Investing in Efforts to Improve Lives Worldwide
Bloomberg Philanthropies supports unique efforts to address issues that fall outside of our core program areas. Like our other areas, these Founder’s Projects emerge from Mike’s personal experiences in business, government, and philanthropy.
Investing in Institutions at the World Trade Center
Elected mayor just weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Mike led New York City through the aftermath, including rebuilding the World Trade Center site and reinvesting in Lower Manhattan. Today, he chairs the boards of two institutions that anchor the site: the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and the Perelman Performing Arts Center.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum bears solemn witness to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993, and has become one of the most visited sites in New York City, with over 60 million visitors to the museum since 2014. It honors thousands of victims and recovery workers and preserves their stories for young people and future generations with no memory of the attacks. In 2022, the Memorial & Museum named Beth Hillman as its new president and CEO.
The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), set to open in September 2023, will be a modern and forward-looking arts center that establishes Lower Manhattan as a cultural destination. It is the last piece in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. Designed with highly flexible and innovative theater spaces, PAC NYC will host a wide array of performances in dance, music, theater, film, media, and chamber opera that give artists new opportunities to create and engage with audiences from around the world. Bill Rauch serves as artistic director, and in 2022, PAC NYC appointed its first executive director, Khady Kamara.
Investing in Women’s Economic Independence
Since 2007, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Women’s Economic Development program has invested in nonprofit partners to connect women to income-generating activities that lead to economic independence. Each woman in the program receives an individualized plan that helps her become self-reliant. Our partners in this work, including Women for Women International, Sustainable Growers, CARE International, and Nest, span a range of focus areas and approaches, and together we are:
- Working with national governments and partners in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania to reach major economic development targets;
- Enrolling women in training programs based on market assessments, and providing them with program plans focused on building their economic independence through vocational training, skills-building, health and wellness education, savings education, and guidance on enrolling children in school; and
- Creating partnerships with nonprofits and the private sector that allow women to connect with sustainable income-generating activities and access international markets.
To date, our investments have enrolled nearly 725,000 women in training programs that help lead to economic independence and indirectly benefit more than 2.8 million children and family members.
Global Reach, Local Impact: Kigali
Spotlight
Women’s Economic Development
Our partnership with Sustainable Growers, which trains women coffee growers in Rwanda, D.R. Congo, and Tanzania to produce specialty coffee and access international markets, was highlighted on the world stage in 2022 as a global best practice program for advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Accelerating the Pace of Black Wealth Accumulation in the U.S.
Our Greenwood Initiative works to accelerate the pace of wealth accumulation for Black individuals and families in the United States and address systemic underinvestment in Black communities.
In 2020, to help address racial health disparities and increase the number of Black doctors, we made a major investment to reduce the burden of debt for more than 975 students at America’s four historically Black medical schools: Meharry Medical College; Howard University College of Medicine; Morehouse School of Medicine; and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Nearly 450 students have now graduated, and we have doubled the percentage of students who graduate without medical school debt and helped increase the number entering primary care residencies, working in public hospitals, and serving underserved communities.
“Growing up, becoming a doctor was something rare in the Black community. I never knew physicians that looked like me, nor did I have family working in the medical field. But, I was always reminded that this needed to change, and I could be a part of that change.”
– Dr. Asanté Quintana
Meharry Medical College Class of 2022
Current Resident in Ophthalmology, Weill Cornell Medicine
Global Reach, Local Impact: Atlanta
We also partnered with Johns Hopkins University to launch the Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative, which aims to support a new, more diverse generation of scholars and researchers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The initiative will permanently support 100 students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to pursue PhDs in STEM at Johns Hopkins. The first cohort enrolled in 2022.
In 2022, the Greenwood Initiative also launched the Black Wealth Data Center and its Racial Wealth Equity Database to tackle the issue of inaccessible and insufficient data on racial wealth disparities. The new database houses more than 35 datasets across five key topics — assets and debt, education, housing, employment, and business ownership — to empower decision-makers with reliable data that can drive policies and programs to advance racial wealth equity.
Strengthening Johns Hopkins University and its Home City
Mike has long been committed to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, where we support a wide range of scholarships, endowed professorships, capital projects, and research. His historic $1.8 billion gift in 2018 made Johns Hopkins need-blind for undergraduates in perpetuity.
His commitment has helped make the Bloomberg School of Public Health a leading force in public health research, and we have also supported the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center, the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, and the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. The interdisciplinary Bloomberg Distinguished Professors program endows 100 professorships that span at least two university schools.
Beyond the JHU campus, Bloomberg Philanthropies supports efforts across Baltimore to strengthen small businesses and expand youth success. Beginning in 2017, we joined Goldman Sachs to expand its 10,000 Small Businesses program to Baltimore, where over 500 entrepreneurs have graduated and now employ more than 7,600 people. One of the 2022 participants was Joni Holifield, a longtime partner who founded nonprofit HeartSmiles to provide leadership development and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people. In partnership with HeartSmiles, Urban Alliance, and 10,000 Small Businesses, we support up to four years of leadership training and mentorship, work opportunities, and college advising for Baltimore high school students.
Many of our programs also work in Baltimore, including our Asphalt Art Initiative, which helped create three installations to improve street safety around a local elementary school.
Spotlight
Johns Hopkins in D.C.
Bloomberg Philanthropies has also supported the creation of Johns Hopkins’ new campus in Washington, D.C., set to open in Fall 2023. The building at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, formerly the Newseum, will be the D.C. home for 11 of the university’s schools, including the School of Advanced International Studies.
Fighting for Common-Sense Gun Safety Reforms
Everytown for Gun Safety is the largest gun violence prevention organization in the United States, with 10 million supporters and a network of over 2,000 current and former mayors, 1,500 gun violence survivors, and 400 Students Demand Action volunteer groups. As mayor, Mike co-founded a coalition called Mayors Against Illegal Guns to advocate for gun safety laws, which merged with the grassroots group Moms Demand Action to form Everytown in 2014.
The organization has advocated for critical state laws and for executive actions. In 2022, Everytown played a key role in passing the first federal gun safety legislation in over 25 years, which enhances background checks, provides funding for states to enforce redflag laws, and cracks down on gun trafficking. Everytown’s “Demand a Seat” program also trained volunteers to run for political office.
Helped elect over
140
140gun safety volunteers to office in 2022
Everytown for Gun Safety played a key role in the passage of the first U.S. federal gun safety legislation in a generation, alongside its efforts to help elect gun safety champions to office. Credit: Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund
Supporting a Public Library in Mike’s Hometown
In Mike’s hometown of Medford, Massachusetts, Bloomberg Philanthropies supported the opening of a new public library, named in honor of his parents. The Charlotte & William Bloomberg Medford Public Library was officially dedicated in June 2022 and contains over 123,000 volumes, vibrant art, community spaces, and more.
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Founder’s Projects
Top photo: The 9/11 Memorial & Museum (foreground) and the Perelman Performing Arts Center (back center) are central to the World Trade Center site.