Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund

Silicon Valley Community Foundation supported the international recovery effort to respond to the victims of the 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. The Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund raised more than $500,000 to distribute to organizations working to assist with immediate and long term recovery.

The fund was launched on Jan. 13 with a $50,000 matching challenge by the Irene S. Scully Fund, a donor advised fund at the community foundation. In the days that followed, numerous other community foundation donors, including the Lieve Roelandt Foundation, stepped forward to offer matching challenges.

More than 500 individuals and corporations responded to the community foundation’s effort and donated money to help Haiti. While many of the gifts came from residents in the Bay Area, others came from as far away as Peru and Belgium.

Since then, the community foundation’s grantmaking team has awarded $585,440 in grants to nonprofit organizations doing relief work and assisting with long-term rebuilding. Grants have been awarded to the following organizations:

American Red Cross, which is currently focusing on sending food, providing clean drinking water and distributing shelter items to those in Haiti left homeless. More than 49 flights providing Red Cross relief have arrived in Haiti since the disaster. $25,000
Catholic Relief Services, which has worked in Haiti for 55 years and has long-standing partnerships with schools and hospitals in the country. The organization has been on the ground since the day of the quake occurred and is distributing food and other relief. $110,000
Doctors Without Borders, which has been performing surgery at hospitals in Port-au- Prince and Cite Soleil and also running mobile clinics to search for people who need urgent care. $85,000
Fonkoze USA, which engages in microfinance activities to boost grassroots economic activity and help improve the livelihoods and long-term financial well-being of Haitians living in rural areas. $35,000.
Lambi Fund of Haiti, which has an earthquake recovery and community development strategy to help rural communities cope with the mass exodus of people from Port-au-Prince to rural areas. Lambi supports sustainable agriculture projects to meet the demand for food and to increase opportunities for livelihoods through pig and goat breeding, grain mills and sugar cane mills. $25,000.
Our Lady Queen of Peace, for the second phase of a construction project to re-build eight primary school classrooms of St. Joseph Elementary School in Medor, Haiti. $30,440.
Oxfam, which rushed clean water to the informal camps for the homeless and is now trucking clean drinking water to Port-au-Prince and starting water treatment and delivery in other badly damaged towns. Oxfam is distributing other relief supplies and has launched its cash for work program, which gives residents of the camps a chance to earn some income clearing rubble and building latrines. $85,000
Partners in Health, which has worked in Haiti since 1987 and has brought medical care and supplies to some of the hardest hit areas. PIH’s co-founder, Dr. Paul Farmer, was appointed in August 2009 as deputy UN Special Envoy for Haiti. PIH is working to strengthen clinical services; expand social and economic support for the most vulnerable patients and community members where PIH works; and, make investments in long-term strategic revitalization of the public health and medical education systems. $105,000
Save the Children, which has been working in Haiti since 1978. In the two weeks following the disaster, Save the Children reached 105,000 children and adults, providing food, medicine and supplies. The organization is also working to protect vulnerable children, including those separated from their families or orphaned by the quake. $85,000