The Citi Foundation has announced the inaugural recipients of its Global Innovation Challenge, an initiative dedicated to identifying and providing philanthropic support to community organizations that are developing innovative solutions to social and economic challenges facing low-income communities.

The foundation announced that a total of $25 million was awarded to 50 community organizations working to improve food security and strengthen the financial health of low-income families and communities around the world. Funding will support programming across four key areas: food access, availability, affordability, and community resilience.

Recipients include the Hunger Project, which is working to scale its effort to engage Indigenous women in southern Mexico in leadership and entrepreneurship technical training to create community-led food businesses; Concern Worldwide, which is providing business training, expanding access to markets and investors, delivering nutrition education, and supporting urban gardening for small-scale food vendors, especially women and youth, in Nairobi, Kenya; and the Global FoodBanking Network, which is expanding its technical support, mentoring, and delivery of financial resources to newly established food banks worldwide that are supporting communities struggling with poverty and food insecurity.

“Philanthropic capital plays a critical role in the marketplace of social solutions, and the Citi Foundation’s Global Innovation Challenge is designed to help new ideas grow and scale,” said Citi Foundation president and head of Citi Community Investing & Development Brandee McHale. “From providing immediate relief to those in crisis to longer-term interventions, the organizations that make up our first-ever Global Innovation Challenge cohort are delivering life-changing solutions that strengthen the health of low-income communities.”

For a complete list of recipients, see the Citi Foundation website. 

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Solstock)