(LOS ANGELES) Dec. 15, 2016– The board of directors of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced today that it approved 27 grants totaling $35.7 million during the fourth quarter of 2016, which brings the amount of grants awarded for 2016 to more than $111 million, which surpasses the amount of grants awarded in 2015. The Foundation also approved a new strategic approach for the Hilton Foundation’s Children Affected by HIV and AIDS program area, which will officially commence on January 1, 2017.

Over the past year, the Foundation has been working to reflect on lessons learned together with partners and stakeholders in order to make modifications to its grantmaking strategy for the Children Affected by HIV and AIDS Strategic Initiative. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were used as a guiding framework and determined how best to contribute the Foundation’s relatively limited philanthropic dollars to this ambitious call to action.

Over the next five years, the Foundation’s Young Children Affected by HIV and AIDS program area will field test approaches to delivering effective, quality programming that has the potential to improve developmental outcomes for young children (0-5 years) affected by HIV and AIDS in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. The objectives will be to:

  • Strengthen program approaches to improve caregiving and early learning opportunities;
  • Strengthen civil society networks and government systems; and
  • Build and disseminate evidence to improve practice and policy.

“We are pleased to end the year with an announcement of $35.7 million in funds to organizations all over the world,” said Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Hilton Foundation. “We are confident that the new strategy for our Children Affected by HIV and AIDS program area will strengthen the work of our partners with the ultimate goal of improving developmental outcomes for all young children affected by HIV and AIDS in five key countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.”

Grants in the fourth quarter of 2016 were awarded to a total of 27 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.

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

Children Affected by HIV and AIDS – Aga Khan Foundation USA was awarded $1.5 million to build capacity of the early childhood development workforce in high HIV prevalence communities East and Southern Africa, while Alliance for Open Society International Inc. was awarded $500,000 to support the Global Partnership for Education’s efforts to establish the Better Early Learning and Development at Scale Initiative. Finally, Catholic Relief Services was given a grant in the amount of $400,000 for planning a phase two program to strengthen the ability of Catholic Sisters to meet the developmental needs of children affected by HIV and AIDS.

Safe Water – $3 million was awarded to Water for People to implement the model of Everyone Forever for sustainable water services in Kamwenge District of Uganda. $1 million was granted to IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre to create the foundation for an ambitious learning and collective action initiative that will catalyze development of SDG 6 in Burkina Faso, Niger and Uganda. Stanford University received a grant in the amount of $435,000 to facilitate the design of a monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework and theory of change for the Foundation’s Safe Water strategy. Finally, Water.org will receive $200,000 to build the foundation necessary to implement a WaterCredit model in Ghana.

Avoidable Blindness – Three grants were awarded to organizations working towards elimination of trachoma as a public health problem in Mali and Niger. The Carter Center was granted $5.1 million, and $5.975 million was awarded to Helen Keller International for this effort. Sightsavers, Inc. was awarded $650,000 to contribute to the elimination of trachoma in Mali.

Foster Youth – The John Burton Foundation received $600,000 to strengthen the high school to college transition process for foster youth in Los Angeles County. Additionally, the National Center for Youth Law was granted $1.6 million to support the development of a collective impact campaign that will increase access to reproductive and sexual health care, and information to significantly reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies among foster youth in Los Angeles County. Finally, $1 million was awarded to the New York Foundling for educational support for foster youth from eighth grade through college through the Road to Success Program.

Homelessness – Brilliant Corners received a grant in the amount of $1.2 million to support capacity-building and strategic planning to ensure the continued expansion and implementation of Los Angeles County’s Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool. Corporation for Supportive Housing was awarded $3 million to investing the Just In Reach Pay For Success program, a partnership with the Los Angeles County Health Agency to connect frequent users of the homeless system and Los Angeles County Jail with permanent supportive housing. $300,000 was awarded to Housing California to support the development of a coordinated, cross-sector policy effort aimed at increasing state funding for permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals in California.

Substance Use Prevention – School-Based Health Alliance was awarded $1 million to support a second phase of work to implement youth Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in school-based health clinics. The Addiction Medicine Foundation received a grant in the amount of $1 million to continue efforts to increase the number of physicians trained in prevention and early intervention and addiction medicine.

Multiple Sclerosis – The University of California, San Francisco received a grant in the amount of $900,000 to continue development of the Bioscreen, a precision medicine disease management tool for those with Multiple Sclerosis.

Catholic Sisters – The Catholic Volunteer Network was awarded $1.7 million to expand the work of the organization’s From Service to Sisterhood initiative, a program that connects congregations of sisters with lay-women volunteers. $780,000 was granted to Leadership Conference of Women Religious to provide support for the expansion of the Leadership Pathways program to include a focus on the dramatic transitions and transformations that are facing religious life today. A grant in the amount of $500,000 was awarded to the Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters to establish a special fund within the Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters to augment its support of canonical leadership conferences globally. Saint Leo University was granted $420,000 to develop and pilot an online certificate-granting program for SLDI alumnae and other Catholic sisters in Africa. Finally, Catholic Theological Union at Chicago was granted $360,000 to support the development and implementation of a 30-month curriculum designed to prepare and accompany of core team from 25 religious communities to serve as the catalyst and resource to guide their communities through practices around interculturality.

Catholic Education – The Catholic Education Foundation was granted $1 million to support tuition assistance for low-income students attending Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Finally, a grant in the amount of $900,000 was awarded to Casa Pacifica Centers for Children & Families to support the Building New Foundations of Hope capital campaign, and Wild Salmon Center was granted $700,000 to support the North Pacific Salmon Stronghold Initiative ($500,000) and to provide general operating support ($200,000).

For more detailed information on our grantmaking, please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org/grants.