Robin Hood Launches $1 Billion Endowment Campaign to Secure Its Long-Term Critical Mission of Fighting Poverty and Helping NYC’s Most Vulnerable Overcome Daily Challenges; Benefit Raises $73 Million to Support Annual Grantmaking

Robin Hood’s Campaign for the Future – Endowing the Fight Against Poverty, is anchored by a transformational gift from the Bezos family, establishing the Jackie Bezos Endowment for Early Childhood

P!NK, The Lumineers, and Pete Davidson perform at the Javits Center, joining prominent supporters across business, entertainment, media, and nonprofit in a night championing hope for New York’s neediest

NEW YORK – Robin Hood, which has invested $3 billion to fight poverty in New York City since its inception almost four decades ago, launched the “Campaign for the Future – Endowing the Fight Against Poverty,” seeking to raise $1 billion and permanently secure its mission to support New Yorkers in need.

The campaign is anchored by a $100 million gift from the Bezos family to establish the Jackie Bezos Endowment for Early Childhood at Robin Hood and includes a pledge of an additional $25 million, subject to a match, for a total of $150 million.

Last night, the announcement kicked off Robin Hood’s annual benefit at the Javits Center, which separately garnered $73 million that will finance more than half of Robin Hood’s overall annual grantmaking budget, including emergency food, housing, education, job training, benefits access, legal services, and more.  While the proceeds raised are a triumph over poverty and hardship, the event itself is also a creative homage to the city Robin Hood serves and a massive event to produce.

“Robin Hood has become essential to the fabric of New York City and is an organization so critical to those in need in New York City. We need to ensure that for decades to come, our mission of supporting New Yorkers’ most vulnerable is sustained,” said Kenneth G. Tropin, Chair of the Robin Hood Board of Directors. “Since the beginning, we have stood with New Yorkers in their darkest hours — after 9/11, Superstorm Sandy, and during COVID-19 — and in the quiet, daily work of building pathways out of poverty. This campaign ensures Robin Hood will be here to support New Yorkers for generations to come.”

Campaign for the Future – Endowing the Fight Against Poverty 

The Campaign for the Future is designed to grow over time and complement Robin Hood’s annual fundraising efforts, which will remain the primary engine of grantmaking. Last year, Robin Hood invested $140 million in poverty-fighting grants to 295 of the most impactful, community-based direct service organizations, serving 2.73 million people through Robin Hood-funded programs.   

“Establishing this endowment is critical to safeguarding the important work we do in perpetuity,’’ said Paul Tudor Jones II, co-founder of Robin Hood. “I am profoundly grateful to the donors who have brought us to where we are and especially to the Bezos family, whose extraordinary generosity honors Jackie’s vision and means the youngest New Yorkers will always have champions in their corner.” 

Some key donors have made lifetime and legacy commitments to seed this campaign including Robin Hood co-founder Paul Tudor Jones II, Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie, Michael and Alexa Chae, Eva and Glenn Dubin, Scott and Evette Ferguson, Kenneth C. Griffin, Dina Powell McCormick, John Overdeck, Amy and Tony Pasquariello, Leslie and David Puth, Justin and Lee Sadrian, Laurie M. Tisch, Kenneth Tropin and notably Michael R. Bloomberg, a longtime champion of Robin Hood whose Bloomberg Philanthropies made the first contribution to the Campaign for the Future, as well as several other generous donors. Their commitments ensure Robin Hood will endure through any economic cycle or shift in the philanthropic landscape. Together, these donors have already helped Robin Hood achieve 70% of the $1 billion goal. 

Bezos Gift Anchors the Campaign for the Future 

The late Jackie Bezos served on Robin Hood’s Board of Directors for 10 years, including as chair of the Early Childhood Committee, where she helped shape the organization’s early childhood strategy. During her tenure, Robin Hood’s early childhood grantmaking grew from $13 million to $22.8 million annually — a 75% increase. Her inspiration and seed funding also launched the Fund for Early Learning (FUEL), Robin Hood’s signature ten-year, $66 million initiative has directed $53.8 million toward early childhood grants and catalyzed more than $63 million in additional government and private funding.  

“My mother saw the innate potential in every child and never stopped working to ensure that potential was met. This gift honors her legacy and makes permanent the work she helped build at Robin Hood. When Paul says the Robin Hood Endowment is a promise that this organization will be here fighting poverty long after any of us are gone, that is exactly what my mother would have wanted. My family is proud to anchor this campaign and to ensure that the youngest New Yorkers will always have Robin Hood in their corner,” said Mark Bezos, Jackie’s son, and a Robin Hood board member.

Since 1988, Robin Hood has invested significantly in early childhood development, learning, and child care—many of those investments were inspired by Jackie Bezos’s conviction that the earliest years shape a child’s trajectory. The Jackie Bezos Endowment for Early Childhood ensures that science-based, evidence-driven interventions for vulnerable children remain central to Robin Hood’s early childhood investments, so New York children can thrive. 

“Tonight we celebrate the extraordinary commitment of our donors — and especially the Bezos family, whose transformative gift in Jackie’s honor will ensure that Robin Hood’s youngest New Yorkers always have a champion.  We launched this campaign to ensure that Robin Hood can continue its important work despite the ups and downs on annual giving, and to allow us to rapidly respond to crises when they arise. Our donors are building something permanent, and Robin Hood will steward that trust with the same rigor and urgency we bring to every dollar we invest,” said Robin Hood CEO Richard R. Buery, Jr. 

This year’s Benefit was co-chaired by Nathalie Kaplan & David Einhorn, Padma Lakshmi, Purnima Puri & Richard Barrera, and Danny Wegman. The corporate partner chair was Neal Blinde, Capital One. Grammy Award-winning artist P!NK headlined the evening’s concert, performing for more than 3,000 benefit guests along with an additional 500 Robin Hood community partners and 500 P!NK fans. The Lumineers performed during the seated dinner, and Pete Davidson brought the house down with a stand-up set. The Young People’s Chorus of New York City also performed during the dinner ceremony. 

This year’s benefit was built around the theme of food—because food is where life happens. It is memory, tradition, comfort, and connection. It gathers people, reflects culture, and shapes a city’s rhythm. But for too many New Yorkers, food is one of the clearest signs of economic strain. When families cannot afford groceries or infant nutrition, the impact reaches into every part of life, from health to school and readiness to work. 

To bring the food theme to life, the cocktail space and dinner centerpieces featured several large-scale installations made entirely from essential, shelf-stable food items and kitchenware, totaling nearly 60,000 donated items. After the event, every product will be donated to Robin Hood community partners across the five boroughs, including City Harvest, River Fund, Grand Street Settlement, St. John’s Bread & Life, Project Renewal, Win, and Children’s Aid. 

Donated items included 622 cans of Bobbie infant formula, 350 Caraway pots, pans, and kitchenware, 800 jars of Carbone Fine Food sauce, 500 boxes of Girl Scouts of Greater New York cookies, 900 HealthyBaby diapers and baby wipes, 500 boxes of Newman’s Own Foundation microwavable popcorn, 1,200 bags of Siete Family Foods cookies, 30,000 canned food items from The Gray Foundation, 6,400 bottles of TRUFF aioli, 15,000 canned beans from       Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., and 600 colanders and miscellaneous food items from the Zegar Family Foundation. 

The evening’s menu was a tribute to Robin Hood’s origins: thirty-eight years ago, over Chinese food in New York City, five people came together with the idea that became Robin Hood. The team at Union Square Events brought that story to life with a Char Siu Chicken Breast with Chilled Sesame Peanut Noodles, Smashed Garlic Sesame Cucumbers, Buddha’s Delight, Spinach, and Scallion, accompanied by Fried Wonton Strips with Duck Sauce. A served dessert of classic NYC cookies followed. Wine pairings were provided by Wölffer Estate, with Tequila Casa Dragones as the exclusive beverage sponsor. 

The evening’s food-centered theme carried a deeper resonance. Last year, Robin Hood’s investments in emergency food and nutrition programs provided 5.8 million meals to families in need across all five boroughs. With food insecurity rising sharply in New York City, Robin Hood has continued to increase its emergency food grantmaking to meet the scale of the crisis (read more). 

Throughout the evening, Robin Hood used films to highlight transformative stories and inspire generosity. The Robin Hood 101 film featured a tribute to the organization’s 9/11 relief efforts 25 years ago and the work it has done since to support New Yorkers in crisis. A second film shared the story of a family doing everything right and still struggling to put food on the table, highlighting the impossible choices families living in poverty must make daily in New York City. 

Robin Hood has also continued to reduce the environmental footprint of its annual benefit. Strategic changes to the menu and food waste now convert organic waste into energy. Scenic and décor elements are designed to be recycled, reused, and donated after the event. Last year’s benefit avoided nearly 64 metric tons of CO₂e by reducing trucking and adopting sustainable production practices. 

Tonight, iconic buildings across New York City’s skyline will glow Robin Hood green, including Bloomberg Tower, The New York Stock Exchange, Barclays Investment Bank, One World Trade Center, One Bryant Park (BoFA), One Five One West 42nd (H&M), Seven in LIC, and Hallett’s Point in Astoria. This display of solidarity reflects a city united to support our neighbors in poverty and in the shared mission of a brighter, better city for all. 

Robin Hood transformed more than 400,000 square feet of the Javits Center into a sensory journey. The event is powered by more than 1,500 staff, vendors, and production crew, who operate around the clock for approximately 170 hours to build the space for over 3,000 guests.  

In 2025, Robin Hood-funded organizations and programs: 

• ENABLED 10,100 low-income students to graduate — and our college success investments raised graduation rates by an average of 15 percentage points 

• EXPANDED the city’s housing options by creating and preserving a total of more than 7,700 units of affordable and supportive housing 

• DISTRIBUTED 205 million pounds of food 

• HELPED over 7,200 students access mental health supports in schools 

• ENABLED 14,000 New Yorkers to secure work with an average pay of $28/hour — nearly 70% higher than minimum wage 

• HELPED 110,000 households unlock $220 million in public benefits — including SNAP, Medicaid, and critical tax credits and refunds 

• SUPPORTED students in charter schools who scored nearly 20 points higher in English and more than 20 points higher in math than city averages 

• SUPPORTED more than 39,000 families and 28,000 children ages 0–5 with coaching for guardians and teachers, access to health and mental health care, enrollment in high-quality child care, and more 

Corporate Partners: AlphaSights, Ameriprise Financial, Apollo Opportunity Foundation, Balyasny Asset Management LP, Barclays, BlackRock, Blackstone, BNY, Box Inc., Bridgewater Associates LP, Capital One, Deloitte, EY, Hellman & Friedman, JPMorganChase, Lemonade, LMAX Group, Maven Securities Holding Limited, OC&C Strategy Consultants, PDT Partners LLC, Pretium, RBC Royal Bank, Salesforce, Tower Research Capital LLC, Tudor Investment Corporation, 26North, Warby Parker, WCAS, and Wells Fargo. 

Partnering vendors who made this year’s annual benefit a success included: 

Executive Producer: Lindsay Carroll, Robin Hood 

Catering: Union Square Events (for guests); DEGA Catering (for production/crew) 

Choreography: Natalie Galazka 

Creative, Decor, & Design: David Stark Design & Productions 

Draping: Drape Kings 

Table & Ticket Management: Event Associates Inc. 

Printed Materials: Riverside Graphics 

Lighting: 4Wall Entertainment Lighting 

Mobile Check-in & Pledging: Checkin Tech LLC; Smartsource; Roswell 

Photography: Ronald Antonelli; Travis W Keyes; Mashbooths 

Production (Event, Show, & Technical): Nimblist 

Production Staffing: Theatrical Resources; Pentwater Productions 

Rentals: AFR; John to Go; Dimitri Carpet; Party Rental Ltd.; Pete’s Big TVs; Precise Prompting; Productions on Point; SGPS; Taylor Creative; United Rentals 

Rigging: 2XD Productions; C2W 

Scenic: Atomic Design 

Screens & Show Staffing: Loren Barton; Livewave; Janine DeVito; Abbey Lieber; Bold Move Productions; FUSE; Lauren Quinn 

Security, Health & Safety: K Street Group; The Baghera Group; Xonar 

Sound: Clair Brothers Audio Systems 

Staging: All Access 

Talent Management: Marty Hom, Inc. 

Transportation: The Bevan Group 

Venue: Javits Center 

Video: All Mobile Video; FUSE; Livewave 

Video Content: Long Story Short 

Music Director: Vincent Smaldone 

Talent Booker: Erin Sermeus / Curation 

Other Event Sponsors: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Alice & Wonder, BonBon NYC, Casa Dragones Tequila, Earth Brands, Equinox, Medicube, OLAPLEX, Solar Eclipse, Stanley 1913, Winged Keel Group, and Wölffer Estate Vineyard. 

About Robin Hood 

Robin Hood is New York’s largest local poverty-fighting philanthropy. For 38 years, Robin Hood has funded, supported, and connected New York’s most impactful community organizations at the forefront of the battle against poverty. Since 1988, we have invested $3 billion to elevate and fuel New Yorkers’ permanent escapes from poverty. Through grantmaking with 295 community partners, we create pathways to opportunities out of poverty through strategic partnerships on child care, child poverty, jobs, living wages, and more. We are scaling impact at a population level for the more than two million New Yorkers living in poverty. At Robin Hood, we believe your starting point in life should not define where you end up. To learn more about our work and impact, please visit robinhood.org and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and X. 

Media Contact

Kevin Thompson, Chief Communications Officer, Robin Hood, press@robinhood.org