19 priority neighborhoods defined by the City of Houston. Data related to race/ethnicity and median household income was also referenced to inform final decisions. Finally, the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund Grants Committee then reviewed the zip codes that met these criteria to ensure consistency with collective knowledge regarding circumstances throughout the four-county area.

Based on this analysis below are zip codes that correspond with 20 communities within the four-county Greater Houston area. Note, there were no communities identified as disproportionately impacted in Waller County. See the list and data sources used here.

Frequently Asked Questions

United Way of Greater Houston and the Greater Houston Community Foundation established the Fund together in March 2020 to serve our region’s most vulnerable neighbors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fund served the four-county Greater Houston area, which includes Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, and Waller Counties.

The Task Force made investments in services provided by trusted nonprofit partners who had proven experience and systems in place to serve the community during times of disaster. A Grants Committee reviewed partner grant requests and recommended funding decisions to the Task Force. Investment decisions were made using data to identify populations disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

Yes. Other than small credit card processing fees, 100% of all donations went directly to support services and supplies for those in need.

All grant round details, grantee lists, data sources, and impact information are available in our final impact report, available here.

Media

The Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund received extensive media coverage documenting its impact on the community:

Contact

For additional information, please click here to contact the Greater Houston Disaster Alliance.

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