CDP Global Refugee Crisis Fund - Center for Disaster Philanthropy

Private philanthropy has a unique and critical role to play in unfolding refugee crises.

While governments wrangle with the politics and policy surrounding refugees, private funders have the ability to quickly provide help and support to people who are miles from home and arriving with little or no possessions, clothing, or money. This vital support will assist the crisis that has become the defining disaster of this decade. The unprecedented movement of people around the world has created the highest number of displaced persons since World War II.

All grantmaking from this fund is now complete, however, if you are interested in funding to help address the ongoing and ever-expanding challenges presented by international disasters, support our Global Recovery Fund.

(Photo: Freedom House)

This fund supported this disaster:

Global Refugee Crisis

About this Fund

Since its inception in 2015, the CDP Global Refugee Crisis Fund has focused on capacity-building efforts to protect people forcibly displaced within Syria. The fund has been used to strengthen community-based protection initiatives for women and adolescents struggling through the ongoing conflict, as well as programs to improve adolescents’ psychological well-being through leadership training, education services and trauma support. According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, children now make up more than half of the world’s refugees.

Grantmaking timeline

March 2016
August 2017
August 2018
April 2019 – Full fund distribution

Grant committee

The grant committee included:

Committee Chair: Lori J. Bertman, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge- based Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation. Lori is the co-founder and chairman of the board of CDP.

Susan Martin, Donald G. Herzberg Professor Emerita in International Migration with the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (retired)

Kenneth Mack, Managing Partner of Mack Law, PLLC

Tony Pipa, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution

Joe Ruiz, Director, The UPS Foundation’s Humanitarian Relief & Resilience Program and Communications

Julien Schopp, Director of Humanitarian Practice, InterAction

Aryah Somers Landsberger, Director of Programs, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees

Through the CDP Global Refugee Crisis Fund, we awarded grants to four organizations with a focus on improving the lives, livelihoods and overall well-being of women and children in Syria.

See all our grantee partners