Synchrony Pledges $50 Million to Expand Access to Education and Skills Training

Here are notable new grant awards compiled by the Chronicle:

Synchrony

$50 million over five years to Education as an Equalizer, its new program to expand access to higher education, skills training within in-demand fields, and financial literacy for low-income and underrepresented communities, particularly those that are predominantly Black, Hispanic, and Native American.

The total includes $20 million in grants coming from the Synchrony Foundation to nonprofit organizations and historically Black colleges and universities for scholarships, mentorships, and internship opportunities.

Ballmer Group

$38 million to the University of Washington to address the shortage of behavioral-health specialists at community clinics and develop a pipeline of mental-health care providers through its School of Social Work and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, in partnership with the Behavioral Health Institute at Harborview Medical Center.

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

$30 million in grants to organizations that are led by or support people of color, with a focus on cultivating leadership skills, addressing racial disparities, and ending systemic racism.

This marks the first round of grants from the foundation’s $500 million pledge over five years toward racial equity.

Mastercard

$25 million commitment to make access to and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines equitable across the world. The commitment includes a partnership with Global Citizen to support its VAX Live campaign and a concert that will be broadcast internationally to raise public confidence in the vaccine.

Ge Li and Ning Zhao Family Foundation

$20 million to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to back research and develop new therapies to treat lung cancer.

Truist Financial Corporation

$20 million commitment to Operation HOPE to expand its series of collaborative financial-coaching programs, including its digital financial-education resources and the 1 Million Black Business Initiative to support entrepreneurs of color.

7 Major Foundations

$19.5 million to create the New Economy Initiative, a fund that will bolster small businesses through a network of nonprofit-business-support organizations in Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, and other communities in Michigan’s Wayne County.

The grant makers that have thus far contributed to the fund include the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, the Ford Foundation, the Hudson-Webber Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, the William Davidson Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

RCHN Community Health Foundation

$13 million to three organizations that support community health centers as the foundation prepares to spend down its assets and close.

George Washington University has received $7 million for the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy. The National Association of Community Health Centers has received $5 million. A grant of $1 million went to the Community Health Care Association of New York State.

California Wellness Foundation

$6.9 million in core operating-support grants to advance health equity in California, with a focus on addressing racial health disparities exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent economic recession. The foundation also made $1.5 million in program-related investments to support entrepreneurs in the state.

IKEA Foundation

$3.6 million unrestricted grant to Médecins Sans Frontières. The humanitarian-aid group will use the money to expand its primary health care services and distribute medical relief supplies in India, where the infection rate of Covid-19 is surging.

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

$3 million to the Associated Press, NYC Media Lab, Brown Institute at Columbia, and Partnership on AI to help local news organizations incorporate artificial-intelligence technology into their newsrooms.

The foundation is also giving $1 million to Code for America to support Technology Brigade chapters in Boulder (Colo.), Charlotte (N.C.), Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia, San Jose (Calif.), and St. Paul. The program deploys volunteer coders to develop civic technology that can help local government better serve residents and community groups.

American Honda Foundation

$2.5 million over five years to eight nonprofit organizations in Southern California that are supporting young Black and Latino men as they pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

The recipients are the Bridge Builders Foundation, Brotherhood Crusade, the California Academy for Science and Mathematics, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, the Children Youth and Family Collaborative, the Long Beach Math Collaborative, the Posse Foundation, and UNCF.

Truist Foundation

$2.5 million to Georgia State University to develop online tools for its National Institute for Student Success, which partners with historically Black colleges and universities to improve graduation rates and strengthen students’ financial-literacy skills.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

$1.5 million in general operating support to five conservation organizations with leaders who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color.

The grants, which came through its new Building an Inclusive Conservation Movement Program, went to ‘Āina Momona, Ekvn-Yefolecv, McIntosh S.E.E.D., Native Movement, and Soul Fire Farm.

Fetzer Institute

$1 million to the Open Future Institute for the Question Project, a social-emotional curriculum to help students determine their sense of identity and life’s purpose while attending low-income public high schools in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

New Grant Opportunity

The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation is accepting applications for grants through its Broadening Narratives program to help museums, libraries, and other cultural organizations share stories within the foundation’s two geographic areas: Chicago and South Carolina’s Lowcountry. The foundation will make $750,000 in grants through the program, and an additional $75,000 will be granted to the five advisory groups involved with its administration. Applications are due July 30.

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

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