NEW YORK (AP):
Rihanna is no stranger to defying convention. The nine-time Grammy winner has turned a string of hits, including Umbrella and Work, into a business empire valued at $1.4 billion, earning her a spot on last year’s Forbes list of the richest self-made American women. The Barbados native made waves at the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show with a stunning pregnancy reveal. Her Fenty Beauty cosmetics brand also revolutionised the make-up industry with its inclusive range of shades.
However, it’s not her long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Anti album that’s set to make waves this year – it’s her philanthropy.
Named after Rihanna’s grandparents and funded partially through her brands, the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) is coming off a “refresh” that is poised to direct more funds toward climate solutions and women’s entrepreneurship in the under-invested regions of east Africa, the Caribbean and the US south. After 13 years of relative anonymity, the non-profit is ready for more visibility.
“Our founder is a woman from a small island nation who’s got global reach. She’s an entrepreneur. She’s a mom. She’s a creative,” said Executive Director Jessie Schutt-Aine. “So, we want an organisation that reflects that spirit and that energy. She’s bold and she’s ambitious. She’s innovative. She always does things different. She’s a game changer.”
Experts say it’s rare to see such intentionality among famous philanthropists. Clara Lionel Foundation has also garnered praise for its embrace of “trust-based” giving, which empowers recipients with unrestricted funding.
NDN Collective founder Nick Tilsen said CLF lets his Indigenous power-building non-profit “do the work on our terms”, that other funders should take notes.
“They’re not a foundation that’s all up in your business, either,” Tilsen said. “They support. They see the work. They allow us to do what we need to do.”
Rihanna founded the foundation with a US$516,000 donation after her grandmother died from cancer complications in 2012. She also established an oncology centre at Barbados’ main hospital to improve cancer screening and treatment. For much of the last decade, the foundation focused on healthcare and Barbados.
By 2019, CLF shifted to prioritise emergency preparedness. Grantmaking surged to over US$33 million in 2020 for pandemic relief and racial justice efforts. Post-pandemic spending slowdowns aligned with an internal transition, according to tax filings.
Now, a revamped team and new priorities reflect its broader goals. A new director for women’s entrepreneurship will develop relevant programmes, while Amina Doherty oversees programmes and impact. The foundation’s five pillars are climate solutions, arts and culture, health access and equity, women’s entrepreneurship, and future generations.
YOUTH FOCUS
The youth focus was commended by Ashley Lashley, a 25-year-old whose foundation has worked with CLF to address environmental challenges in her native Barbados. She often hears leaders say that ‘youth are the future’, she said, but those statements rarely translate into actual support.
“Rihanna’s foundation is a prime example of how women in power can help contribute to work that is being done at the community level,” Lashley said.
Rihanna told The Associated Press she hoped CLF will continue to be a force for “global inclusion in philanthropy”.
She reflected on the foundation’s 13-year transformation in a statement: “Today we have global reach, but that notion of love for community and for our roots runs deep in the DNA of the foundation.”
The latest example of that evolution is a partnership with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Barbados’ “invaluable history” as “an essential chapter in the broader story of the African diaspora” is threatened by climate change, according to a Mellon press release.
Together, the two foundations announced, they will fund “artist-led initiatives” to protect that culture “while inspiring new narratives and opportunities internationally.”
Schutt-Aine views the partnership with Mellon – the largest philanthropic supporter of the arts in the US – as a milestone for CLF. Justin Garrett Moore, the director of the Mellon’s Humanities in Place programme, said the non-profit’s name arose when his team asked contacts to recommend partners.
“We think there is an incredible platform that Clara Lionel Foundation has, with their founder, to bring this type of work into a legibility and visibility for the organisations that will be supported,” Moore said. “Also, just generally in the society, to help amplify the power of the arts.”
Among those grantees is a developmental performance arts programme that also provides free social services to students in the nation’s capital of Bridgetown. Operation Triple Threat founder Janelle Headley said Clara Lionel Foundation helped the non-profit afford a warehouse outfitted with acoustics panels, sound equipment and a dance floor.
