04/23/2025
THE BALTIMORE BANNER:
Key Bridge families get $1.2M donation after being shut out of largest relief fund
Byline
Lee O. Sanderlin
The Baltimore Community Foundation donated $1.2 million to help the families of the six workers who died in the Key Bridge disaster, Mayor Brandon Scott said Tuesday afternoon.
The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs has been coordinating direct cash assistance to the victims’ families, but that money was supposed to run out in December. The Baltimore Community Foundation’s donation will extend the support those families receive — money used to pay for things like housing, groceries, child care, utilities and legal costs, among others — for 2.5 more years.
“Our work has always been dedicated to the families of the men who lost their lives that night, and the two workers who survived the bridge collapse, wrapping our arms around them and supporting them through this unthinkable tragedy,” Scott said in a news release. “Today’s gracious donation will allow us to continue our work supporting them.”
This donation comes almost two weeks after The Baltimore Banner reported that none of the $16 million the community foundation raised following the bridge collapse has gone to the victims or survivors. The foundation explicitly stated in fundraising emails, messages and on its website that some of those funds would be used for that cause.
The community foundation’s relief effort, named after a turn of phrase from Gov. Wes Moore, drew wide support. Billed as the preeminent relief fund, donations for the Maryland Tough, Baltimore Strong fund came flooding in from local businesses, nonprofits, churches and philanthropists. The Baltimore Orioles and Ravens jointly donated $10 million.
A spokesperson said the foundation decided to change its areas of focus because the mayor’s office had launched a separate fund solely for the benefit of the two survivors and families of the deceased. Instead, the Baltimore Community Foundation directed the money it raised to port workers, a human services center in Dundalk and a forthcoming museum exhibit about the catastrophe, among other things.
Following The Banner’s report and intense public criticism, community foundation CEO Shanaysha Sauls wrote in an email to “friends and supporters” that the issue had her full attention.
The Baltimore Community Foundation is a donor to The Baltimore Banner and Sauls sits on The Banner’s board of directors.
“Honoring donor intent is a key value of BCF,” Sauls said April 10. “If in any way our efforts suggest otherwise, it was far from our intent and was more a result of misunderstanding, uncertainty and speed, rather than malice.”
On Tuesday, Sauls said in a statement that the community foundation’s $1.2 million donation — which is more than the $1.14 million the mayor’s office raised on its own — was done in honor of the six dead construction workers and the two survivors.
“The eight men are far from forgotten,” Sauls said.
Baltimore Councilwoman Odette Ramos had been the only elected official to publicly demand the community foundation make amends by allocating money to help the victims’ families and the survivors. Ramos said she was happy to see Tuesday’s contribution.
“The families who suffered so much deserve this assistance,” she said. “BCF still needs to reflect on what occurred with their funds omitting the families in the first place, and make changes to avoid something like this from happening again. But for now, I am relieved the families will get the help they need.”
One worker’s widow called the direct assistance through the city a “lifeline.” The families have sued the ship’s owners, but those lawsuits could take months to resolve.
This story was republished with permission from The Baltimore Banner. Visit www.thebaltimorebanner.com for more.
Photo: The Baltimore Community Foundation donated $1.2 million to help the families of the six workers who died in the Key Bridge disaster.
Ariel Zambelich / The Baltimore Banne
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