#Merky Foundation, the charitable organisation set up by award-winning musician Stormzy, has pledged £500,000 to The Black Heart Foundation’s ‘Each Day. Every Day’ campaign. The Black Heart Foundation will be the first UK charity to receive funding from #Merky Foundation’s £10m fund to tackle racial inequality and injustice, announced in June this year.
The ‘Each Day. Every Day’ campaign was launched by The Black Heart Foundation on 8 July 8 2020, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Its goal was to raise £500,000 from friends, supporters and the general public, to double the number of young people from under-resourced and under-represented communities it has helped to date through its Black Heart Scholarship Programme, taking it from 100 to 200 scholars.
Stormzy’s donation will take the total amount raised to date to over £1.45 million, including £500,000 of match funding from the Board of the Black Heart Foundation in response to the money raised both on Just Giving and through offline donations. The Black Heart Foundation has a 100% pass-through rate policy, with all of its overhead expenses covered by its Board, so that every single pound raised means more scholarships and goes directly to young people.
Ric Lewis, Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Black Heart Foundation, said:
‘We are grateful to #Merky Foundation and invigorated by their generosity. Their contribution is an amazing testament to their vision and commitment to higher and further education for ambitious, hard-working young people from the most under-resourced and under-represented communities in our society. With their support we will reach another 50 young people, taking the total number of Scholars we can help to 250.’
A spokesperson for the #Merky Foundation said:
‘The Black Heart Foundation is an incredible charity and we are proud to make them the first beneficiary to receive funding from our £10 million-pound pledge, announced earlier this year. Their ‘Each Day. Every Day’ campaign is a brilliant initiative and we are elated that our £500,000 donation has played a key part in helping them achieve their target. We encourage others to donate whatever they can to help change a young person’s life.’
Visit The Black Heart Foundation’s JustGiving page here.
