Robert F. Smith
Through his Fund II Foundation, Smith has created internXL, an online platform of 30,000 STEM students, mostly of color, that 300 partner companies use to find job applicants. Other ongoing programs include the Student Freedom Initiative, which offers low-cost loans and other financial assistance to students at historically Black colleges and universities and other minority serving institutions and grants to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Prostate Cancer Foundation to reduce disparities in health care outcomes for Black people.
Smith, the first Black person to sign the Giving Pledge, has no plans to change the focus of his giving despite the anti-diversity push in Washington, believing the country is better off when everyone is healthier, better educated and more capable of economic success. 'That isn't a race thing,' he says. 'That's a fact thing.'
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