Rihanna, Google, and the Schusterman Family Donate $100 Million To Consumers Impacted By Coronavirus

Rihanna is the queen of coronavirus relief efforts! Once again, the singer has pooled her resources to join another cause to help people who have been hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak. She joins forces with internet giant Google and the Schusterman Family Foundation to donate $100 million in another charitable effort according to Forbes.

Google, Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation, and the Schusterman Family Foundation (a charity started by the late oil magnate Charles Schusterman and his wife Lynn) are giving cash to the consumers who have been hit the hardest from the coronavirus. The three organizations are putting their funds behind GiveDirectly‘s Project 100. GiveDirectly is the “first and largest nonprofit that lets donors send money directly to the world’s poorest.” GiveDirectly started a drive that started last month to send $1,000 to 100,000 Americans.

GiveDirectly, a New York nonprofit was started by 39-year-old entrepreneur Michael Faye. Faye learned that giving cash directly to people, is the best way to help the extreme poor. “Cash recognizes that one size doesn’t fit all,” he says. “The extreme poor have excruciatingly difficult choices to make. Do I send my daughter to secondary school or feed my newborn?” Donors do not know anything about the recipients’ lives, so cash helps them most, he says.

“We’re glad we’ve been able to operationalize so quickly,” Faye tells Forbes. “This week we’ll move more than $10 million, which is essentially the money we raised last week.” Recipients can receive their money through direct deposit into a bank account, paper check, PayPal, Venmo, or pick up at a MoneyGram location.

Aside from GiveDirectly’s Project 100 rive, the organization is sending millions of dollars to many consumers in countries like Kenya, Uganda, and Morocco. Countries and regions that have been financially affected by the coronavirus. Every dollar goes a lot further in these countries, so in Kenya, GiveDirectly is giving people in Nairobi slums $28 a month for 3 months. It aims to reach up to 200,000 people. GiveDirectly is trying to raise an additional $100 million for its Africa relief effort as the coronavirus spreads there.