News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thursday, April 16, 2020: Caribbean-born singer, actress and entrepreneur, Rihanna is no billionaire, unlike the likes of Jeff Bezos. But the Bajan beauty is showing more heart amid the global pandemic that has now claimed over 27,000 lives in the US alone, infected over 2 million globally, left millions without a paycheck and many hungry or battling domestic abuse.
Rihanna, whose net worth is put at some US$600 million, way less than Bezos’ US$122 billion, continued her charitable giving Wednesday amid the COVID-19 devastation.
The singer’s Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) announced she was teaming up with Jay-Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation (SCF) and Twitter/Square CEO Jack Dorsey to issue additional joint grants totaling over $6.2 million that will be dedicated to supporting global COVID-19 rapid response efforts.
The latest funds are earmarked to go towards protecting and serving marginalized populations in the United States, with a focus on New York, New Orleans and Puerto Rico as well as international communities.
Internationally, the grants will help Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Direct Relief and Team Humanity.
Domestically, the grants will benefit foundations such as Give Directly, Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, Covenant House New Orleans, World Central Kitchen, Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans & Acadiana, Total Community Action and The Hispanic Federation.
The announcement comes less than a week after Rihanna and Dorsey unveiled a joint $4.2 million grant to the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, helping domestic violence victims in the city amid the COVID-19 “stay at home” order. The donation will “provide 10 weeks of support including shelter, meals, and counseling for individuals and their children suffering from domestic violence at a time when shelters are full, and incidents are on the rise.”
Additionally, CLF and SCF announced $2 million in grants to coronavirus response efforts in New York City and Los Angeles.
And in March, SCF alone donated $5 million to various organizations assisting with coronavirus relief efforts. That money went to Direct Relief, Feeding America, Partners in Health, The World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and the International Rescue Committee, among others. Some $700 of the funds were earmarked for to buy ventilators for her native Barbados as well as helping local food banks, accelerating testing in countries like Haiti and Malawi, protective equipment for frontline health workers and to help protect Native communities by providing them with resources to fight the virus.
Her charity work has her so focused that she even snapped at fans during a livestream on Instagram last Friday after many kept asking about her ninth album. Rihanna snapped: “If one of y’all motherf—ers asks me about the album one more time when I’m trying to save the world, unlike y’all president…”
Rihanna started the Clara Lionel Foundation in 2012. The nonprofit organization, named in honor of her grandparents, funds education and emergency response programs around the world.
