HAITI UPDATE: MATCHING GIFTS PROVIDE MORE IMPACT
When disaster struck Haiti on Jan. 12, we were moved by the amazing response from our network of donors. Thanks to their generosity, we are able to leverage donations and make grants to nonprofit organizations providing relief.
Our impact in Haiti is best demonstrated by the many acts of generosity that yielded even more charitable donations to Haiti. On the day after the earthquake, Silicon Valley Community Foundation established the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund and highlighted organizations already working in Haiti that were recommended by our grantmaking staff. Irene Scully, a community foundation donor advisor with a long-time interest in Haiti, stepped forward and offered to match up to $50,000 in contributions to the community foundation’s Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund. Gifts flooded in from places as far away as China and South America. The Scully match was met within 24 hours.
The next day, the dire situation depicted in media reports prompted donor advisor, Lieve Roelandt, to offer another significant matching grant of $50,000. That match, too, was met within hours.
Additional donors, some wishing to remain anonymous, offered challenge grants to leverage their resources for the benefit of the victims of the quake. As a result, the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund is matching up to $230,330 in gifts.
Corporations such as National Semiconductor, NetApp and Synopsys have also played an important role, mobilizing action and encouraging their employees to give to the community foundation’s Haiti Earthquake Relief fund. Atelier Avocado, a Menlo Park boutique that maintains a corporate advised fund at the community foundation, also contributed directly to the effort. Local middle school students from St. Lawrence Academy in Santa Clara encouraged donations of $5 each and pooled the gifts together for a donation of more than $1,500 to the community foundation’s Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.
From Belgium to Baton Rouge, from Mountain View to Peru, more than 500 individuals and corporations responded to this unique crisis, totaling $554,513 in donations so far.
Donors gave an additional $885,150 directly to nonprofit organizations through our online Community Connections program, featuring recommendations by our grantmaking staff. Together with the amount raised for the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, more than $1.4 million in relief will be directed to Haiti through Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Six nonprofit organizations were awarded $450,000 in immediate grants for their relief work (for details, read the press release). In addition, the community foundation intends to award additional grants from its relief fund to assist with long-term rebuilding efforts.
The need, of course, is immense, and continued support is essential. You can still give to Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund. Your donation will provide much needed support as Haitians work in the weeks and months to come to rebuild their lives and reconstruct their nation better and stronger than before.
