Harvey Relief: Foundation Pledges/Commitments (Table 1.2)

Biblical. That's the word that best describes the rainfall visited on Houston and southeastern Texas by Harvey, the Category 4 hurricane that slammed into Texas on August 25. The storm meandered over the region for four days, dumping up to forty inches of rain in many places and over fifty in some, becoming the wettest tropical storm ever to hit the contiguous United States.

The catastrophic flooding that followed displaced nearly 40,000 people, prompted more than 17,000 rescues, and damaged over 200,000 homes (of which 12,700 were destroyed). The storm also caused at least 70 deaths and as much as $180 billion in damage, making it one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.

Support for relief and recovery efforts began to pour in within forty-eight hours and continued at an impressive clip for the next ten days. Here at the Foundation Center, our colleagues Andrew Grabois and Grace Sato have been tracking the corporate response, and thanks to their efforts, we're able to provide some good detail on more than $58 million in foundation contributions (including $10 million from the United Arab Emirates) (see Table 1.2 below). We've also tracked nearly $189 million in corporate pledges/commitments of cash and product donations (Table 1.1), over $9 million from public charities (Table 1.3), and more than $28 million from celebrities, sports figures, and wealthy individuals (Table 1.4) — for a total, as of September 9, of almost $285 million ($284,911,000) pledged or committed to Harvey relief and recovery by private individuals and the private sector. Impressive.

We realize we haven't captured every dollar committed to relief and recovery efforts — and are aware that a lot of individual contributions have flowed into J.J. Watt's Houston Flood Relief Fund that may not be represented in our tables — but we do think this is as comprehensive accounting as you're likely to find. We encourage you to send us additional information as you encounter it and/or corrections to the information posted below. You can email that info (and any questions you might have) to Mitch at mfn@foundationcenter.org.)

As we're posting this, powerful Hurricane Irma, which has already flattened Barbuda and caused serious damage to Antigua, St. Martin/St. Maarten, and parts of the British Virgin Islands, has the Florida Keys and south Florida in its sights. Our thoughts are with everyone in the region who was not able to evacuate (or chose to ride the storm out in place). We'll be back on Monday with updates as the damage reports start to roll in.

[We're continuing to update the table as commitments are announced. Please scroll to the bottom of the post for ongoing updates; see also Foundation Center's Measuring the State of Disaster Philanthropy site for Harvey-related grants. We're also posting commitments designated specifically for Hurricane Irma relief and for Hurricane Maria and the Mexico City earthquake].

Table 1.1 (Corp.) | Table 1.2 (Fdns) | Table 1.3 (PCs) | Table 1.4 (Inds)

Table 2: Independent, Family, Community Foundations

Grantmaker	Type	Recipient	Amount	Notes
Micky and Madeleine Arison Family Foundation	Family Foundation	Multiple Recipients	$1,000,000	To be split evenly among Direct Relief, Houston Food Bank, Operation Homefront, Save the Children, and United Way of Greater Houston
Laura and John Arnold Foundation	Family Foundation	Greater Houston Community Foundation	$5,000,000
Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation	Family Foundation	Greater Houston Community Foundation	$100,000
Arthur M. Blank Foundation	Family Foundation	American Red Cross	$1,000,000	Matching fund for victims of both Harvey and Irma
Bohemian Foundation	Independent Foundation	NoCo Hurricane Harvey Recovery Fund	$2,000,000	1:1 match up to $2 million for donations made by individuals, businesses, and corporate donors in Larimer and Weld County, Colorado
Boston Foundation, Inc.	Community Foundation	Greater Houston Community Foundation	$25,000
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation	Family Foundation	Rebuild Texas Fund	$36,000,000	To launch Rebuild Texas Fund ($18 million); 1:2 text match campaign (up to $18 million)
Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation	Independent Foundation	United Way Harvey Recovery Fund	$1,000,000
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation	Family Foundation	Unknown Recipient	$2,000,000
Houston Endowment	Independent Foundation	Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund	$500,000
Huntsman Foundation	Family Foundation	Beaumont Foundation	$1,000,000	To launch Huntsman Flood Fund
J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation	Family Foundation	American Red Cross	$250,000
Taube Philanthropies	Family Foundation	All Hands Volunteers	$1,000,000	Jewish community needs ($100,000)
United Arab Emirates	Sovereign fund	Multiple Recipients	$10,000,000	Embassy officials will coordinate with state/local leaders about specific relief and recovery efforts
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation	Family Foundation	Houston Food Bank, Jewish Family Services (JFS) of Houston, Mission Continues, Team Rubicon	$500,000
		TOTAL:	$61,375,000

 

September 15, 2017

The Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation announces a $100,000 donation to the Greater Houston Community Foundation Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund.

Updated foundation total: $59,375,000

September 28, 2017

The Houston Endowment announces a $2 million donation to the Greater Houston Community Foundation Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund.

Updated foundation total: $61,375,000