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Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation, Jay-Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have jointly pledged $6.2 million to coronavirus (COVID-19) relief.
In an official release shared with Digital Music News earlier today, Rihanna and her Clara Lionel Foundation indicated that the aid package would reach 11 stateside and international charities in the form of grants.
Domestically, these recipient entities include Give Directly (which forwards its received contributions directly to in-need families and individuals in the form of cash payments), the World Central Kitchen (a New Orleans-based meal-assistance and restaurant-relief charity), and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City (specifically to assist domestic-violence victims with housing and cash).
Internationally, portions of the $6.2 million will benefit Team Humanity (to improve sanitization at the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece), Doctors Without Borders (to help bring COVID-19 tests and treatment to remote, hard-hit nations), and more.
$1 million of the $6.2 million is earmarked for Doctors Without Borders. The UBS Optimus Foundation, a grant-based entity focused on child-health initiatives, has agreed to match the donation with a $1 million contribution of its own.
This new grant package is the latest in a series of multimillion-dollar pledges from Rihanna and her non-profit organization. Earlier this week, she and Jack Dorsey contributed $4.2 million to the Mayor’s Fund of Los Angeles in an effort to reduce the prevalence of domestic violence. Some evidence suggests that household violence rates have increased as of late, possibly as a result of stay-at-home orders.
Prior to that, during the latter part of March, Rihanna and the Clara Lionel Foundation donated $5 million to the fight against the novel coronavirus, including $700,000 for ventilators.
And last week, Jack Dorsey made headlines for voicing his intention to contribute a staggering $1 billion to COVID-19 relief initiatives and charities, via his Start Small LLC. The 43-year-old went as far as publishing a Google Doc compilation of the funds he’s sent away; according to the document, Dorsey has provided charitable organizations with over $7 million (of the $1 billion pledge) to date.
Jack Dorsey, the Shawn Carter Foundation, and the Clara Lionel Foundation also announced the joint contribution on social media.