Salesforce Foundation Gets $54 Million in Slack Buyout; Open Society Creates $10 Million Fund to Rescue Afghan Civilians

Here are notable new grant awards compiled by the Chronicle:

Slack

$54 million to the Salesforce Foundation for its efforts to make grants to organizations that advance racial justice and equity by democratizing technology and closing the opportunity gap.

Salesforce completed its acquisition of the business-communication platform for $27.7 billion in July.

Stavros Niarchos Foundation

$17.7 million toward emergency-relief efforts for people in Greece who have been displaced by this summer’s wildfires there and to pay for long-term firefighting preparedness.

Open Society Foundations

$10 million to create the Afghanistan Emergency Humanitarian Fund, which will support the rescue of Afghan civilian refugees, particularly activists who have worked to advance human rights, women’s rights, and a free press.

The fund will also back international relief organizations that are directly supporting Afghan citizens fleeing the Taliban.

Blue Meridian Partners

$8 million over two years to the Northwest Dayton Partnership to boost culture and well-being in the Ohio city, with a focus on advancing economic and racial equity for northwest Dayton’s children and families.

The partnership is a collaboration between Learn to Earn Dayton, the City of Dayton, Preschool Promise, Dayton Public Schools, and other local community organizations.

Enterprise Holdings Foundation

$7 million to nearly 700 nonprofit groups through its inaugural Enterprise Holdings Road Forward program to address social and racial-equity gaps that affect youths and families in communities worldwide.

MidAmerican Energy

$5 million to the Great Outdoors Foundation to create a fund that will expand the network of Iowa Confluence Water Trails, a regional collaboration for water safety and conservation.

Wepower

$1.5 million to create the Elevate/Elevar Capital fund, which will support the financial growth of businesses owned by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs in North St. Louis.

Bank of America

$1.4 million to One Mind, RADical Hope, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness to expand mental-health resources for communities of color, particularly for young people.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

$1.4 million to Howard University to bolster its Department of Economics, strengthen student recruitment and research, and offer opportunities for faculty development and training.

B.K. Kee Foundation

$1.1 million challenge grant to Community Partners International to match donations to its Myanmar Covid-19 SOS campaign, which is raising money to fight a surge in Covid-19 cases in the country.

Amazon

$1 million to the Right Now Needs Fund in Northern Virginia, in partnership with Communities in Schools NOVA, to offer basic-needs support to students who attend public schools in Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax County.

Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation

$1 million challenge grant to the University of California at Los Angeles to expand teaching about Israel in the modern era at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. The grant will match other donations to endow the center, up to $1 million.

New Grant Opportunity

Harry’s is accepting proposals through its Open Minds Initiative in support of mental health. The men’s shaving company will make one grant of $5 million to a nonprofit group that works to improve access to mental health care in the United States. Letters of intent are due September 15.

Send grant announcements to grants.editor@philanthropy.com.

Chronicle of Philanthropy subscribers also have full access to GrantStation’s searchable database of grant opportunities. For more information, visit our grants page.