Direct Relief

Direct Relief is a humanitarian organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies. Nongovernmental, nonsectarian, and not-for-profit, Direct Relief assists people and communities without regard to politics, religion, ethnic identities, or ability to pay. Direct Relief's assistance programs - which focus on emergency preparedness and disaster response and the prevention and treatment of disease - are tailored to the particular circumstances and needs of the world's most at-risk populations. Direct Relief honors the generosity of its donors by following a firm policy of full transparency in all its operations. This tradition of transparent, direct, and targeted assistance, provided in a manner that respects and involves the people served, has been a hallmark of the organization since its founding in 1948 by refugee war immigrant William Zimdin.

Direct Relief aspires for a world in which its services are no longer needed.

Goal One: Ensure health professionals in resource-poor communities are equipped to meet the challenges of diagnosing and caring for people in need.

Goal Two: Ensure disaster-prone communities are prepared for more frequent, more destructive emergencies.

Goal Three: Expand access to medications and health services for under-served populations.

To effectively advance its mission, Direct Relief aims to recruit, train and retain high-performing employees and motivate, recognize, and reward excellent performance. To enhance employees’ knowledge, skills, and expertise related to their work, Direct Relief provides ongoing online and in-person learning opportunities to staff at every level. Additionally, Direct Relief offers financial assistance in complete or partial payment for approved training programs, courses, workshops, and seminars. Other professional development opportunities available to staff include membership to professional organizations, job-related certifications, licenses, continuing education credit courses, and subscriptions to job-related scholarly journals, books, and computer-based resources.

Direct Relief has long sought partnerships with public and private-sector organizations that leverage for humanitarian purposes their expertise. This approach has led healthcare manufacturers and other corporations in sectors ranging from technology to transportation to contribute needed resources and services that match urgent health needs in over 80 countries worldwide, including the U.S.

(1) PPE: When the virus broke out in January 2020, Direct Relief was one of the few non-profits prepared to make a substantial and immediate impact on the crisis with a large supply of PPE and critical care medications that it distributed to safety-net health centers and clinics, hospitals and public health agencies around the U.S. and globally. The year after the pandemic began, Direct Relief delivered more than 100 million PPE items,m including masks and gloves, free-of-charge, to health workers throughout the U.S. and world. (2) Critical Medicine: In addition to PPE, Direct Relief’s early identification of needed intensive care medication became an essential source of information during the crisis. Its pre-packaged ICU medications modules were requested and delivered to the most advanced hospitals, from Chan Zuckerberg General to the University of Miami Hospital. (3) COVID-19 Vaccines: To assist public health authorities and healthcare providers in distributing Covid-19 vaccines, Direct Relief invested approximately $2.5 million in cold-chain pharmaceutical distribution capabilities, increasing its medical refrigeration and freezer capacity three-fold. (4) Research: Collaborating with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Direct Relief launched the COVID-19 Mobility Data Network—an information and research hub using anonymized mobility data from phones to understand how people limited their movements during the pandemic. (5) Grants: As is the case in emergencies, the pre-existing gaps get bigger as resources are redirected to the crisis. That’s why Direct Relief’s focus since the onset of Covid-19 has been on supporting its partner network of community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other safety-net health facilities that care for people who are among the least fortunate and most vulnerable to crises. These healthcare providers have expanded their services during the pandemic, often without reimbursement.