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The Rockefeller Foundation to Issue Taxable Bonds to Help End the Covid-19 Pandemic and Invest in Renewable Energy to Lift Millions Out of Poverty

Focused on Enabling a Recovery that Ensures Equitable and Sustainable Opportunity for All

New York City | October 1, 2020─S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service have provided The Rockefeller Foundation with “Aaa/AAA” ratings for its $700 million of Series 2020 Taxable Bonds that are anticipated to be issued in October.

The world is in the middle of a historic crisis.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted every country – big and small, wealthy, and poor – with devastating consequences. Global poverty is rising for the first time in over two decades, with 25 weeks of the pandemic upending 25 years of progress. Vulnerable communities are suffering the most, disproportionately losing lives and livelihoods. Meanwhile, the climate crisis alone, which is still the existential threat of our time, is expected to push at least 100 million people into extreme poverty over the next decade.

Therefore the world needs a recovery that ensures equitable and sustainable opportunity for all.

Amid a deeply inequitable pandemic and climate crisis, the Foundation will use a substantial portion of the proceeds from the bond issuance to help end the Covid-19 pandemic and invest in renewable energy.

  • Because this is first and foremost a public health crisis, all aspects of the Foundation’s global health response will focus on the highest-risk communities, ensuring everyone has access to Covid-19 screening tests, treatments, and vaccines when they become available. The Foundation also intends to develop and fund a global health platform to help detect, prevent, and contain future pandemics.
  • To empower people currently locked out of the modern economy in a climate friendly way, the Foundation will also use bond proceeds to drive historic public-private investment in distributed renewable energy across Asia, Latin America, and Africa to lift millions out of poverty.

This is the Foundation’s first-ever bond issuance for charitable purposes. The Series 2020 bond issue represents a substantial increase in the Foundation’s debt. However, favorable market conditions make this the most financially attractive way to accelerate our investment while maintaining the Foundation’s long-term grantmaking capabilities. The Foundation also intentionally prioritized working with women, minority, and veteran-owned underwriters during the process.

Since inception, The Rockefeller Foundation has distributed from its endowment more than $22 billion, primarily through grantmaking, across over 60 countries. Through its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington, D.C., Nairobi, Kenya, Bangkok, Thailand, and the Bellagio Center in Italy, the Foundation uses data, science, innovation, and partnerships with public and private entities to scale that investment, creating global institutions and advancing historic scientific and economic breakthroughs to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world.


Media Contact:
Ashley Chang
achang@rockfound.org
+1 917-373-9530

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