The Blavatnik Family Foundation is a longtime supporter of The Fresh Air Fund, which provides New York City children and teens with free opportunities to experience the outdoors, develop new skills and build lasting relationships. A recent editorial in The New York Times follows Fran Carlos Galicia-Sanchez, who first attended a Fresh Air Fund sleepaway camp at age 11. While there, he learned to swim, formed new friendships and discovered a sense of independence beyond the city.Fran Carlos later returned to the organization as a counselor and lifeguard. Now 20, he serves as waterfront director at Camp Junior, overseeing lifeguards and teaching campers the same skills that shaped his own experience. He hopes to become the camp’s director one day. His journey reflects the enduring value of The Fresh Air Fund’s programs, which give young people space to explore, grow and see new possibilities for themselves.
City Parks Foundation will honor Joe Killian and Alex Blavatnik at its 2026 dinner and concert benefit on September 10 at Rumsey Playfield, SummerStage’s flagship venue in Central Park. Killian, who founded SummerStage in 1986, will receive the SummerStage Icon Award in recognition of his vision to bring free performing arts programming to New Yorkers. Alex Blavatnik, chairman of Access Industries and senior advisor to the Blavatnik Family Foundation, will receive the City Parks Foundation Icon Award. The award recognizes his and the Foundation’s longstanding support for preserving cultural history and making it freely accessible to the public. Preservation Hall Jazz Band will perform at the benefit, with additional guests to be announced. The event coincides with SummerStage’s 40th anniversary and celebrates City Parks Foundation’s continuing role in presenting free music, art, and culture across New York City.
Emerging adaptive technology is helping expand access and independence for people who are blind or have low vision. Thomas Panek, CEO of Lighthouse Guild, completed the 2026 United Airlines NYC Half using AI-enabled glasses developed with Lighthouse Guild AI and Meta, demonstrating how tools designed with blind and low-vision leadership at the center can support navigation, orientation, and fuller participation in public life. Beyond the race itself, this work points to the broader potential of practical technologies that can help people move through the world with greater confidence and autonomy. The Blavatnik Family Foundation is a longtime supporter of Lighthouse Guild and Achilles International.
Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Gateways Festival Orchestra will come together for the first time in April 2026 for a live-orchestra presentation of Firebird at New York City Center, bringing two legacy institutions into collaboration around a work that highlights artistic excellence, cultural continuity, and the power of artistry in classical music and dance. The production will feature 58 Black professional classical musicians from leading orchestras, conservatories, and the freelance community, alongside Dance Theatre of Harlem’s New York season programming and its annual Vision Gala, which supports both the company’s artistic season and its school. The Warner Music Group & Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund is a supporter of Dance Theatre of Harlem.
The Blavatnik Family Foundation-supported Lighthouse Guild's adaptive baseball team has been featured in CNN's 5 Good Things! Baseball is the greatest sport. Have you heard of the US Blind Baseball Association, a league for legally blind athletes who love the game? It's come up with an ingenious way to make baseball accessible: A player holds their own ball and tosses it up to hit. The balls contain several chimes so players can always hear them, and the bases make beeping noises to guide them in. Even without vision, these players are smacking the ball deep into the outfield and sprinting around the diamond. For the full edition of this story, head to CNN All Access.
More than 1,000 New Yorkers joined Ronald McDonald House New York (RMH-NY) for its Together in Gold: Annual Gala to honor eight-year-old Ayda following her battle with a neuroblastoma tumor and the thousands of other patients the organization has served since its inception more than 45 years ago. The Gala – which was held on Tuesday, September 30 at Cipriani Wall Street – commemorated Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and the “Go Gold” campaign while raising over $2.7 million to further RMH-NY’s mission to advance health equity and provide care, support and services to families battling pediatric cancer and other serious illnesses. The Together in Gold: Annual Gala was made possible through major event sponsors including AIG, AXIS, Blavatnik Family Foundation, Marsh, Mastercard, NYSE, Ryan Turner Specialty, and State Street Management.
Arne Duncan, a managing partner at Emerson Collective, a former U.S. Secretary of Education, and founder of Chicago CRED, recently authored an opinion piece in The New York Times highlighting the urgent need to address the root causes of gun violence rather than relying solely on punitive measures. Chicago CRED is dedicated to reducing gun violence by engaging individuals at the highest risk and providing them with life coaching, education, workforce development, and employment opportunities. The Foundation is proud to support this critical work through the WMG/BFF Social Justice Fund, helping to advance healing, safety, and opportunity in communities most affected by violence.
Power Up has revealed the music creators, industry professionals and executives who will make up Year 5 of the multi-award winning initiative. Co-founded by PRS Foundation and Ben Wynter, Power Up’s Participant Programme elevates pioneering Black talent and is a key feature of the long-term initiative launched to address anti-Black racism and racial disparities in the music sector. The programme – designed to fit the needs of each annual cohort of participants – assists in the development of their careers and practice, to empower creators and professionals and to push for change across the industry. Power Up also recently welcomed new partnerships from Amazon Music, Warner Music UK and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, and Universal Music Group. All three investments will support and strengthen the programme through residentials and other activities offered to participants.
Three rising stars in Israeli science have been named the 2025 laureates of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel, one of the country’s most prestigious science prizes. The awards, which include a $100,000 grant for each recipient, honor exceptional early-career researchers in life sciences, chemical sciences, and physical sciences and engineering. The 2025 cycle drew 36 nominations from seven Israeli universities, with juries composed of leading Israeli scientists and Nobel laureates selecting the winners. Since 2017, Israeli laureates have received a total of $2.7 million in prize money. Globally, the awards have honored 540 scientists from 120 institutions, awarding nearly $20 million in total.
Providing many of the world's best researchers, scientists, and universities with support, and funding to discover breakthroughs that solve humankind's greatest challenges.
The Foundation contributes to renowned institutions that showcase the breadth of arts and culture, including performance, exhibition and education.
The Blavatnik Archive is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving and disseminating materials that contribute to the study of 20th-century Jewish and world history, with a special emphasis on World War I, World War II, and Soviet Russia.
