Craigslist Founder Is Donating $10 Million to Fight U.S. Hunger Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist Inc., is donating $10 million to hunger-related charities. It comes as the problem of feeding Americans is growing exponentially worse.

So far, Newmark has donated $3 million to six grantees, including DC Central Kitchen, FareStart, and Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. “I realized that with the pandemic, a large number of people are going to bed hungry—and frankly, that set me off,” said Newmark via a phone interview.

Craig Newmark Philanthropies has already donated over $200 million to charitable causes, particularly efforts supporting journalism.

The donations come at a critical time. The country faces a potential shortage of 8 billion charitable meals, according to the nonprofit Feeding America, another of Newmark’s designated charities. Feeding America estimates that there could be 54 million people needing food in the U.S., up from 37 million before the Covid-19 pandemic.

World Central Kitchen, an international emergency food relief organization founded by activist chef José Andrés that has served over 30 million meals since the pandemic began, is also on Markham’s list. Chief Executive Officer Nate Mook says the help isn’t just monetary.

“Typically in the nonprofit space, you don’t have a lot of direct collaboration. Everyone is fighting for the same dollars,” says Mook. “Craig says: ‘Throw that out.’ He comes in and gets on the Zoom calls and shakes things up.”

Newmark has also encouraged the organizations to collaborate better by leveraging various strengths: One might excel at lobbying, for instance, another at bringing food directly to neighborhoods.

Mook also calls out the critical timing of Newmark’s donation. WCK gets almost 70% of its funds from individual donations. Although the early months of the pandemic brought an increase in contributions, “the reality is, you can only sustain that type of increased giving for so long. There’s fatigue and other concerns, like the election,” says Mook. “More recently, we have seen a drastic reduction in giving.”

Since the start of the pandemic, other high-profile donors have given money to try to fight the hunger crisis. In April, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos donated $100 million to Feeding America. Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey has given more than $1 million to various hunger organizations, including Newark Working Kitchens.

“Due to the pandemic, the need for food assistance across the country has increased dramatically,” says Casey Marsh, Feeding America’s chief development officer. “We are grateful that Craig Newmark is steering his resources to provide local communities the opportunity to help fight hunger and challenging others to do the same.”

David Ludwigson, vice president at God’s Love We Deliver calls Newmark “our favorite kind of philanthropist. He does his research and quickly makes grants. We’re thrilled that he is making hunger and nutrition a top philanthropic priority. We’re excited to be working with this new coalition that Craig has brought together.” 

Says Newmark: “I can call on people with serious money to help out—to get people fed in the here and now, to get surplus food to people who need it. It’s incumbent on those people who are doing big deal e-commerce and know how to get product from one place to another to help people in need.”

“We’re moving at a rapid pace, especially for a foundation,” he adds. “I’m in over my head, but I was in over my head when I started Craigslist. I persevere and get things done.”

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