Next City: Read IRAF’s latest feature!

The Immediate Response Action Fund (IRAF) was recently featured in an article by Next City! View the article below as it discusses the history behind why IRAF was created, the importance of rapid response funding, and more!

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Rev. Michelle Anne Simmons is the CEO of Why Not Prosper, a nonprofit in Philadelphia that provides transitional housing for formerly incarcerated women. She was desperate when the heater broke in one of their housing locations and ten women were left in the cold Philly winter in early 2019.

“It was freezing cold in there,” says Simmons. “We had to get the girls out of there, get the heat on and get a new furnace and we have no money for no heater.”

Then she remembered the Immediate Response Action Fund(IRAF) created by Women’s Way, a non-profit organization that advocates for the advancement of rights and opportunities for women and girls. Simmons has worked with Women’s Way before and stayed on their mailing list. She remembers first hearing of the program in one of their emails that the grant will provide up to $10,000 in funding for addressing urgent and unanticipated needs of organizations or programs that primarily serve women and girls within 10 days. She filled out the application and received the full amount on day five. She had such a good experience with the program that when the exterior side and rear wall at another one of their housing facilities cracked the next year, she applied for the funding again and received the full amount in less than 10 days.

Read the full article here.