The Montana Healthcare Foundation is closely monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) developments and following the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) recommendations. Information is rapidly evolving, and we are working quickly to identify how we can support our staff, grantees, partners, and Montana communities during this time. 

Given the seriousness of the situation, we created the following health and safety guidelines to support and protect our staff, partners, and Montana communities. These guidelines will be in place for the foreseeable future, but we will reassess as new information emerges. 

• We are closing our office starting Monday, March 16, and our staff will be working remotely. We will be conducting business as usual and will be available by phone or email. 
• We are postponing our upcoming conferences. For those of you who registered for one of our events, we will be in touch soon with more details. 
• All in-person meetings will either be rescheduled or held by phone or video conference. We believe this is the most responsible action we can take to safeguard the health and safety of our staff while protecting the wider community. 
• We are restricting business travel, including site visits. If we have a site visit scheduled with you, we will be in touch shortly to reschedule or to set up a virtual meeting. 
• We are committed to supporting our grantees, many of whom are on the front lines of the state’s coronavirus response. We are offering flexibility with application and reporting deadlines, along with maintaining consistent funding commitments to our current grantees. We are also available for conversations about other identified needs as they arise. 

We are committed to supporting our partners at the state and local levels as they implement a response to this rapidly evolving public health crisis. Public health is the backbone of the coronavirus response, and we will continue supporting Montana’s state and local departments as we look to them for guidance and leadership. To help organizations take advantage of the federal funding that will likely soon become available, our Grant Application Assistance Initiative is poised and ready to assist with application submissions. We are also collaborating closely with our philanthropic partners to coordinate our efforts to identify and respond to needs as they arise.

For more information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic we recommend following the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (MT DPHHS), and your county public health department for news about your local area.

The Montana Healthcare Foundation Team