Our heartfelt thanks go out to the 43,000 donors of the AP-HP Foundation.
On 12th March 2020, the AP-HP Foundation launched a public appeal: “Covid-19 Emergency Fund”. The fund was initially aimed at medical / clinical research but it was swiftly extended to providing assistance to healthcare workers at the outbreak of the pandemic.
Today the “Covid-19 Emergency Fund” has raised over €21 million with 26 donations exceeding €100,000.
In addition, the French luxury company, Hermès has committed €20 million which will enable us to provide better equipment to the AP-HP hospitals in Seine-Saint-Denis, to fund professional promotion for caregivers and increase innovation capacity within AP-HP.
This brings the total amount raised by the AP-HP Foundation between 12th March and 18th May 2020 to €41 million from 43,000 donors.
Tens of thousands of individuals, foundations, non-profit organisations and companies made their donations, large and small, to the “Covid-19 Emergency Fund” while hundreds of on-line crowdfunding accounts were privately opened and subsequently donated to the AP-HP Foundation. In order to secure the great many individual initiatives and to publicly guarantee that all donations would be given to the AP-HP Foundation, we started our own fundraising platform and set-up a customisable tool. By 18th May 2020, over 6,000 donations had been made via the platform amounting to almost €580,000 thanks to the support of social media and companies who gave internet space or access to digital tools in an effort to promote our endeavour and galvanise people into giving. A list of our main donors and partners can be found here: Fondation de l’AP-HP
To ensure this spirit of generosity would benefit other institutions and not only AP-HP hospitals and its foundation, we developed an exemplary partnership under the name « Tous unis contre le virus » (United against the virus) with the Fondation de France and the Institut Pasteur.
The funds raised through this alliance will help healthcare workers all over France, in and outside of hospitals, to finance research projects as well as to support community-based organisations in caring for the vulnerable.
The appeal was launched on 24th March 2020.
Out of the full amount of funds raised by the alliance, the AP-HP Foundation was granted €1.5 million of which €1million will go towards 4 strategic research projects and the remaining €500,000 to assisting healthcare workers.
This money is an integral part of the €41 million collected by the AP-HP Foundation.
For healthcare workers, this wave of generosity enabled us to urgently order and pay for quality meals over several weeks, as well as for PPE for frontline workers and a permanent system so that patients and families may stay in touch with each other for an overall cost of €5.4 million. "In order for covid-19 patients to remain in touch with their loved ones at the height of the epidemic, we developed a tool that is both effective for families and practical for the healthcare workers. With the support of the Foundation and all of its donors, we will be able to equip all AP-HP hospitals with 130 of these systems. Thank you!” Pr Philippe Decq, neurosurgeon, Hôpital Beaujon AP-HP
We have also actively supported the research teams with a seed fund of €7.2 million to get started on the very first trials for new treatments and to finance both strategic projects to fight the epidemic and non-government funded projects.
“When the COVID epidemic broke out in the AP-HP hospitals, we had to launch research projects without delay and without knowing if any public funding would be made available. The donations made to the Foundation enabled us to get started immediately on cohort studies and clinical trials. This was a decisive move. The Foundation is helping us carry on with high priority projects for AP-HP but which receive no public funding. The contributions made by donors are absolutely crucial for medical research!” Pr Gabriel Steg, cardiologist, AP-HP vice-president of the board, in charge of research.
As with Hermès, some donors wanted to respond to a specific need. The Dassault Group committed €1.5 million out of its €2 million donation to equip the new Intensive Care Unit of the Henri-Mondor AP-HP hospital which was opened in an emergency to face up to the crisis on 9th April 2020, many months ahead of schedule.
To date (18th May 2020), the sums of money have been distributed as follows, as requested by the donors or the board of the AP-HP Foundation:
- 19 % towards healthcare workers and organising medical treatment
- 18 % for research
- 18 % for AP-HP hospitals in Seine Saint-Denis
- 17 % towards professional promotion for caregivers
- 7 % to reinforce AP-HP’s capacity in data science
- 7 % to increase AP-HP’s capacity in 3D printing for various equipment
- 4 % to equip the new intensive care unit of the Henri Mondor AP-HP hospital
- 10 % miscellaneous
Focus on fundraising for AP-HP
Monetary donations set aside, the wave of generosity experienced by the AP-HP Foundation from the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic also included donations in kind from non-profit organisations, individuals and companies alike : equipment such as masks, sanitizer, ventilators, webcams for surveillance, tablets, smartphones, etc.; food including meals and gastronomical dishes, sweets, drinks, etc.; free accommodation for healthcare workers from individuals and hotels, cosmetics and beauty treatments, means of transport such as bikes, car loans and even private jet planes to fly back-up personnel into Paris; leisure activities, coffee machines, equipment for rest rooms for healthcare workers, educational help and child-minding, clothes, flowers, works of art...
A few testimonials:
“Hello...thank you for the trays of food. I am an Imaging Supervisor at Bichat Hospital and from my point of view, all the professionals have been very touched by gifts of all sorts.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to say a special THANK YOU to all the donors whose thoughts went out to hospitals and who supported us.”
“Many thanks for all the gifts which boosted our teams. Please, keep supporting our hospitals, healthcare workers and doctors so they can provide the best service.”
Skill-based sponsorship and the engagement of many volunteers also enabled us to steer projects for which AP-HP lacked resources, be it in departments welcoming patients, for tele-home care platforms called “Covidom”, mobile units called “Covisan” or for the general management of AP-HP (pharmacies, shops, transport…).
Finally, some financial donations were sent directly to the AP-HP hospitals amounting to approximately €3.5 million, of which €1.2 million was committed by the Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris - Hôpitaux de France and for which AP-HP is extremely grateful. To find out more click here
Contact us: contact.fondation-aphp@aphp.fr
