Rapid Response Fund
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In partnership with 
Global health, extreme poverty, and humanitarian programs are facing an unprecedented crisis, with funding suspensions putting millions of lives at risk. Many vital services—often overlooked but essential—are now vulnerable. In moments like this, strategic action is critical to safeguarding progress and ensuring that life-saving interventions continue to reach the world’s most at-risk communities.
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We’ve partnered with Founders Pledge to help fill critical funding gaps caused by U.S. foreign aid cuts.
Donate now to keep high-impact organizations delivering life-saving interventions in global health, poverty alleviation, and humanitarian aid.
Join Our Exclusive Webinar – March 26th
Learn how the Rapid Response Fund is tackling urgent federal aid cuts and supporting high-impact charities on the front-lines. Discover how over $2 million has been raised and $500,000 deployed to those in need.
Register now to hear directly from the team behind this vital initiative.
Latest Grants Made
| Date | Recipient | Grant | Amount |
| March 2025 | GOAL 3 – IMPALA | To implement 150 vital signs monitors across multiple hospitals in Malawi, cover one year of maintanance costs, and maintain financial stability while securing follow-up funding. Without support, 450-750 preventable deaths could occur annually in pediatric and neonatal wards across Malawi, where several implementation projects were canceled. | US$300,000 |
| March 2025 | Iodine Global Network | To cover the needs of the suspended UNICEF program in Madagascar other activities associated with monitoring, including analysis of survey results in Mongolia, lab costs for monitoring in some countries, and a visit by IGN’s Regional Coordinator to South Sudan to assist the country in designing a national policy on iodine nutrition. | US$50,000 |
| February 2025 | International Rescue Committee | Acute Child Malnutrition program, helping close 5% of their $2M funding gap and providing life-saving treatment for 800 children. | US$100,000 |
Why donate to the Rapid Response Fund?
By donating to the Rapid Response Fund, you will help bridge the sudden funding gap that many high-impact organizations are facing due to the recent suspension of U.S. foreign aid. This disruption has severely impacted essential global health, poverty alleviation, and development programs, threatening to undo decades of progress. Historically, our organization has emphasized long-term, strategic initiatives over reactive crisis interventions. However, the current funding cuts jeopardize life-saving initiatives that operate below the public radar, putting essential health and development systems at risk.
That’s why The Life You Can Save and Founders Pledge have joined forces to launch the Rapid Response Fund—a fast, high-impact solution to keep these programs running and ensure that every dollar is directed where it’s needed most. Identifying and recommending high impact organizations is at the core of what we do. Both The Life You Can Save and Founders Pledge have developed rigorous, evidence-based frameworks to assess nonprofit organizations and identify those that generate the greatest impact per dollar. The organizations we already recommend have been through this extensive vetting process, and we are applying the same high standards to determine where funds from the Rapid Response Fund can be most effectively allocated. As our top-rated partners face financial uncertainty, this fund will provide immediate support to sustain critical programs and capitalize on high-impact giving opportunities in a rapidly changing landscape.
This is a pivotal moment—your donation today can prevent devastating setbacks in global health, poverty reduction, and humanitarian aid.
What is the intended impact of the Rapid Response Fund?
The Rapid Response Fund is a discretionary fund designed to support high-impact programs run primarily by organizations we have already vetted for their effectiveness in health, poverty alleviation, and development. However, as the funding landscape evolves, we may also identify and support new organizations that meet our rigorous evaluation criteria.
By leveraging our research and assessment expertise, we will allocate funds strategically to sustain critical progress and prevent the loss of decades of advancements in global health and development.
How does the Rapid Response Fund work?
The Rapid Response Fund follows a strategic, data-driven approach to allocate resources effectively. First, we conduct a thorough analysis to identify the most urgent funding gaps, with a primary focus on maternal and child health, community health worker programs, and endemic disease prevention—key areas impacted by the U.S. foreign aid freeze and USAID stop-work orders. This includes a country-specific assessment to determine where support is most critically needed.
Next, we prioritize funding for interventions run by organizations already vetted by The Life You Can Save and Founders Pledge. These organizations have undergone rigorous evaluation for their evidence-based impact, cost-effectiveness, and long-term sustainability. Our approach ensures that resources go to programs that not only fill immediate gaps but also strengthen local health systems and promote long-term resilience.
Additionally, we may identify and support new organizations that meet our strict evaluation criteria if gaps remain. By strategically allocating funds, we aim to sustain essential health services, prevent setbacks in disease prevention and treatment, and safeguard years of progress in global health and development.
By keeping critical programs operational, the Rapid Response Fund helps organizations retain skilled personnel and maintain life-saving services for the communities that need them most.
FAQs
The Life You Can Save and Founders Pledge share a commitment to evidence-based philanthropy focusing on directing philanthropic dollars to where they can do the most good, making this a natural partnership. By working together, we combine deep research expertise, a complementary network of high-impact funding opportunities, and strategic allocation approaches to ensure the Rapid Response Fund is as effective as possible.
The Fund will support high-impact, evidence-based organizations that have undergone rigorous vetting through Founders Pledge and The Life You Can Save’s due diligence process. These organizations meet strict cost-effectiveness, transparency & accountability standards, have a proven track record of creating measurable impact and have been directly affected by recent cuts to U.S. federal aid funding.
We will prioritize funding based on urgency, impact, and unmet needs. Our focus is on organizations where funding gaps threaten critical progress in disease prevention, evidence generation, and life-saving interventions not covered by the U.S. Government’s waiver.
No, none of the funds will go directly to USAID. All funds raised will support registered charities or charitable equivalents facing existential funding crises due to shifts in U.S. federal funding.
Given the urgency of the funding gaps we are addressing, we aim to deploy funds as quickly as possible. Our close relationships with recipient organizations and pre-existing due diligence and vetting allow us to assess needs in real-time and move rapidly to prevent disruptions in critical services.
We continuously assess funding gaps so recipients may change based on real-time needs. Though, we’re happy to share our approach and example organizations. All grants will be publicly disclosed.
We are not accepting funding requests at this time.
The Fund will make grants based on the most effective funding opportunities. Some grants may be restricted to ensure support goes to an organization’s highest-impact intervention, while others may be unrestricted to provide flexibility where it’s most needed.
Donors entrust grantmaking to Founders Pledge and The Life You Can Save experts, who focus on maximizing impact and accessing opportunities unavailable to individual givers. In some cases, major donors may have options to contribute directly to affected organizations. For more information on direct donations for major donors, please contact info@thelifeyoucansave.org.
Donors in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States will receive tax receipts. If you’re based elsewhere and have questions about the tax relief for your major gift, contact info@thelifeyoucansave.org for guidance on in-country partners or transnational giving options.
The federal funding freeze has left billions in unmet needs for organizations worldwide. The Life You Can Save and Founders Pledge recommended charities alone have nearly $100M in immediate funding needs, with more emerging as the landscape evolves. Any additional funds raised will be directed to high-impact opportunities as they arise. For transformational donations over $1M, please contact info@thelifeyoucansave.org.
