Increasing the stability, resiliency, and vitality of communities

Running beneath the city’s elevated Metroline, Miami’s Underline, a 10-mile linear park, is transforming the area for residents and visitors. The River Room (above) provides recreation, relaxation, and a green infrastructure to help mitigate stormwater flooding.
Strong and vibrant communities provide not just a safe place to live, but an opportunity to thrive. Griffin Catalyst helps communities in times of need and enhances public spaces and inspiring cultural institutions.

Our Impact Stories

Helping Communities in Need

We act boldly and decisively to provide aid in moments of urgent community need. By identifying and leveraging the unique strengths of public and private organizations, we have addressed complex community challenges close to home and far afield.

When the war in Ukraine interrupted students’ studies, we launched the Ukraine Math and Science Achievement Fund to ensure that students have the opportunity to pursue their academic ambition. When we saw an opportunity to enhance disaster preparation and response, we helped establish a first-of-its-kind resilience fund in Miami.

And during the COVID-19 pandemic, our wide-ranging efforts included working with the State Department to repatriate 800 Americans from Wuhan, China, addressing food insecurity in Chicago, and increasing the supply of medical oxygen in India.

A Catalytic Investment in the Future of Miami

Vibrant communities include accessible, modern public spaces that bring people together. Griffin Catalyst is working to energize communities by increasing access to such spaces. Through investment in innovative urban infrastructure like The Underline in Miami—a 10-mile linear park bringing vital amenities to diverse Miami neighborhoods—we are empowering individuals to grow and communities to prosper.

Supporting Vital Cultural Institutions

Some of America’s most storied and visited museums invite people to engage with science and nature in imaginative ways. From the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, world-renowned cultural institutions are destinations of learning and exploration, drawing millions of visitors from around the globe.

Through partnership with these and other institutions, Griffin Catalyst is ensuring new generations of learners have the opportunity to engage with science, technology, and nature in ways far beyond what’s possible in the classroom.

4.5M+

Meals funded through the Greater Chicago Food Depository to address food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic

800

Americans repatriated from Wuhan, China at the start of COVID-19 in 2020

100

New mini-pitch soccer fields in Chicago and Miami to be completed by 2026

In addition to encouraging casual use, The Underline hosts hundreds of public events and programs, such as group walks and yoga classes.
The Underline allows people to do what I think is a basic right: being able to walk and bike and connect in your community, safely.
Meg Daly
Founder, Friends of The Underline
In addition to encouraging casual use, The Underline hosts hundreds of public events and programs, such as group walks and yoga classes.

Featured Partners

Our partner organizations are doing vital work to strengthen communities. We’re proud to support them.

In Brief

April 22, 2023
A $20 million gift from Griffin Catalyst to Miami Dade College — which serves over 100,000 students — will establish the Griffin Scholarship Fund. This support, which represents the largest single gift in the history of Miami Dade College, will provide scholarships for more than 8,000 low-income students, most of them first-generation college-goers.
June 30, 2020
Griffin Catalyst has made the largest gift in the history of the Navy SEAL Foundation, to provide critical education, health care, and financial support to members of one of the U.S. military’s most elite special operations forces and their families.
September 8, 2023
In 2022, Griffin Catalyst joined with partners to support the Organs Initiative, a coalition leveraging data to drive change with broad bipartisan support. The challenge: To fix a broken, inefficient organ donation system that leads to tens of thousands of healthy organs going unrecovered each year and contributes to 30 Americans dying every day for lack of an available organ. In August 2022, the group achieved the first major overhaul of the organ donation system in 40 years, projected to save over 7,000 lives annually. Almost a year later, in July 2023, Congress unanimously passed legislation to break up
February 12, 2024
The Lincoln Memorial has long been one of America’s most visited monuments and the scene of some of the defining moments of the last century. In time for the 250th anniversary of the country, a new expansion project will transform a massive, long-hidden space beneath the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall into an immersive museum, exhibition, and theater space, encouraging visitors to explore the story of one of America’s greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, and to learn about the nation’s progress toward becoming a more perfect union.
December 27, 2023
The success of Operation Warp Speed in 2020, which brought forth an effective COVID-19 vaccine in less than twelve months, was not only a scientific breakthrough but also a demonstration of the power of an approach called an advanced market commitment (AMC). By creating a demand so that pharmaceutical companies could invest in production prior to proving the efficacies of vaccines, this successful approach accelerated time to market and highlighted the opportunity for a class of similar “market-shaping tools” to accelerate progress. To expand this approach, Griffin Catalyst and Schmidt Futures have partnered with the University of Chicago to launch
December 20, 2023
On ABC's Good Morning America, Anchors Robin Roberts and Lara Spencer joined with Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel and Founder of Griffin Catalyst, and Dr. Selwyn Vickers, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) to announce the largest donation in MSK's nearly 150-year history.
November 21, 2023
In a conversation at George Washington's Mount Vernon, Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel and Founder of Griffin Catalyst, joined David Rubenstein, renowned investor and philanthropist, to discuss the importance of America's founding principles and constitutional government.
November 14, 2023
Griffin Catalyst is supporting a major enhancement of UK Biobank, one of the world’s leading scientific resources for health data and biological samples. Griffin Catalyst’s $10 million gift—matched by Eric Schmidt and Schmidt Futures—will enable UK Biobank and scientists from around the world to accelerate research into disease mechanisms, to better leverage artificial intelligence, and to work towards more personalized options for treatment.
September 28, 2023
In a CNBC exclusive interview, Anchor Sara Eisen spoke with Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel and Founder of Griffin Catalyst, and Eva Moskowitz, Founder and CEO of Success Academy, about the need to transform education in America to drive U.S. competitiveness.

News & Announcements