Booz Allen Foundation Doubles Down on COVID-19 Aid

During fiscal year 2021, Booz Allen’s commitment to supporting communities through corporate giving and employee volunteering has earned the firm No. 3 and No. 13 rankings, respectively, in the Washington Business Journal’s annual year-end lists for large corporations. Along with the firm, the Booz Allen Foundation also showed up in a big way by issuing a second round of funding for select Innovation Fund winners. 

But Booz Allen isn’t resting on its laurels, even during the holiday season. Efforts for 2022 are already underway as five Booz Allen Foundation Innovation Fund grantees receive a second round of funding. 

Launched in April 2020, the Booz Allen Foundation’s Innovation Fund supported the development of creative solutions that addressed the wide-ranging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

During 2020, the initiative selected 21 grantees from nearly 3,000 applications from all 50 states, four U.S. territories, and Washington, DC, and awarded nearly $1 million. 

In 2021, the Innovation Fund invited select grantees to apply for a second round of funding. 

The following five programs demonstrated continued progress and need and showed alignment to the Booz Allen Foundation mission: To empower people to use technology and innovation to break cycles of structural inequality and build generational resilience. 

• The Minority Psychology Network’s Mobile Mental Health Unit and app is bringing culturally competent mental health care directly to underserved communities in the neighborhoods they live in, connecting them to services, helping them navigate a complex system, and helping build resilience amid COVID-19. 
• The Coding Lab Accelerator: COVID-19 Challenge by the Coleman A. Young II Educational Foundation challenges teens to use a series of innovative design solutions to leverage technology to address a crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the incubator model, high school students form start-ups that use technology to solve a real-world problem. 
  
• Educational Alliance launched Community P.A.C.T. (Public Advisors Contact Tracing), an initiative to train and place out-of-work New York City residents and support COVID-19 contact tracing efforts in New York City and state. 
  
• The Caretaker Project by the Filipino Young Leaders Program fills in the gaps in services to the most vulnerable in the Filipino community. It’s a virtual help desk service that connects Filipinos to vital services (legal, wellness), debunks misinformation and warns against fraud and scams, and improves the collection of community data. 
  
• The Art of Us by the Met Cares Foundation is an innovative, community-centered project blending art and social and emotional learning to allow middle school students throughout North Tulsa, Oklahoma, the opportunity to be agents of change within their community. 
  

“Our team at the Booz Allen Foundation strives to empower people to develop innovative technologies and solutions that help vulnerable populations build generational resilience,” said Christine Hoisington, head of Booz Allen’s Community Impact and Philanthropy Team and Executive Director of the Booz Allen Foundation. “The Innovation Fund is bringing our mission to life during an unprecedented crisis.”

Read more about community impact and philanthropy at Booz Allen.