FamilyAlbum founder donates $1 million towards COVID-19 relief
Tokyo-based mixi Inc. announced FamilyAlbum founder Kenji Kasahara donated $1 million to help families and children affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Kasahara notes FamilyAlbum, a private photo-sharing app for families, has seen increased usage in the midst of worldwide lockdown and shelter in place orders. In the first half of April alone, the number of comments and uploads posted to the app was double that of the first half of March, the company said.
“In the past few weeks, we’ve received messages from users around the world thanking us for helping their families stay close during this difficult time,” said Kasahara. “While we will continue to improve our service to better support the FamilyAlbum community, we felt a strong desire to do more to support the health and wellbeing of families and children impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. It is an honor to partner with organizations like Save the Children, DonorsChoose, and GiveDirectly. Although recovery may take years, we hope to continue to aid efforts in relieving the negative economic and social impacts of the pandemic not only in the short term but also in the medium to long term.”
The $1 million donation will support vulnerable families and children in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and other regions around the world:
- $300,000 to DonorsChoose to support teachers and students in low-income communities.
- $300,000 to GiveDirectly’s “Project 100” to provide $1,000 direct digital payments to 300 families hard hit by the COVID crisis.
- $300,000 to Save the Children to aid global relief efforts in vulnerable communities.
- $100,000 to organizations providing housing, meals, counseling, holistic support, diapers and other necessities to families and children experiencing homelessness, serious illness (including sick or premature babies in neonatal care), financial difficulty, or family violence. Organizations include Action for Children, Australian Childhood Foundation, Bliss, Discovery House, Family Promise, Home-Start UK, Miracle Babies Foundation, National Diaper Bank Network, Nurse-Family Partnership, Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, Win (Women in Need), and others.
FamilyAlbum is a free, all-in-one resource for parents to share photos and videos of their children in a secure, invite-only album. The app includes unlimited storage, automatic organization, and special features to make communicating with the entire family easy. Released in 2015, FamilyAlbum has more than 7 million users worldwide.