Five charities competed for the $1 million in grant support in the Lady Gaga-Robin Hood Foundation Charity Contest and the winner was – SCO Family of Services (SCO).
SCO received the top prize of $500,000 and the other four charities shared the rest.
Among the pre-selected organizations that competed were the SCO, Hetrick-Martin Institute, Lawyers for Children, Safe Horizon, and The Door. SCO was chosen as the winner of the $1 million contest to support New York City teens living in poverty, with a focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.
According to the SCO web site, the SCO Family of Services works with the city’s most vulnerable to overcome poverty, neglect, abuse, or mental challenges.
The contest was sponsored by Lady Gaga and the Robin Hood Foundation to award the $1 million in grant support and the results were announced at the Robin Hood’s annual dinner on Monday, May 9 at Jacob Javits Convention Center.
Reported by the SCO team, the public was asked to vote for their favorite charity among the five contestants on Lady Gaga’s Facebook page.
“It was 10 days of voting and more than one million votes were obtained on Facebook,” said Sandy Moya, coordinator of SCO Family of Services Single Stop Program in Queens. “SCO helps families stay together and helps them with preventive services, helping the kids – it’s a nice atmosphere.”
“Robin Hood raised over $47.7 million for fighting poverty in New York City during the event,” added Moya.
According to the rules, the charity that obtained the most votes received half a million dollars over the course of a two year period. The distribution of the funds amongst the four remaining charities was $200K, $150K, $100K, and $50K, respectively.
“It was an amazing couple of days, because we called on our friends and family, the togetherness we had and the reaction from the community humbled me and most of the staff,” said Moya. “When we worked together, we can accomplish anything.”
