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Family's $50 Million Gift Becomes Largest Donation in Americares History
ReFamily's $50 Million Gift Becomes Largest Donation in Americares History
Americares, a global health nonprofit, announced a $50 million donation from an anonymous Connecticut family, its largest ever. The gift arrives amid widespread U.S. aid cuts and will fund medical supply distribution and the organization's endowment.
Americares, a nonprofit that supports thousands of health centers worldwide, announced Wednesday that it has received a $50 million gift from an unidentified Connecticut family, marking the largest donation in the organization's history. The contribution comes at a time when sudden cuts to U.S. foreign aid have disrupted health programs across the globe, from maternal and child health services to HIV treatment and prevention.
Christine Squires, president and CEO of Americares, said the donors were acutely aware of the current climate. "They definitely understood the moment and wanted to do more to respond to that," she said. The family has been involved with Americares for three decades and is "very savvy" in its understanding of global health, according to Squires.
The donation adds to a growing list of individual philanthropists and private foundations stepping in to fill gaps left by the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development over the past 18 months. A British billionaire has funded nutritional peanut paste production, former USAID employees have raised more than $125 million for critical aid programs, and the Gates Foundation has narrowed its priorities to focus on global health. Jeff Bezos' parents committed up to $500 million last March to UNICEF's Child Nutrition Fund.
Susan Appe, a professor of public administration and policy at the University at Albany who researches how nonprofits respond to donor-country policy shifts, noted that global health has attracted much of the attention from large donors. That focus is reasonable, she said, considering "lives are on the line." Still, experts agree that high-net-worth donors cannot fully replace the billions of dollars cut from U.S. global health spending. "I think that a lot of philanthropy scholars like myself have been a bit disappointed with the lag of response," Appe said. "It's kind of, to some degree, business as usual."
Americares felt the impact of the funding cuts directly. Squires said the organization had received about 10% of its funding from the U.S. government before the cuts. Among the programs that lost support last year was a maternal care project in Tanzania. Colombian medical clinics serving Venezuelan migrants closed after private funders sustained them for only a few months. A planned five-year collaboration to build a more robust medical supply chain across Gaza was also scrapped.
Squires considers Americares fortunate to have a diversified funding base, now receiving support entirely from individual donors, corporations, and private foundations. That financial stability is crucial as the group responds to more than 20 emergencies, including the Nepal floods and the Congo's Ebola outbreak.
Half of the new $50 million gift will support Americares' goal of helping 100 million people access quality healthcare by 2030. The funds will be used to provide additional medical supplies to its network of more than 4,000 health centers, with a focus on countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and Latin America that lack adequate funding and awareness. Americares also plans to increase support for U.S. health centers in states where more residents are expected to lack health insurance. The other half of the donation will go toward the organization's endowment.
Squires hopes the record donation will inspire others to give. Investments of that size demonstrate "there are people who trust" in Americares and the humanitarian sector overall, she said. "It's not only up to individuals," she added. "However, individuals who have the means, who have the passion and can invest like this, will help to bring others along. So, I'm excited and hopeful that this will spark more giving across the board."
