ARLINGTON, VA., February 1, 2020 – Today, Stand Together Foundation reported the impact of its 2020 efforts to break the cycle of poverty in America. Stand Together Foundation, part of a broader philanthropic community called Stand Together, focuses its efforts on breaking the cycle of poverty through innovative, community-based solutions to help people improve their lives. The work of Stand Together Foundation and its nonprofit partners (Catalysts) is driving profound progress in the areas of racial justice, prison reform, addiction recovery, workforce development, child welfare and more, helping millions of people transform their lives out of poverty, even amidst a global pandemic. Highlights include:
- Stand Together Foundation Catalyst Partner, Family Independence Initiative (FII), partnered with Stand Together to raise over $120 million to help more than 240,000 families overcome financial barriers through the #GiveTogetherNow campaign.
- Taking on the addiction crisis in America, Stand Together Foundation announced this year a $50 million commitment to The Phoenix to help one million people recover from addiction over the next five years.
- Significant new investments to transform child welfare in America, including a $2 million investment in Safe Families for Children to dramatically expand its efforts to prevent children from needing to be placed in foster care.
"The pandemic created new and unexpected barriers for millions of people and families. We are proud to be supporting the social entrepreneurs that are finding innovative ways to continue transforming lives," said Evan Feinberg, Executive Director, Stand Together Foundation. "Even amidst this crisis, we believe we can break the cycle of poverty in America by restoring our belief in people and finding new and better ways to empower people from the bottom up."
COVID-19 Relief
To help supplement the work of Catalyst partners as they pivoted operations to continue to serve their communities during a global pandemic, Stand Together Foundation launched the Help the Helpers campaign, which raised nearly $6 million for nonprofit partners in just four days so they could serve even more people. Then, one of Stand Together Foundation's Catalysts, the Family Independence Initiative (FII) launched #GiveTogetherNow in partnership with Stand Together. The campaign raised more than $120 million to distribute direct cash payments to 240,000 families experiencing financial hardship.
Racial Justice
In the aftermath of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, Stand Together Foundation Catalyst Urban Specialists partnered with Stand Together to launch the Heal America tour, a series of conversations bringing together national and local leaders to discuss racial inequality, injustice, and police reform. Events were held in Dallas, Detroit, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Chicago, and Jackson. Stand Together Foundation also invested $2.2 million in Urban Specialists to help recruit and train hundreds of former gang members to help end neighborhood violence.
Criminal Justice Reform
Stand Together Foundation invested $660,000 to help Prison Fellowship double the reach of its Warden Exchange Program, which works with leaders in correctional facilities to establish a more rehabilitative prison culture. An additional $50,000 investment in Georgia Justice Project will help bring arrest, conviction, and sentencing alternatives to new jurisdictions and will help equip low-income individuals with better legal representation. And Stand Together Foundation is also committing $1.9 million to launch Momentum Advisory Collective, building on the success of Cafe Momentum's model to create new restaurants across the country staffed by formerly incarcerated youth.
Addiction and Mental Health Care
Through a planned $50 million investment, Stand Together Foundation will work with the Phoenix to help one million people recover from addiction by 2025. An additional $60,000 was granted to PeaceLove to bolster its mental health efforts through art and creative expression.
Economic Recovery
Catalyst dfree®, a faith-based organization focused on helping individuals build financial freedom and pay down debt, has engaged one million Black Americans in a movement to create a cultural shift that celebrates asset building, upward mobility, and financial empowerment. Stand Together Foundation has committed $1.25 million to support those efforts. Rising Tide Capital is bolstering economic mobility by empowering low-income entrepreneurs to build their own sustainable businesses and Stand Together Foundation invested $1 million to expand its reach. This investment will help Rising Tide Capital enter new cities by equipping partner organizations with the tools and programming to replicate its model. In addition, Stand Together Foundation recently discovered RiseKit, an organization that uses predictive analytics to help unemployed and under-employed people find and stay in careers. An investment of $750,000 is being made to help them expand to 50 new markets by 2025. The work of Cara, which works with employers to shift the narrative around where top talent comes from and to create more inclusive hiring practices is being supported with a $500,000 investment to help scale their work.
Child Welfare
Significant new investments to transform child welfare in America are underway, including a $2 million grant for Safe Families for Children to scale its efforts statewide to Florida and build a strategy for expansion to additional new markets, with the vision to prevent thousands of children from entering the foster care system every year.
Turning 2020 challenges into solutions. Inspired by the work of its Catalysts, Stand Together Foundation also made changes in 2020 to improve the effectiveness of its organization. Despite a new virtual setting, Stand Together Foundation continued its flagship Catalyst Program and welcomed 36 new nonprofits to into its community, bringing the Catalyst Community to nearly 200 nonprofit partners across 47 states. The 2020 investment strategy of Stand Together Foundation continued to focus on nonprofits making an outsized impact in the communities they work with.
Stand Together Foundation invested $31 million in both financial and resource support for its nonprofit partners to help them transform more lives out of poverty in an unprecedented year and will continue to work alongside Catalyst partners to break the cycle of poverty and help people achieve their full potential.
About Stand Together Foundation:
Stand Together Foundation is committed to breaking the cycle of poverty in America by driving change from within communities. We are building a community of social entrepreneurs who believe in people, work from the bottom up, and unite with anyone to do right. Since 2016, we have committed nearly $100 million to fuel the innovation of nonprofits throughout the country to build stronger, safer communities where all people can learn, contribute, and realize their full potential. Our goal is to help nonprofit leaders maximize their impact to transform more lives out of poverty. Learn more at standtogetherfoundation.org.
About Stand Together:
Stand Together empowers people dedicated to helping others improve their lives. Our philanthropic community tackles some of the biggest challenges of our time, including reforming the nation's criminal justice system, strengthening K-12 education, helping neighbors beat poverty and addiction, empowering everyone to find fulfilling work, and more. We can all make a greater difference by uniting together than by acting on our own. For more information visit, www.standtogether.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Contact: Allison Fried
(571) 236-2589 ###
