Rising to the Occasion

DEAR FRIENDS,

Over the past two years, we have come together to address some of the most pressing challenges our region has faced, from the COVID-19 pandemic, to Hurricane Ida, to persistent racial inequity. This community has never been one to back down in the face of adversity. Southeast Louisiana knows disaster, and we know how to come out stronger on the other side. This is not to say we accept the crises we face; instead, we fight back, working together each day to build a better region for generations to come.

We are grateful to work with each of you—a group of people who grow more generous in times of scarcity, who give amidst loss, and who are unfailingly thoughtful about how to best share and use your resources. We took targeted, meaningful action to respond to these challenges, and your giving propelled it. We have a pulse on the needs of our community, and you partnered with us to help meet those needs and build a better region for all.

At the very start of the pandemic, we saw how the region’s tourism and hospitality sector—one of our largest industries and the livelihood of so many—was hurting. With your support, we created the Louisiana Service & Hospitality Family Assistance Program to provide critical $1,000 dollar grants to nearly 1,900 families who had been earning a low income even before the pandemic began.

Also with your support, we made grants of over $4 million to more than 100 nonprofits working on the front lines of the pandemic across our region. We invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to support food banks and food pantries, and then partnered with the City of New Orleans in a pioneering effort to leverage these funds by securing $30 million more from FEMA for food security. The city ultimately used those funds to keep local restaurants open and provide over 3 million meals to our community.

Like so many, we were inspired to see millions of Americans come together to decry racial violence and commit to being part of the solution. In our region, we continue to see persistent racial inequities in every measure of well-being and know they are the result of unfair and discriminatory systems. Your support allowed us to create the Greater Together Fund for

Racial Equity, for which we have committed to raising $3 million over three years. Already we have been able to provide nearly $2.5 million to Black-led organizations that work directly to combat institutional racism, eliminate inequitable systems, and close the racial wealth gap.

As Hurricane Ida was approaching, we used our deep experience in disaster recovery to prepare for and respond to the storm. We made our first grants before the storm even made landfall, and we quickly supported grassroots and nonprofit efforts in the hardest-hit regions within days.

We continue to increase our impact. In 2020 and 2021, the Foundation raised nearly $10 million more for our grantmaking each year than we had in 2019. In partnership with our fundholders, we gave out thousands more grants to incredible nonprofits these last two years. Your vision and partnership drives our work, and our board and staff are here to turn that passion into leadership and lasting change. In this report, we share what our leadership has looked like over the past years. Thank you for fueling it.

With gratitude,

ANDY KOPPLIN President & CEO, Greater New Orleans Foundation Doris Z. Stone Chair in Philanthropic Partnership