JAY-Z, Rihanna and Jack Dorsey team up to fund more than $6M in COVID-19 grants
The funds will go towards “protecting and serving marginalized populations” across the country.
Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation, JAY-Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall have teamed up to launch a COVID-19 relief fund.
The three foundations announced the grants today, which have totaled $6.2 million. The funds will go “towards protecting and serving marginalized populations, helping the most vulnerable in the United States, with a focus on New York, New Orleans and Puerto Rico as well as international communities,” according to the press release.
Domestically, the grants will go to Give Directly to support low income families, Covenant House of New Orleans to provide shelter, food, clothing and housing to homeless youth and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City to support victims of domestic violence. Other programs that the grant will go towards include World Central Kitchen, The Hispanic Federation, Total Community Action, and Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana.
Internationally, the grants will go towards Doctors Without Borders, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Direct Relief and Team Humanity.
Last week, Rihanna and Dorsey’s foundations donated a $4.2 million grant to the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles. The grant will support victims of domestic violence during the city’s stay-at-home order.
For about $125 per day, “the grant will cover food and housing for 90 domestic violence victims per week, with an additional 90 victims every week thereafter for 10 weeks,” according to the Los Angeles Housing Authority.
Rih and JAY’s foundations have also teamed up to donate $2 million to several organizations, including the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, Fund for Public Schools, American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Immigration Coalition.
“In times of crisis it is imperative that we come together as one community to ensure that everyone, especially the most vulnerable, has access to critical needs: shelter, health, nutrition and education,” Gloria Carter, JAY-Z’s mother and the CEO of the Shawn Carter Foundation, said in a statement. “The only way to get through this pandemic is with love and action.”