Right To Play Awarded for Support for Innovative Pathways of Workforce Recovery and Development

KKR today announced the recipients of the latest rounds of KKR Relief Effort grants awarded through two of the initiative’s cornerstone programs: KKR Small Business Builders (SBB) and KKR Grants. In the latest rounds, the KKR SBB program awarded $10,000 to 72 small business owners across 61 cities, 30 states and three countries. The KKR Grants program made commitments of more than $4.7 million to 28 nonprofits based in the US, UK, Singapore, Spain and Sweden.

Since launching these programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, KKR and its employees have supported 231 small businesses with direct support and grants of $10,000 each through the KKR SBB program. The KKR Grants initiative has provided more than $30 million in funding to 110 nonprofits whose missions align with supporting workforce recovery and development across communities and championing frontline heroes.

Given the continued challenges that face small business owners and communities around the world, KKR will continue to operate both the KKR SBB and KKR Grants programs into 2022. KKR has pledged an additional $1.5 million to support small businesses through its continued partnership with multichannel entrepreneurship platform Hello Alice and global partner GEN Global, bringing KKR’s total commitment to small businesses to $4 million.

“We continue to be inspired by the resilience and perseverance of our communities and small businesses and we are pleased to expand our partnership with Hello Alice and GEN Global. As we have already seen, the path to a global economic recovery is not straightforward and we plan to continue our KKR Relief Effort programs to support the high-impact organizations and businesses playing a critical role in rebuilding and strengthening our communities,” said Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall, Co-Presidents and Co-Chief Operating Officers of KKR.

The businesses in the latest round of KKR’s SBB program are 69% women-owned, 81% minority-owned and 24% owned by veterans or their immediate family members. To date, 74% of the small business owner recipients have said that KKR’s grant was pivotal to the survival of their business through the pandemic.

"The challenges facing small business owners today are unprecedented, and the environment in which they are operating in is changing every day as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. Yet small business owners across the country are finding unique ways to not only survive but thrive and we see that in the data. 50% of all grant applicants indicated they have introduced a new product or service in reaction to the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, an explicit demonstration of the entrepreneurial spirit that powers our economy," said Elizabeth Gore, Co-Founder and President of Hello Alice. "Through our strategic partnership with KKR, we have been able to provide small business owners with capital that we hope allows them to ensure the long term viability of their businesses."

KKR SBB and KKR Grants are available to organizations around the world with recipients selected on an ongoing basis.