The International Rescue Committee partners with select foundations in the United States and around the world to improve safety, health, education, economic security, and self-determination measures for the world’s most vulnerable people. Together, we deliver immediate relief in emergencies and develop lasting change in complex crises to realize a safer, healthier and more prosperous world.
Our key foundation partners include:
The Church of Latter-day Saints
Since 2010, as part of its charitable mission to aid the response to the global refugee crisis, The Church of Latter-day Saints has supported the work of the IRC in Greece, Serbia and the United States, among other locations. In addition to its monetary contributions, the LDS Church has gifted valuable in-kind donations, including a vehicle, furniture, and other substantial materials to help thousands of refugees newly resettled in the United States gain a fresh start. The LDS Church recently expanded its partnership with the IRC to provide financial assistance for 442 refugee families in Greece to purchase food and meet other basic needs through cash assistance cards.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares joined the IRC as a partner in 2015 to improve children’s access to quality primary education in developing countries through our joint Education in Emergencies: Evidence for Action (3EA) initiative. The 3EA initiative will allow Dubai Cares, the IRC, and NYU’s Global Ties for Children (NYU-TIES) to answer urgent questions about effective education programming in emergencies, align research and practice, and contribute to a global knowledge base that advances children’s learning outcomes in crisis-affected contexts. Through carefully designed interventions by the IRC and NYU/TIES in Lebanon, Niger, and Sierra Leone, 3EA will implement and test programs, generate actionable evidence, and share and apply knowledge that strengthens education provided in emergency settings.
Educate A Child
The Education Above All Foundation and the IRC stand united in the belief that children worldwide have a fundamental right to an education. Educate A Child (EAC), a program of the Education Above All Foundation, has partnered with the IRC since 2013 to provide out-of-school children affected by conflict an opportunity to access quality primary education in Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In Ivory Coast, the now completed Save for Schools project removed financial barriers to education for more than 13,000 out-of-school children. Through scholarships and community mobilization in Congo, more than 49,000 out-of-school children have begun attending either formal schools or accelerated learning programs, and are being supported in completing a basic education. This project has exceeded its initial goal of helping 47,750 out-of-school children gain access to an education.
Ford Foundation
Since 1993, the Ford Foundation—dedicated to reducing global poverty and injustice—has worked with the IRC to improve humanitarian responses to crisis. From funding IRC human rights protection services for displaced families in the Balkans; Darfur, Sudan; and Afghanistan to unrestricted operating support, the Ford Foundation’s broad partnership with the IRC strives to address and alleviate social inequalities for the people we serve.
Bainum Family Foundation
The Bainum Family Foundation and the IRC have been working together since 2015 to improve early childhood development outcomes for young children from Eritrea and Somalia who live in Ethiopian refugee camps. The Bainum Family Foundation’s previous and continued support has allowed the IRC to expand our Preschool Healing Classrooms program to reach more than 3,670 children so far. A model previously implemented with Congolese refugees in Burundi and Tanzania, the IRC’s Preschool Healing Classrooms (PHC) program uses a multi-pronged approach to improve young children’s wellbeing and prepare them for academic success in primary school.