OVERVIEW: The Clara Lionel Foundation supports climate resilience, disaster relief, racial justice, global health, immigrants and refugees, and other issues of interest to the founder in the U.S., the Caribbean and other countries around the world, particularly in Africa.
IP TAKE: While climate change and natural disaster preparedness remain the foundation’s top funding priorities, Clara Lionel’s grantmaking interests are broader and more expansive than what it lists as its funding priorities. Grantseekers serving women and girls, and other underrepresented populations in the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and the U.S., may find opportunities for support available beyond the foundation’s stated interests.
Clara Lionel is not accessible or particularly transparent, but it does provide a way for organizations to introduce themselves. It’s website is also limited in information on strategies. Networking is probably the clearest path forward here, but established and scalable organizations have the best chance at funding. It is also important to note that, while this funder makes grants on its own, it frequently partners with Jack Dorsey’s #StartSmall to maximize support. Grantseekers may want to keep this in mind when making their elevator pitch.
PROFILE: Established in 2012, the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) is a private foundation that Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty created in honor of her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. Best known for songs like “Umbrella,” “Only Girl (in the World),” and “Work,” Rihanna is the world’s richest female musician according to Forbes. She also created Fenty Beauty and became the first woman of color to sign a deal with LVMH, the French luxury goods giant. She became a global ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education in 2016.
The Clara Lionel Foundation works to shift “how the world responds to inequity and injustice” by supporting climate resilience and justice projects in the U.S. and Caribbean. It also advocates for policy and systems change to improve the quality of life for global communities. CLF raises millions of dollars to address injustices and then funds programs and projects through its grantmaking. Foundation partners are located in over 20 countries around the world. Climate resilience grants focus on the impacts of natural disasters, while justice grants mostly address climate justice issues. Legacy projects include various topics of interest, such as racial justice and refugee crises. The Clara Lionel Foundation frequently partners with Jack Dorsey’s #StartSmall to maximize its support.
Grants for Disaster Relief, Environment, and Climate Change
Clara Lionel’s stated funding priority centers Climate Resilience, including natural disaster preparedness and response, and Climate Justice. In response to natural disasters, CLF funds the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) in Malawi, which gives girls school supplies, uniforms and financial support so they can stay in school while their families recover from disasters. Clara Lionel’s climate grantees include Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, Climate Justice Alliance, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and Girls CARE, “a feminist climate activist movement that aims to create a space that empowers young women to advocate for gender justice in climate action and safeguard the economic, social and environmental rights of women in adaptation and resilience-building efforts nationally.” Funding for these groups is done in partnership with Dorsey’s #StartSmall.
Grants for Violence Prevention and Criminal Justice Reform
Rihanna also recently teamed up with Jack Dorsey to provide $4.2 million to victims of domestic violence impacted by the COVID-19 lockdowns. The money was directed to the Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund, focusing on L.A.'s overcrowded shelters. Rihanna and Dorsey also partnered to “give $11 million to 12 organizations leading on the work to divest from policing and fighting for criminal justice reform.” Most recently, CLF, again in collaboration with Dorsey’s #StartSmall, donated $3 million to support grassroots organizations working in, and led by, the AAPI community.
Grants for K-12 Education, Women and Girls
Education grantmaking is frequently international and often focused on women and girls. This focus area tends to be broad and developed according to it’s founder’s interests. Clara Lionel has supported organizations In Malawi, Barbados and Senegal, where the foundation helps girls pay for and access education. The foundation also runs the Clara Lionel Foundation Global Scholarship Program, giving education-related micro-grants, constructs classrooms and trains graduates as HIV testers, among other programs.
Grants for Global and Public Health
Health grantmaking generally focuses on cancer, pediatrics, and other medical programs in Barbados. Rihanna established The Clara Braithwaite Center for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, which bears the name of her grandmother, who had cancer.
CLF donated $5 million to multiple organizations around the world fighting the coronavirus pandemic, including Partners in Health, Direct Relief, Feeding America, the International Rescue Committee, the World Health Organization and her native country of Barbados. Rihanna donated an undisclosed supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the state of New York.
While health grantmaking tends to prioritize organizations based in or serving Barbados, this is not a hard and fast rule.
Grants for Racial Justice, Immigrants and Refugees, and Global Development
Grants in this focus area are conducted through a racial equity lens and tend to focus on women and LGBTQ people of color. Many of the grantees concentrate in Barbados, but many others are located all over the world.
Past grantees in the racial justice space include Caribbean Youth Environment Network, Black Feminist Fund, which serves “as the first global hub for Black feminist philanthropy and [is] led by activists from across the African and Caribbean diaspora,” and Black Visions Collective, which is “a Black-led, Queer and Trans centering organization whose mission is to organize powerful, connected, Black communities and dismantle systems of violence.” As with many of the foundation’s grantees, these organizations received funding from Clara Lionel in partnership with Dorsey’s #startsmall.
Important Grant Details:
Past grants have run from $5,000 up into the millions; however, $25,000 is the most common grant amount. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding; however, it does provide a way for organizations interested in partnering with CLF to introduce themselves via a submission box near the bottom of the Partners page.
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