Rihanna & Jay-Z Co-Fund Over $6 Million in Additional Grants With Twitter's Jack Dorsey for Pandemic Relief Efforts

Rihanna and Jay-Z are continuing to help out amid the global health crisis.

Through their respective foundations, the Clara Lionel Foundation and the Shawn Carter Foundation, and along with Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and his #startsmall, the stars announced on Wednesday (April 15) additional joint grants dedicated to supporting response efforts amid the pandemic, totaling over $6.2 million, for protecting and serving marginalized populations, with a focus on New York, New Orleans and Puerto Rico, as well as international communities.

Last week, CLF and #startsmall announced a joint grant in the amount of $4.2M to the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles to address the current crisis for domestic violence victims in Los Angeles as a result of the “stay at home” order.

Earlier this month, CLF and SCF announced $2 million in grants to COVID-19 response efforts to support undocumented workers, the children of frontline health workers and first responders, and incarcerated, elderly and homeless populations in New York City and Los Angeles.

Find out how other stars are helping out amid the pandemic.

For an extensive breakdown of where the additional grants will be going, click inside…

Domestically, grants will go towards:

- Give Directly in support of cash transfers to low income families in the mainland US as well as in Puerto Rico.
- Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City to support the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) to support domestic violence survivors who need a capital injection to ensure their safety and stability during COVID-19. Micro grants will allow the financing of immediate needs of food, clothing, temporary housing, and more.
- Covenant House New Orleans to support shelter, food, clothing, counseling, and medicine for homeless, at-risk and trafficked youth, many of whom are jobless at the moment. Funds will support six-months of shelter, food, medical attention and supplies for homeless youth.
- World Central Kitchen (WCK) to support meals for homeless and senior populations in New Orleans. Funds will support the activation of local restaurants and workers.
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans & Acadiana, the Feeding America network member that serves the city. Funds will support food sourcing and storage, non-touch distribution and delivery services, and supplemental staff due to a decrease in volunteers.
- Total Community Action, in partnership with the New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Community and Economic Development, to support rental assistance for economically vulnerable Orleans Parish residents impacted by the pandemic. Funds will match the current government funding to grant up to $750 in rental assistance per household.
- The Hispanic Federation to support health clinics in Puerto Rico. Funds will go towards triage shelters, supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for a network of over 20 clinics across Puerto Rico.

Internationally, grants will go towards:

- Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to support COVID-19 response efforts in the hardest to reach and most vulnerable areas of the world. Funds will go towards COVID-19 case management, training, set-up of ICU and hospital beds and isolation units, and development of response guidelines and best practices.
- The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation to support the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) Community-Based HIV Testing Services to work with mobile clinics to manage the anticipated spread of COVID-19 in the Mulanje and Phalombe districts of Malawi.
- Direct Relief to support purchasing of testing cartridges to build COVID-19 testing capacity Saint Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica,St. Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. This grant will also support medicine kits needed in hospital ICUs to over five additional locations throughout the Caribbean.
- Team Humanity to support sanitization efforts in the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos.