OVERVIEW: The Clara Lionel Foundation supports climate solutions, global health and access, arts and culture, women’s economic development and education. The Caribbean is a geographic priority.
IP TAKE: The Clara Lionel Foundation was founded by the singer Rihanna and was named for her grandparents. This funder conducts all its giving through an equity lens, prioritizing marginalized and underserved communities, especially in the Caribbean. The foundation revamped its giving strategy in 2024, broadening its scope. Clara Lionel does not currently accept applications, but you can sign up for the newsletter to keep up with emerging opportunities.
PROFILE: Established in 2012, the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) is a private foundation that Robyn “Rihanna” Fenty created in honor of her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. Best known for songs like “Umbrella,” “Only Girl (in the World),” and “Work,” Rihanna is the world’s richest female musician, according to Forbes. She also created Fenty Beauty and became the first woman of color to sign a deal with LVMH, the French luxury goods giant. Rihanna became a global ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education in 2016.
The Clara Lionel Foundation works to “build thriving & resilient communities by equipping community innovators to lead change. It also advocates for policy and systems change to improve the quality of life for global communities.” The foundation names four “pillars” that guide its giving: climate solutions, arts and culture, women’s entrepreneurship, health access and equity, and future generations. Foundation partners are located in over 20 countries around the world, but the Caribbean is an area of priority. Stateside, California and New York are areas of priority.
Grants for Climate Change and Disaster Relief
The foundation’s Climate Solutions grantmaking area has been its largest over the years, focusing on support for “solutions that help communities withstand its effects and ensure those most impacted by climate change are empowered to lead.” Similarly, the Climate Resilience Initiative is focused on climate-related disaster preparedness and “climate adaptation of health, shelter and communication projects across the Caribbean.” Rihanna is from the island nation of Barbados, and giving prioritizes “islands and regions vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” especially in the Caribbean, where the foundation has supported disaster relief efforts following major hurricanes.
- Clara Lionel’s climate grantees include Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, Climate Justice Alliance, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and Girls CARE, “a feminist climate activist movement.”
- Funding for these groups is often conducted in partnership with Dorsey’s #StartSmall.
Grants for Global Health and Access
The health access and equity giving area accounts for a significant portion of this funder’s overall giving. Prioritizing Barbados and other Caribbean islands, grants support “innovations that advance universal health and equity.” Community health initiatives, Indigenous health access and programs that “preserve traditional medicine and cultural practices” are prominent among the foundation’s grantees in this area.
- Rihanna established The Clara Braithwaite Center for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, which bears the name of her grandmother.
- Other health grantees include Health Equity International, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Project Medishare for Haiti and the Keep a Breast Foundation.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Clara Lionel’s arts and culture giving program is a newer area of focus and names multiple areas of interest, including cultural preservation, community engagement, organizational sustainability and “innovative climate solutions through arts practices.”
- An early grant has supported Black Trans Femmes in the Arts, a Brooklyn-based collective that aims to “create spaces for the production and preservation of Black trans art and culture” though funding and community building.
- It has also partnered with the Mellon Foundation on The Ripple Effect, an initiative focused on expanding access to arts and culture in Barbados and the Caribbean, as well as “amplifying Caribbean voices on a global stage.”
Grants for Women and Girls, Work and Opportunity
The foundation recently named women’s entrepreneurship as a giving priority.
- The foundation maintains that “elevating women elevates communities and entire economies” and centers its giving on initiatives that support small business and social enterprise development.
- Early giving from this program has gone to the Global Fund for Women and LEAP, Inc., a New York City workforce education provider.
Grants for Education
Education grantmaking stems from the foundation’s future generations initiative, which focuses on “leveling the playing field for the rising generations who will be our future.” Areas of interest include closing the digital divide, improving teaching and learning in underserved communities and programs that “support youth and ensure their voices are heard.”
- Clara Lionel has supported organizations in Malawi, Barbados and Senegal, where the foundation helps vulnerable girls pay for and access education.
- The foundation also runs the Clara Lionel Foundation Barbados Scholarship Program, giving education-related micro-grants, constructs classrooms and trains graduates as HIV testers, among other programs.
- Additional funding has gone to the TakeAction Minnesota Education Fund, the Regents of the University of California, New York’s Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and the Fund for Public Schools in New York City.
Important Grant Details:
Clara Lionel’s grants range from about $10,000 to $1 million, but the most common amount is around $100,000. The foundation awards close to $5 million annually and holds $52 million in assets.
- More than half of this funder’s grantmaking supports undisclosed organizations in the Caribbean, Central America, Africa and Asia. The Caribbean emerges as the foundation’s top geographic focus.
- Grantmaking across all stated funding areas is conducted through an equity lens.
- The Clara Lionel Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.
- Email general inquiries to the foundation at info@claralionelfoundation.org. Clara Lionel’s phone number is listed as (212) 202-3230. Social media accounts are linked to the bottom of the website.
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