C-19 Impact Initiative logo

Nicholas Kristof Impact Initiatives

Thank you to all donors who have contributed to Nicholas Kristof’s C-19 Impact Initiative, which awarded an astounding $7,000,000+ to five nonprofit organizations fighting on the frontlines of COVID-19. Donations through this web page are now closed, but you can still read Nick Kristof’s special 2020 column and support individual honorees by following the “Learn More” links below. 

Donation Opportunities

Catalyst Kitchens by FareStart

Catalyst Kitchens

FareStart is a James Beard Award-winning nonprofit dedicated to disrupting poverty through food, life skills, and job training. Through its membership network Catalyst Kitchens, FareStart provides resources and support to more than 80 organizations across North America with on-the-job culinary training to help people in homelessness, recovery, or who were formerly incarcerated achieve lasting employment in the foodservice industry and prepare nutritious meals for low-income adults and children in the greater community. Collectively, over 72 million meals have been produced for people in need. Learn more >

Funds raised through the C-19 Impact Initiative were distributed among 36 members of the Catalyst Kitchens (CK) network and its parent FareStart. Between March-June of 2019, CK members produced nearly 3 million meals for their communities across 29 states. Kristof contributions funded over 600,000 of those meals. And as these funds and those of others permitted a surge in meal production, the participating organizations hired out-of-work kitchen staffs, many drawn from the previously low-income populations these programs had trained and helped place in the food service industry—providing good-paying jobs as well as healthy meals, a double win.

International Rescue Committee logo

International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic well-being, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and over 20 U.S. cities. Learn more >

With the funds raised through the C-19 Initiative, the International Rescue Committee was able to ramp up its response to the pandemic and maintain its lifesaving programs in more than 40 countries worldwide. In overcrowded refugee camps, where social distancing is nearly impossible, IRC staff worked around the clock to install hand-washing stations, distribute emergency hygiene kits, and set up triage and virus screening stations. As vulnerable families feel the secondary impacts of the pandemic, teams on the ground are working to combat and respond to spikes in gender-based violence, modify education materials to reach children in their homes, provide cash relief to those most in need, and continually adapt as situations evolve and new crises emerge.

Water For People logo

Water For People

Water For People (WFP) has a proven solution to end the global water and sanitation crisis, which impacts 1 in 3 people around the world who lack access to safe, reliable water, and 1 in 2 who lack a proper toilet. With programs in Africa, Latin America, and India, Water For People creates sustainable water and sanitation systems by bringing together local entrepreneurs, community members, and governments to build, operate, and maintain their own systems so that every family, health clinic, and school has access to safe water and sanitation that will last for generations to come. Learn More >

WFP had originally hoped to bring clean water and toilets to 274 clinics and schools across low-income communities in Latin America, Africa, and India—if it could raise the money. Because of funds raised through the C-19 Impact Initiative, it is now on track to complete 310 sites by the end of the 2020. Each finished project ensures public facilities are better-equipped to contain the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious disease outbreaks in some of the world’s most under-resourced communities. At the end of June, work had already been completed at 94 sites, where 38,208 people now have access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene services for the first time. Thanks to the generosity of Kristof donors, WFP expects to reach more than 85,000 people by the start of 2021.

Save the Children logo

Save the Children

For over 100 years, Save the Children has been giving children in the U.S. and around the world a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn, and protection from harm. As the world’s leading expert on childhood, they know exactly what children in crisis need – and how to deliver it effectively and efficiently. Learn More >

Save the Children’s early learning and education programs support some of the most vulnerable children living in poverty. During the pandemic, while kids are out of school—and in many cases, missing meals they would normally get there—Save the Children is using the funds raised through the C-19 Initiative to help provide them with nutritious food and fun and engaging learning opportunities. The program continues to partner with school districts to prepare and deliver meals, distribute books and educational resources, and quickly adapt its services to help keep children healthy and learning while schools are shuttered. Through the end of June 2019, Save the Children had reached more than 178,000 children with food, learning materials, 1:1 communication, and more.

John Hopkins Center for American Indian Health logo

Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health

Based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health works in partnership with tribal communities across the country to improve the health, self-sufficiency, and health leadership of Native people. Learn More >

Funds donated through the C-19 Impact Initiative are helping the Center continue broad-based COVID-prevention efforts in tribal communities across the U.S. Many families who lack running water (40% on the Navajo reservation), electricity, refrigeration, or basic amenities like nearby grocery stores are suffering profoundly while trying to obey “shelter at home” orders and isolated quarantine. The Center has been delivering to them truckloads of drinking water, nutritious food, cleaning supplies, sanitizers, cloth masks (made by Center staff) and an array of home health products–and is now working to build and distribute hundreds of low-cost portable handwashing stations to households in need.

Focusing Philanthropy Logo

Focusing Philanthropy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that believes donations should be made with the same level of strategic intent, information, and confidence as other investments. The organization targets serious human challenges that individual donors can successfully address, chooses tactics that are demonstrably effective, identifies confidence-inspiring implementing partners, conducts ongoing monitoring, and assures substantive reporting. These services are provided free to both donors and partners in an effort to scale interventions that work. Donations are fully tax deductible, and Focusing Philanthropy covers all administrative costs and replenishes credit card transaction fees so that 100% of funds contributed go to implementing partners.