Our Founder’s Response to COVID-19
Over the past month, the FamilyAlbum team has been inspired by families working hard to stay close despite new distance. We’ve also been spending a lot of time thinking about what we can do to better support families and children affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
Today, we are excited to announce that our teammate and founder Kenji Kasahara has donated $1 million toward COVID-19 relief for families and children.
“In the past few weeks, we’ve received messages from users around the world thanking us for helping their families stay close during this difficult time,” said Kenji. “While we will continue to improve our service to better support the FamilyAlbum community, we felt a strong desire to do more to support the health and wellbeing of families and children impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. It is an honor to partner with organizations like Save the Children, DonorsChoose, and GiveDirectly. Although recovery may take years, we hope to continue to aid efforts in relieving the negative economic and social impacts of the pandemic not only in the short term, but also in the medium to long term.”
The $1 million donation will support vulnerable families and children in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and other regions around the world.
Donations include:
- $300,000 to DonorsChoose to support teachers and students in low-income communities.
- $300,000 to GiveDirectly’s “Project 100” to provide $1,000 direct digital payments to 300 families hard hit by the COVID crisis.
- $300,000 to Save the Children to aid global relief efforts in vulnerable communities.
- $100,000 to organizations providing housing, meals, counseling, holistic support, diapers and other necessities to families and children experiencing homelessness, serious illness (including sick or premature babies in neonatal care), financial difficulty, or family violence. Organizations include Action for Children, Australian Childhood Foundation, Bliss, Breakfast Club of Canada, Discovery House, Family Promise, Home-Start UK, Miracle Babies Foundation, National Diaper Bank Network, Nurse-Family Partnership, Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, Win (Women in Need), and others.
“When students can’t go to school, their home resources will shape their education,” said Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose. “To prevent coronavirus from further widening educational inequity in America, it’s essential that students and teachers have access to learning materials and resources at home. We’re so grateful for this support from FamilyAlbum, which will allow us to help teachers keep their students learning.”
“I want to thank FamilyAlbum for stepping up and helping us put money in the hands of families who are struggling to get by,” said GiveDirectly CEO Michael Faye.
“We are grateful to FamilyAlbum for supporting our global COVID-19 efforts to keep children and families safe and supported during these unprecedented and challenging times. This donation will allow Save the Children to reach even more children and families around the world made vulnerable by this pandemic,” said Janti Soeripto, President and CEO of Save the Children.
Over the next few months, we’ll be posting more information on our blog about how these organizations are supporting families and children in the community. If you’re interested in learning more about our founder, we invite you to read a short message from him here.
To read our press release about the donation, please click here.