De Beers, Graff, Kering, and Tiffany Donate Millions to COVID-19 Relief Efforts

A few of jewelry’s most established companies have announced million-dollar-plus donations to help aid COVID-19 relief efforts around the world.

The Tiffany & Co. Foundation said it’s allocating  $750,000 to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and $250,000 to the New York Community Trust’s NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund (for a total contribution of $1 million).

Tiffany & Co. is also matching employee donations to all qualified nonprofits supporting COVID-19 relief, dollar for dollar. “We are proud to support organizations providing immediate relief for communities impacted by COVID-19, including our hometown of New York,” said Anisa Kamadoli Costa, chairman and president of the Tiffany & Co. Foundation, in a prepared statement.

De Beers Group announced yesterday that it will contribute $2.5 million across Botswana and Namibia to aid those nations’ response to the COVID-19 crisis. (De Beers Group is a 50-50 joint venture partner with both Botswana and Namibia.)

The $2.5 million will be split between national relief funds and community and logistical support, the company says, and are part of a wider funding effort that will also benefit COVID-19 relief in the company’s other two producing countries, Canada and South Africa. Funds in Botswana and Namibia will filter into initiatives such as vulnerability assessment support, food security, water supply to communities, community COVID-19 awareness and education, and local clinical support.

“We have refocused our business in our host communities to support the response to the pandemic, and our priorities are clear: prepare communities for the crisis, support the emergency response, and be a partner in economic recovery,” said De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver in a statement. “Our partnerships with the people of Botswana and Namibia span decades. We are proud to stand together now in this moment of crisis, and we will stand together as their partners on the road to recovery and renewal.”

De Beers also detailed other efforts it has made to aid relief from the COVID-19 crisis globally on its InstagramThe corporation is supplying food to vulnerable groups in Canada and has converted the company’s 3-D printers at the De Beers Group Institute of Diamonds to make parts for face shields for health care workers in the U.K. Additionally, it’s opened its corporate apartments in London’s Hatton Garden to welcome stays by doctors, nurses, and administrators from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.

Fellow European jewelry company Graff has also announced a sizable donation to help the cause. The high jewelry brand will donate $1 million to the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. “The challenge presented by the pandemic has had a profound effect on all of us at Graff,” said CEO Francois Graff in a statement. “As an international business, it’s been terrible to witness the speed with which the virus has spread, and the pain and uncertainty it is causing throughout the world…. We are proud to contribute to its life-saving work and support the medical community and key workers who are heroically devoting their lives to caring for others during this global crisis.” 

Luxury conglomerate Kering, whose stable of top-shelf brands includes jewelers Boucheron and Pomellato and watch brands Ulysse Nardin and Girard-Perregaux, announced it will donate $1 million to the CDC Foundation to support “the valiant efforts of frontline health care workers in the United States, particularly in highly impacted states such as New York, New Jersey, California, and Florida, and locations in Latin America,” according to a company statement. 

The CDC Foundation is the independent nonprofit created by Congress to extend the work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through public-private partnerships. Kering has already made contributions in France, Italy, and China and through its brands has produced more than 1 million surgical masks and gowns for health care workers.

Top: A recent Instagram post from De Beers Group detailing its donations to COVID-19 relief efforts (image via: @debeersgroup)

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