A letter from Children’s Hospital Foundation President, Lauren Moore

An email shared with supporters and friends.

Friends,

I know your inboxes must be as full as mine with announcements concerning the unprecedented impact that COVID-19 has had on the people, businesses, and organizations in your life. Our team at Children’s Hospital Foundation has been working diligently over the past 10 days to adjust our activities and operations to best support the needs of Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, the children and families we serve, and our partners in the community. I want to thank all of you for the many messages of concern and support we have received recently and also share an update on what we are doing to respond to the ongoing spread of the novel coronavirus.

You are truly a critical part of our team, and first and foremost I hope you are taking care of yourselves, your families, and your loved ones. Every day in our work, we see the true impact of compassion and how great things can be accomplished when we come together around the most vulnerable members of our community. The current extraordinary efforts that we are seeing locally and nationally are an embodiment of what we see as the core of our mission—caring for one another.

Children’s Hospital Foundation’s response to COVID-19:

As our region’s full-service children’s hospital, CHoR is continuing its daily work of ensuring the health and wellbeing of our community’s children. The health and safety of patients, team members and visitors within the hospital environment are critical at all times, and our visitor guidelines have been updated with new restrictions. Complete details regarding CHoR and VCU Health’s response to COVID-19 can be found at chrichmond.org/covid19. That page will continue to be updated as the situation evolves, so feel free to save the link if it is a useful resource for you.

As we continue our work in support of our partners at CHoR, our Foundation team has made some operational changes:

• All Foundation employees have transitioned to a remote work environment. While we are all still available and continuing our work, please be aware that some of our processes, including mail and gift processing, may experience some process delays at this time. If you need a tax receipt, please email us at giving@chfrichmond.org.
• We have cancelled or postponed all events through the end of May. Ongoing calendar adjustments will likely continue to be made, and we will share future updates as decisions are made.
• We are temporarily stopping the acceptance of any in-kind donations such as toys, art supplies, or books due to infection control guidelines.
• We will continue to stay in touch with you through email, our website, social media, and other means.

How you can help
All of the changes above are having a real and tangible impact on our fundraising mission, but we recognize the importance of taking decisive action at this time. These challenging times remind us how grateful we are for our supporters and all you do to make our work of caring for children possible.

You can still help with your good wishes and staying connected with us through our website and social media pages.

While we are not accepting in-kind donations, donations of Walmart or Amazon gift cards are a good substitute. Our child life team is hard at work to help make the hospital experience as comfortable and kid-friendly as possible, particularly during this time of increased visitor restrictions. With our playrooms currently closed, Walmart gift cards can be used to restock our supplies for fun activities in patient rooms. Contact Sarah Deis to learn more.

And, when you can, please consider continuing your financial support of the work that can’t stop at CHoR. The best way to do so while our events and other activities are on hold is through an online gift. If you choose to mail a check, please include your email address so we can facilitate a quick email gift receipt.

As we move forward through this uncertain time, we will continue to act in the best interest of our entire community and encourage open and honest communication. Even though I might not get to see as many of you in person over the coming months as usual, I know you—our wonderful donors, volunteers, and partners—will continue to keep CHoR and the children and families we serve in your hearts.

Thank you, now more than ever, for your care and support.

Lauren Zaller Moore
President and CEO
Children’s Hospital Foundation