Blue Meridian Partners’ investments in Nurse-Family Partnership and Youth Villages are #3 and #5 respectively in the 2016’s top ten “big bets in philanthropy”, which are gifts of $25 million or more.

$33 million

Helps finance expansion of Nurse Family Partnership home-visitation programs across the U.S. and improve pregnancy and other health outcomes for 100,000 young, lower-income, first-time mothers and their children. The average mother served by the Nurse Family Partnership is unmarried, 19 years old, and living on an annual household income of $9,000. The donor, Blue Meridian Partners, is a collaboration among multiple billionaire donors, including Stanley Druckenmiller, Connie and Steve Ballmer, George Kaiser, Sergey Brin and David Tepper.

$36 million

The donation will help launch and finance YVLifeSet, a program to aid the 23,000 Americans who age out of the foster-care system every year, assisting their transition to independent adulthood. The program matches young adults transitioning out of state custody (or other care situations) with specialists who meet with them weekly for six to 12 months. In 2016 the program served about 2,500 youth. Youth leaving foster care are statistically the most vulnerable in America; by age 21 more than 50% lack money for food or rent, more than 25% drop out of high school, some 50% are unemployed, and more than 20% experience homelessness.

Read the full article in big bet philanthropy by Kerry A. Dolan at Forbes.