The past few weeks have tested our community in ways we couldn’t have anticipated. The surge of ICE and Border Patrol agents across the Twin Cities has created a crisis that extends far beyond immigration enforcement—it’s disrupting the essential services that thousands of families depend on to escape poverty.

That’s why Constellation launched an Immediate Response Fund. We’ve raised over $500,000, most of it in the past week, and we’re deploying it immediately to support our nonprofit partners delivering critical services.

What We’re Seeing

The federal presence is making it extraordinarily difficult for remarkable nonprofits to reach our neighbors struggling with poverty. One food access organization that typically serves 90 people per shift recently served just 44. Health programs are seeing 40% reductions in patient volumes. Some workforce development organizations report entrepreneurs have lost 50-100% of their sales revenue.

But statistics don’t capture the full picture.

A community center is locking its doors for the first time in its history—not to keep people out, but to monitor who’s coming in and keep participants safe. Multiple programs have shifted to virtual formats, curbside pickup, or home delivery. One workforce development organization is now renting apartments in their building to provide safe housing for staff and community members who don’t feel secure in their own homes.

What makes this moment particularly challenging is that needs are surging exactly when organizations’ ability to deliver is being constrained. Families living paycheck to paycheck are now afraid to go to work or buy groceries. Students making progress toward their degrees are facing urgent financial crises. Small business owners building pathways out of poverty are watching their customers disappear.

Our Immediate Response

Our Immediate Response Fund is deploying funds in $50,000 increments to carefully selected organizations in our portfolio—high-impact nonprofits already embedded in affected neighborhoods with the relationships and infrastructure to respond effectively. We’ve already distributed $400,000, with more grants going out this week.

These dollars are supporting:

• Food delivery to families too afraid to leave their homes
• Emergency rent and utility assistance to prevent evictions
• Small businesses losing income
• Students facing urgent needs
• Childcare for parents who can’t miss work
• Purchases from businesses whose revenues have collapsed

One executive director wrote: “Within moments of receiving the news, I was able to increase our food orders and authorize additional work to coordinate food deliveries. When I arrived at the food shelf yesterday, our Delivery Coordinator was beaming. She had just learned that we could add eggs to next week’s deliveries and that we would have additional support to help process the surge of new requests we are receiving.”

Join Us

There are many important efforts happening across our community right now. Many of you are already giving back, and we’ll continue to need your support for Constellation’s core work, which will be more critical than ever in the months ahead.

But if you’re looking for a way to help right now, we welcome you to join us. The Immediate Response Fund is providing emergency support while positioning our partners for the longer-term work of helping families recover and rebuild. The organizations we’re supporting have been vetted through years of rigorous evaluation, and they can put additional resources to immediate use.

Thank you for caring about what happens to our neighbors in this difficult moment.

April 2026 Update: The Immediate Response Fund is now closed for contributions, but donations to our core work will continue to support Twin Cities families in the aftermath of the ICE surge.