Communities

Deployed resources to community-based organizations at the frontlines of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Puget Sound area.

We've joined a large group of funders contributing to UW Medicine's COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. Our focus is on supporting the entire community by increasing testing and care for vulnerable populations. People experiencing homelessness are at a higher risk of contracting and becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 and of seeking emergency room medical care. Urgent efforts are underway to increase testing in homeless shelters, downtown clinics, and new community housing sites.

We sourced and donated 2.3 million pairs of surgical gloves, 75,000 surgical gowns, and 3,000 infrared thermometers, to Washington state officials to distribute to hospitals across the region based on critical need. Amazon transported the PPE into the U.S. via their air cargo network. 

Administered by ArtsFund, this fund supports arts and cultural organizations to help maintain essential functions in response to the economic impact of COVID-19 on non-profits. 

We supported the Pride Foundation‘s community response efforts, helping the Pacific Northwest LGBTQIA+ community disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Provided immediate support to restaurant-industry workers who lost their income due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Seattle.

Led by the UW Medicine’s Virology Laboratory, this major study will determine the percentage of Washingtonians who have been infected with the virus. 

This study supports Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Allen Institute's effort to understand individuals’ immune response to COVID-19 in hopes of accelerating vaccines and new treatments.

We supported a statewide relief program directed toward three organizations which supply food pantries across the state.

Gardner House and the Allen Family Center help families experiencing homelessness by bringing together an innovative combination of permanent supportive housing, affordable housing, onsite services, and a Family Resource Center. The building includes 95 new housing units for low-income families and an 8,000-square-foot Family Resource Center that provides programming and resources for families across King County.

The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation sponsors “Project Homelessness,” supporting ongoing journalism examining the causes, problems, and actions taken in response to homelessness around the Puget Sound region. 

Medication-First is a method of care that improves patient outcomes while reducing the usage and mortality rate of those with opioid-use disorder. As part of a public/private funding partnership, we’re supporting sites across the state — in Tacoma, Spokane, Walla Walla, and Seattle — to determine whether low-barrier application of medication-first treatment has better outcomes for high-need populations.*

The Media Arts Skills Center gives Seattle-area high school students in underserved communities training in media-related skills via a hands-on learning environment. Participants learn animation, production, and graphic design so they can become more familiar with creative industries and be career-ready. The program is in its third year and has provided instruction to more than 120 students.

The Residency is an intensive summer program for young people in underserved communities in King County. By creating and performing an original piece, youth participate in experiential learning about the hip-hop industry while building a support network of peers. The program has grown to include year-round mentoring and opportunities for collaboration.

The Regional Arts Festivals serve more than 1,500 students in underserved communities in Seattle Public Schools, allowing them to share and celebrate arts learning. 

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon offers more than 800 performances of Shakespeare, classics, musicals, and world premieres from late February through October each year. Our support of their programming helps expand access to the arts in the Pacific Northwest. In 2013, the open air Elizabethan Theater was renamed The Allen Elizabethan Theater.

Soon after the 2014 outbreak started in West Africa, Paul G. Allen committed $100 million to the response and mobilized a program that brought strategic and targeted solutions to the global outbreak and addressed evolving needs. The Paul G. Allen Ebola Program focused on six key areas: emergency response, emergency management systems, medevac, behavior change, recovery, and research and development.

In late 2018, as the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history broke out in the DRC. The Ebola Response Accelerator Challenge was developed to to rapidly fund innovative approaches for responding to the crisis, which included helping health workers in the DRC to overcome community distrust that was undermining their efforts. The projects we funded helped better inform the community on when to seek care, understand the truth about the disease, and build community trust.