(LOS ANGELES) June 27, 2016– The board of directors of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced today that it approved $22.9 million in grants during the second quarter of 2016.

Among the funds approved was the Foundation’s third-largest grant in its history—$15.3 million over four years to Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania to expand the Higher Education for Sisters in Africa (HESA) Initiative, a program of the African Sisters Education Collaborative. As a result of this program, 858 sisters in ten countries will receive support to acquire higher education credentials, including baccalaureate and master degrees, both through online distance learning and onsite in Africa.

Grants in the second quarter of 2016 were awarded to 13 organizations spanning across the Hilton Foundation’s priority areas, including organizations serving the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people both in the U.S. and internationally.

“We are thrilled to be announcing an additional $23 million in funds to organizations serving some of the most marginalized populations in the world,” said Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Hilton Foundation. “Having surpassed $20 million in grants during the first quarter, we are pleased to have granted a total of $43 million in grants thus far in 2016.”

Following is an overview of all grants awarded in the second quarter of 2016:

Foster Youth – New Yorkers for Children was granted $1.145 million to implement the Home Away from Home initiative to improve the capacity of foster care agencies in New York City to recruit, retain and support foster parents to enhance the well-being of older youth in foster care. Additionally, Westat, Inc. was awarded $400,000 to serve as the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning partner to the Foster Youth initiative strategy.

Multiple Sclerosis – The National Multiple Sclerosis Society Southern California & Nevada Chapter was awarded $1.35 million for continuing support of the flagship Marilyn Hilton MS Achievement Center at UCLA. The board also approved a grant in the amount of $750,000 to Mercy Foundation for continued support of the MS Achievement Center serving the Sacramento and Northern California region.

Catholic Sisters – In addition to the $15.3 million grant to Marywood University, the Foundation also awarded $525,000 to the Healey International Relief Foundation, Inc. to support the education and professional development of Catholic sisters in Sierra Leone, West Africa to administer a pharmaceutical social enterprise. The School Sisters of Notre Dame were awarded a grant of $225,000 to strengthen advocacy efforts of religious congregations at the United Nations.

Hospitality – The Cowen Institute at Tulane University was granted $350,000 to support the development of hospitality career pathways for opportunity youth in New Orleans. Jobs for the Future will receive $500,000 to undertake research, policy analysis, and technical assistance for New Orleans to strengthen and build awareness of career pathways in the hospitality industry.

Catholic Schools – The Archdiocese of Los Angeles was awarded $1.5 million to support the development and implementation of a Dual Language Immersion (DLI) network of schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Children Affected by HIV and AIDS – A grant in the amount of $250,000 was awarded to CARE to use implementation science to evaluate strategies to meet the needs of vulnerable young children in Mozambique, and the board approved a $218,000 grant to Human Sciences Research Council for the development of standardized best practices for scaling early childhood development programming.

Additionally, a grant in the amount of $400,000 was awarded to Social Science Research Council to support Measure of America’s new report, A Portrait of Los Angeles County, and to plan the creation of interactive tools and a platform to track and operationalize the domestic application of the Sustainable Development Goals.

For more detailed information on our grantmaking, please visit our Grants page.