mixi, Inc. today announced that FamilyAlbum founder Kenji Kasahara has donated $1 million to help families and children affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
FamilyAlbum, a private photo-sharing app for families, has seen increasing demand for their service as families struggle to stay connected in the midst of lockdowns 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.
“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.
Donations include:
- $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.
“When students can’t go to school, their home resources will shape their education,” said Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose. “To prevent coronavirus from further widening educational inequity in America, it’s essential that students and teachers have access to learning materials and resources at home. We’re so grateful for this support from FamilyAlbum, which will allow us to help teachers keep their students learning.”
“I want to thank FamilyAlbum for stepping up and helping us put money in the hands of families who are struggling to get by,” said GiveDirectly CEO Michael Faye.
“We are grateful to FamilyAlbum for supporting our global COVID-19 efforts to keep children and families safe and supported during these unprecedented and challenging times. This donation will allow Save the Children to reach even more children and families around the world made vulnerable by this pandemic,” said Janti Soeripto, President and CEO of Save the Children.
About FamilyAlbum
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 over 7 million users worldwide. To learn more, visit https://family-album.com/.
About mixi Group
Since 1997 mixi Group has created communication services for friends and family to enjoy together, including the social network mixi, and the multiplayer smartphone app Monster Strike. With the corporate philosophy of “user surprise first” and the mission statement “for communication,” the group continues to look toward enriching lifestyles of the future, developing new businesses and services via IT to inspire communication between people around the world. To learn more, visit https://mixi.co.jp/en/.
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