Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) continues pandemic relief efforts with new grants totaling over $27.7 million

NEW YORK, May 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) announced the second round of grants in its $100 million global relief initiative to help alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-five grants totaling more than $27.7 million focus on responding to urgent community needs across the United States, including food aid and support for young people; increasing Greece's intensive care facilities and COVID-19 testing capacity; and strengthening health-care services in Europe and Africa.

Full list of grants

"This crisis has shown us that people all around the world are bound together by the same threats and challenges," said SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos. "But it has shown that, if we choose, we can also be bound together by the good we are able to do with, and for, one another. These organizations are providing vital services to meet the immediate needs of the most vulnerable in communities around the globe, and SNF is deeply grateful for their work and for the opportunity to be of help."

In the U.S., community organizations are uniquely positioned to implement coordinated, comprehensive responses to a crisis affecting every sphere of life but with unequal impacts. Grants totaling over $2 million to United Way for Southeastern Michigan, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the San Antonio Food Bank, the Bangor Region YMCA, and The New York Community Trust support these vital, resource-pooling organizations in hard-hit regions to maximize aid to families in need of food, childcare, and other services.

"Our philanthropic partners have rushed to help the nonprofits that form a safety net for our most vulnerable," said Lorie Slutsky, President of the The New York Community Trust. "As tough as this public health crisis has been, the altruism of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation is a welcome reminder that the city will get through this and emerge even stronger."

$755,000 in additional grants to nonprofits in the New York area will help meet immediate needs for food, mental health support, and essentials.

Lost educational and developmental opportunities for young people risk devastating long-lasting effects, and grants totaling over $1.6 million will maintain mentoring support and community networks that help them reach their potential, including a $1 million grant to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

While Greece has so far escaped widespread COVID-19 infection, SNF is working with the Greek government to strengthen the country's health system for whatever might come next, building on its ongoing Health Initiative. A $17.8 million-plus grant will create facilities to add 177 intensive care and 46 high-dependency beds, and training for ICU staff. A further $4 million-plus grant will bolster Greece's ability to test widely for COVID-19 and implement a data-based response, mirroring SNF's previous $3 million grant for Johns Hopkins University's Testing Insights Initiative.

In Spain, grants totaling $980,000 will aid the most vulnerable: people experiencing homelessness, migrants, sex workers, and people with developmental disabilities. And Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children's Hospital will create a biobank open to all researchers to advance understanding of COVID-19 in children and pregnant women.

CEO Dr. Manel del Castillo Rey noted, "The absence of reliable scientific data on how COVID-19 affects children and pregnant women has hampered development of potentially lifesaving knowledge for all of us. This grant will enable researchers worldwide to better understand the disease, establishing the basis for susceptibility and, consequently, prospective treatments."

Grants totaling $387,000 to organizations working in 21 countries across Africa seek to reinforce strained health resources by providing critical supplies as well as infection-control support.

These new grants, together with over $31 million allocated to some of the world's hardest-hit areas in the first round of SNF's $100 million global relief initiative, total $59 million. Subsequent grants will target emerging socioeconomic and educational impacts. First-round grantees include The Rockefeller University, the Robin Hood Foundation, the Fund for Public Health in New York City, and many others.

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.

See more at SNF.org.

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SOURCE Stavros Niarchos Foundation