Stavros Niarchos Foundation distributes $31 million first round of grants to reach areas hardest hit by COVID-19

NEW YORK and ATHENS, Greece, April 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) announced the first round of grants in its $100 million Global Relief Initiative to help alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-five grants totaling over $31 million focus on food and mental health in some of hardest-hit regions of the United States and Europe, on food and health needs worldwide, and on aiding staff on the front lines in Greece.

"We cannot overstate the impact of the pandemic on society at large, and we owe our deepest gratitude to those who continue, in spite of the immense challenges they face daily, to serve the most vulnerable among us," said SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos. "Within our lifetimes, the need has never been greater. Our collective response will have to be both swift and forward-looking; these immediate grants represent the first step from SNF on a long path, as the effects of the pandemic will be with us for a long time."

As the pandemic translates longstanding financial insecurity into immediate food insecurity, grants to organizations in the United States and Europe—France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain—focus on ensuring access to food and other essentials. And as the widespread effects of the pandemic on mental health mount, SNF grants in these regions also focus on offering mental health support to specially affected populations including frontline workers, seniors, and children.

See the complete list of grantee organizations.

SNF believes we achieve more when we collaborate, and has made a $2 million grant to poverty-fighting organization Robin Hood, which pools resources to assist the low-income New York families who are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Grants from the Foundation totaling $800,000 also support three collaborative emergency relief funds for artists in the United States facing sudden precarity at a time when they are called to be agents of community wellbeing.

In Greece, where SNF is in the midst of a more than $400 million Health Initiative, additional support will go directly to the most critical element of the country's health system: individual hospital staff. As a gesture of appreciation for their altruistic efforts to fight the pandemic, SNF is taking the extraordinary step of sharing $8.1 million equally among the nearly 5,000 nurses, doctors, and cleaning personnel working in ICUs at Greek COVID-19 clinics.

Two major grants to international initiatives will help contribute to COVID-19 response around the world. A $3 million grant will aid UNICEF's global COVID-19 response, as the organization draws on its unparalleled network and logistics capacity in the key areas of food insecurity, psychological services, and support for frontline workers. In collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies, a $3 million grant to Vital Strategies' Resolve to Save Lives initiative will enable rapid-response grants to governments and provide support to frontline workers across Africa as they combat the pandemic.

Bloomberg Philanthropies' public health program lead, Dr. Kelly Henning, said, "The public health and economic impacts of COVID-19 call for a global response. While we are in an unprecedented moment, Vital Strategies has proven time and time again their ability to coordinate and mobilize life-saving public health efforts. The work SNF is expanding support of is needed now more than ever to help frontline workers and governments respond in the fight against this deadly virus."

Our ability to track the spread of the virus will be critical to recovery, and a $3 million grant from SNF supports Johns Hopkins University in launching the COVID-19 Testing Insights Initiative to provide governments, businesses, and the public with comprehensive testing data and expert analysis.

These new grants join a $3 million grant to The Rockefeller University to bolster round-the-clock research related to COVID-19 underway in Rockefeller labs.

A pandemic, global by definition, requires a truly global response. SNF is committed to working collaboratively to help move this massive effort forward with speed and transparency.

About the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)  

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world's leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants to nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports and social welfare. SNF funds organizations and projects worldwide that aim to achieve a broad, lasting, and positive impact for society at large and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also supports projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving public welfare.

Since 1996, the Foundation has committed more than $3 billion through more than 4,600 grants to nonprofit organizations in 126 nations around the world.

Learn more at SNF.org.

Media Contact
Maggie Fiertz
[email protected]  
646-307-6315

SOURCE Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Related Links

https://www.snf.org