Want to help our community during this time of crisis?  Consider a contribution of items or funds to any of these worthy causes.

Along with other community and business sectors, COVID-19 is having a staggering effect on the arts and culture sector and artists in Howard County. With strict guidelines to stem the spread of the virus through social distancing, public gatherings are banned, venues are closed, and performances, events, workshops, classes, and gigs are being cancelled. Artists who work from gig to gig are losing income and their ability to support themselves and their families. The Howard County Arts Council and its generous donors are addressing the urgent need of individual artists by taking immediate action to provide assistance through the Howard County Artist Relief Fund. The Relief Fund will assist these artists through small, expedited grants of up to $250.

Bright Minds Foundation, the educational foundation of the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS), and HCPSS have launched an emergency Access to Learning Fund to raise money for critical education access supports for HCPSS students during the extended coronavirus school closure.The Access to Learning Fund will support the purchase and use of learning resources, including items such as assistive technology, connectivity resources, online memberships, printed materials, mailing costs, multimedia equipment and other supplementary resources some families may need to support remote student learning.

For more information, please contact Liz Crammond, Executive Director of the Bright Minds Foundation, at liz@brightmindsfoundation.org.

Please give generously to help HCGH halt the pandemic by advancing knowledge of COVID-19 biology, more broadly testing for the virus, treating patients currently afflicted, designing more effective therapies for those who will become sick, and developing a successful vaccine. Please select “greatest need” when making your donation.

For those of you looking to help those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Howard Hospital Foundation has started a fund to support our frontline employees while also helping our local restaurants who are suffering too. Our first initiative is to provide meals to our dedicated employees who are working hard to care for our patients. Not only will the funds raised support the well-being of HCGH staff on the front lines, but they will also give a boost to the local restaurants that will be providing the meals. The hope is that the community will continue to fund these meals so that we can offer them to all of our hard-working staff working on-site at the hospital – both day and evening shift – several times each week (including weekends) while this crisis unfolds. If other, more compelling needs arise for hospital staff, then we will change course. Please select “Care for our Caregivers” as your donation designation.

Four major philanthropic organizations in Howard County – the Community Foundation of Howard County, the Horizon Foundation, the United Way of Central Maryland, and the Women’s Giving Circle – have joined together to create a relief fund to support the nonprofit sector that delivers front-line services to our community. As our community did through the 2016 and 2018 Ellicott City flood relief efforts, you can make donations to the Community Foundation of Howard County’s “Howard County Community Relief Fund.” Click here to donate.

  • Athelas Institute, Inc.

The Athelas Institute is a certified 501(c)(3) non-profit human services agency based in Columbia, Maryland, and works to empower and enrich the lives of adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. They are directly seeking donations of the following items:

Any PPE: Gloves, masks, etc
Hand sanitizer
Cloth masks
Activity supplies, games, art supplies

Please contact Chantelle Taylor directly to facilitate your donation.

Chantelle Taylor, LCPC, NCC
Office: (410)964-1241 ext 125