A “Good Day” Brings Optimism At Jefferies As We Continue to Grow Stronger Together

It’s difficult to believe that we have all been dealing with the impact of COVID-19 for twelve months.  In some ways, it still doesn’t feel real, but in other ways it feels like an eternity of pain, sadness, confusion and sacrifice.

Today, all of us at Jefferies proudly commemorate this one-year period by distributing the extraordinary amount of money that each of us, our loyal clients and supporting shareholders raised to help make the world a better and safer place.  We have endured this period of pain working together to do everything in our power to protect each other and our families, support our clients as they navigate their countless challenges, be the best corporate citizens possible, and assure Jefferies is best positioned for an important and exciting future.  We are not out of the woods yet, although each of you has rallied incredibly beyond everyone’s expectations, except our own.  We knew that not only could you do almost anything, but you would do it with consistency, tenacity, humanity and grace.  Thank you.

So we memorialize this one-year anniversary of the pandemic in the manner that defines Jefferies, “Doing Good.” Today, we will distribute approximately $8.3 million in cash to 129 amazing charities around our planet.  Every one of these important charities will receive $65,000.  The hardworking people behind these worthy causes will use our funds to promote diversity and inclusion, support COVID-19 relief efforts, help Texas relief and support, protect and sustain our environment and strive to help humanity in other positive ways. We cannot think of any better way to celebrate the good fortune each of us enjoys by being a part of Jefferies.

The weather in most of our regions will begin to improve and the vaccines are being distributed.  Therapeutics and better methods of prevention and dealing with the disease are being embraced.  The financial markets are open and healthy.  Much needed additional stimulus is on the way.  It is hard not to believe that the worst may be over and we embrace the underlying optimism that springtime always brings.

That said, we would like to remind everyone that while the end of the pandemic may be on the horizon, none of us can prematurely declare victory. We all know the precautions to which we must all still strictly adhere and we must not let our guard down.  There is also no doubt that there is still much pain and uncertainty for most people throughout the world.  Our intensity and focus on dealing with the pandemic is not yet over.  We ask you to join us in continuing to protect each other, our clients, our stakeholders and our communities.

Please reflect for more than a moment about how fortunate we all are and how proud each of you deserve to be for navigating this past year so successfully.  Also please take a moment to go through this enormous list of amazing charities and realize our money is being distributed to those most in need because of each of you.  If you take some time to read the entire list, you will see that we made an incredible effort to target the money so that it is distributed very broadly and goes to the people who need it the most.

With incredible appreciation of all your “goodness,”  

Rich and Brian

---

PS As we start this first day of our 2nd quarter of 2021 today, let’s all feel REALLY GOOD that each of these 129 wonderful causes are getting $65,000 because of your hard work, relationships, and effort:

Diversity & Inclusion (Women and Girls)

• Equality Now: Works to create a just world where women and girls have the same rights as men and boys.
• Every Mother Counts: Works to achieve quality, respectful, and equitable maternity care for all by giving grants and working with partners and thought leaders.
• The Squeaks Foundation: Provides scholarships for female students attending University in the Khyber Pakthunkhwa region of Pakistan.
• The Women’s Center of Greater Danbury: Serves the needs of individuals, families and the community with prevention, crisis intervention and support services with regard to domestic violence, sexual assault and other major life crises.
• Women United in Philanthropy (WUIP): Helps women and girls in the Bergen County community achieve economic independence.

Diversity & Inclusion (Vets)

• American Corporate Partners (ACP): Helps returning veterans and active-duty spouses find their next careers through one-on-one career advice.
• Bob Woodruff Foundation: Supports veterans returning to their families and communities.
• The Not Forgotten Association: Combats isolation and loneliness among the Armed Forces community.

Diversity & Inclusion (Socio Economic Status)

• ABC Food Tours: Assists New York City students facing challenges in food insecurity and adversity at home. Exposes students to positive role models for healthy lifestyles, professional careers and arts leadership.
• Akshaya Patra: Strives to eliminate classroom hunger by providing nutritious meals to children studying in government and government-aided schools.
• America Needs You: Fights for economic mobility for ambitious, first-generation college students.
• Barnardo’s: A children’s charity that protects and supports the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people.
• Brewers Community Foundation: Harnesses the pride, passion and commitment of Brewers fans, players and other supporters to positively impact the lives of children and their families in Greater Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
• Build On: Aims to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations by mobilizing U.S. students to transform their communities through service and building schools in developing countries.
• Community Center of Northern Westchester: Provides food, clothing, classes and special programs and assists the community in gaining access to healthcare, education and social services.
• Covenant House: Provides housing and supportive services to help young people transform their lives and put them on a path to independence.
• DMF Youth: Empowers underserved youth through dance, fitness, and life skill development.
• East High – EPO (Education Partnership Organization): University of Rochester/ Rochester Board of Education partnership ensuring success of high school students through great teaching and emotional support.
• Endeavor Therapeutic Horsemanship: Empowers special-needs individuals by providing highest quality equine-assisted activities and therapies in an inclusive and welcoming environment.
• Foodlink: Dedicated to ending hunger and building healthier communities by addressing symptoms and root causes of food insecurity.
• Habitat for Humanity Japan: Helps families build and improve affordable housing. This chapter is focused on improving the living conditions of older people and people with disabilities in Japan.
• HaGal Sheli: Uses surfing as an educational tool and providing at-risk youth with the chance to ‘ride the wave’ and succeed.
• Hamptons Community Outreach: Works to bridge the opportunity gap experienced by underserved youth, families, and others.
• Harlem Children’s Zone: Supports education, community outreach, and health and wellness by providing on-the-ground programming that builds opportunities for children and their families.
• Harlem Dowling-West Side Center for Children & Family Services: Works to develop confidence, resilience, academic skills, and adult/family support.
• Houston Children’s Charity: Dedicated to improving the quality of life for Greater Houston’s underprivileged, abused and disabled children.
• Human Needs Food Pantry: Provides food, clothing, and other services to people in need who live in Montclair and neighboring communities in Essex County, including the elderly, disabled, homebound, unemployed or underemployed (working poor).
• Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART): Advocates to alleviate poverty, empower communities and promote human rights.
• Humanity & Inclusion UK: Helps meet the basic needs of disabled and vulnerable people to improve living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights.
• Hunts Point Alliance for Children: Focuses on expanding the hopes and potential of children, along their path to college or career, through connections with community organizations.
• Khan Academy: Helps provides free, world-class educational support for anyone, anywhere.
• Kids In Crisis: Provides emergency shelter, crisis counseling, and community education programs for children of all ages and for families facing crisis.
• Martha O’Bryan Center: Empowers children, youth, and adults in poverty to transform their lives through work, education, employment and fellowship.
• Mary’s Meals: Aims to provide chronically hungry children with one meal every school day, and encourage education that can lift them out of poverty.
• Minds Matter: A comprehensive and highly successful three-year program that empowers young people from low-income families to achieve college readiness and success.
• Nashville Rescue Mission: Helps the hungry, homeless, and hurting by providing programs and services that focus on a person’s physical, mental, spiritual, emotional and social well-being.
• National Youth Theatre: Gives accessible opportunities both onstage and backstage to young people aged 14-25 from all corners of the UK.
• Nazareth Housing: Promotes housing stability and economic mobility for vulnerable families and individuals of New York City.
• No Kid Hungry: Works to end child hunger in America by ensuring that all children get the healthy food they need every day to thrive.
• Only The Brave Foundation: Supports many social enterprises to implement solutions to social-environmental issues, generating a positive and long-lasting impact on society.
• OnSide Youth: Designed to give 8–19 year-olds somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to in their leisure time.
• Pencils of Promise: Builds schools and increases educational opportunities in the developing world.
• Rehabilitation Through the Arts: Changes lives behind prison walls, in families and in communities, using the transformative power of the Arts.
• Save the Children: Strives to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.
• Say Yes to Education: Provides those economically-disadvantaged students and their families with the academic and social-emotional support services to access college or other postsecondary scholarships.
• Second Harvest Food Bank: Obtains and distributes food to people in need through area non-profits and provides resources for education and advocacy to end hunger.
• Small Steps Nurturing: Operates two preschools for economically at-risk children living in the Fifth Ward and surrounding areas of inner-city Houston, Texas.
• Spark Inside: Delivers coaching programs in prisons that encourage rehabilitation and contribute towards a reduction in violence and recidivism.
• Spires Organization: Engages with the most vulnerable community members and supports them to take advantage of the opportunities that will lead to security, improved wellbeing and hope.
• Squash Haven: Empowers New Haven youth to strive for and maintain school success and physical wellness, and to forge a path through higher education to engaged citizenship.
• Start Early: Champion for early learning and care from a child’s very first moments, so every child has the opportunity to thrive in school and life.
• StreetWise Partners: Pairs business professionals with unemployed or underemployed mentees to provide them with the skills, resources, and access to networks they need to secure and maintain employment.
• STRIVE: Provides training and support to help people stuck in poverty gain sustained employment and transform their lives.
• The Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester: Creates a rich environment for future academic success, good character, citizenship and healthy lifestyles in Northern Westchester.
• The Boys and Girls Clubs of the Austin Area: Creates a rich environment for future academic success, good character, citizenship and healthy lifestyles in Austin.
• The Citizens Foundation (UK): Raises awareness and funds to build and support primary and secondary schools to serve some of Pakistan’s most neglected communities.
• The Community Fund of Bronxville, Eastchester and Tuckahoe: Provides services to help thousands of neighbors each year at little or no expense to those least able to pay.
• Urban Arts Partnership: Provides students from low-income communities with quality education rooted in the arts of technology, preparing them for lifelong success.
• Valpo Surf Project: Uses surfing and academic tutoring to encourage personal character development and environmental consciousness among underprivileged and at-risk youth.
• World Vision: Partners with children, families, and communities to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
• Yalari: Offers education scholarships for indigenous children from regional, rural and remote communities.
• York Street Project: Breaks the cycle of poverty by providing an environment to shelter, feed, educate and promote the healing of persons in need, especially women, children, and families.
• Zamcog: Focuses on empowering Zambia’s most at-risk children by funding urgently needed education and housing.

Diversity & Inclusion (Race/Ethnicity)

• A Better Chance: Serves talented students of color by opening the doors through which they can best develop their innate potential.
• Apex for Youth: Delivers possibilities to underserved Asian and immigrant youth in New York City by recruiting volunteers to be positive role models for them.
• Black Minds Matter UK: Aims to link as many black individuals and families in the UK with certified, professional, black practitioners for sessions.
• Equal Justice Initiative: Works to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality.
• New Federal Theatre: Integrates artists of color and women into the mainstream while training the next generation of actors and playwrights.
• Players Philanthropy Fund (Welcome to Chinatown): Enables athletes, entertainers, corporations and individuals to create a dedicated fund that can accept tax-deductible contributions in support of any qualified charitable mission.
• The Northside Center for Child Development: Focuses on clinical excellence with an emphasis on strengthening families’ and children’s self-esteem.

Diversity & Inclusion (LGBTQ+)

• akt (The Albert Kennedy Trust): Supports LGBTQ+ young people aged 16-25 in the UK who are experiencing homelessness or living in a hostile environment.
• Callen-Lorde: Provides sensitive, quality health care and related services targeted to New York’s LGBT communities regardless of ability to pay.
• MCCNY Charities, Inc.: Provides social services for the homeless and the hungry, including people living with HIV/AIDS and LGBTQI youth.
• Media for the Public Good, Inc. / OutCasting Media: Creator of public radio’s LGBTQ youth program that promotes original journalism from underrepresented points of view.
• SAGE: The country’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBT older adults.
• The Trevor Project: The leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ young people under 25.

Diversity & Inclusion (Abilities)

• Ambitious About Autism: Supports children and young people with autism by providing education and employment services, as well as raising awareness and understanding and campaigning for change.
• Anne-Marie Rallion Association: Supports children with mental disabilities in Paris.
• CASPA Life with Autism: Provides advice, support and life skill development opportunities for children, young people and families affected by autism.
• Children’s Surgical Center (Cambodia): Aims to improve the quality of life for disabled Cambodian children and adults by providing free rehabilitation surgery.
• ELIJA Foundation: Dedicated to improving the quality of education and intervention services for individuals with autism.
• Lake District Calvert Trust: Provides disabled guests with safe, accessible, yet challenging, outdoor environment.
• Royal Society for Blind Children: Aims to ensure blind and partially sighted children, from babies to 25-year-olds, grow up with the skills they need to live a full, happy life.
• UM-NSU CARD: Comprehensive outreach and support program serving people with autism and related disabilities, as well families and professionals who work with them.

COVID-19 Relief and Health Support

• American Heart Association: Funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke.
• Fondazione Spedali Civili Onlus: Provides healthcare and improves the level of care dedicated to patients in the hospitals of Brescia, Montichiari and Gardone Val Trompia.
• Mail Force Charity: Provides much needed school equipment and resources for pupils across the UK learning from home.
• Northwell Health Foundation (Lenox Hill Hospital): Committed to discovery and research, high-quality patient care and training future generations of health care leader. COVID-19 Emergency Fund supports frontline caregivers, patients and research.
• NYU Langone Health: One of the nation’s premier academic medical centers devoted to patient care, education, and research. Supports the greatest needs of patients with COVID-19, and of frontline teams and researchers.
• URMC COVID-19 Emergency Fund: Provides essential medical supplies to fund COVID-related research and offers support for frontline staff at the University of Rochester.

Texas Relief

• All Hands and Hearts: A volunteer-powered organization that addresses the immediate and long-term needs of communities impacted by natural disasters.
• Americares: Responds to people affected by poverty or disaster with life-changing health programs, medicine and medical supplies.
• Capital for Kids: Supports organizations that educate, protect and encourage at-risk children in North Texas.
• Habitat For Humanity: Helps families build and improve affordable housing. Donation will benefit those impacted by the storm in Texas.
• Houston Police Foundation: Strives to promote awareness, enhance safety, and improve performance within the Houston Police Department.
• International Rescue Committee: Helps people victims of conflict or disaster survive and recover.
• SBP: A long-term disaster recovery organization to help vulnerable communities.
• World Central Kitchen: Devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters.

Environmental Sustainability

• Bedford 2030: Addresses the urgent issue of climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and preservation of natural resources.
• Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation: An animal and nature sanctuary honoring a young victim of the Sandy Hook tragedy. The sanctuary is committed to supporting and protecting the natural environment through education initiatives and land stewardship.
• Coral Restoration Foundation: Actively restoring coral reefs on a massive scale, educating others on the importance of our oceans, and using science to further coral research and coral reef monitoring techniques.
• Dig Deep: Brings clean, hot and cold running water into American homes and invests in research, advocacy and development to close the water gap once and for all.
• National Forest Foundation: Created to bring people together to restore and enhance our National Forests and Grasslands.
• Only One Inc. (Blue Sphere Foundation): Works to safeguard the planet’s oceans, halting the destruction of threatened marine species and habitats.
• Rainforest Trust UK: Dedicated to protecting threatened tropical forests and endangered wildlife.
• Surfers Against Sewage: Focused on tackling plastic pollution and maintaining the UK’s coastlines for all to enjoy safely and sustainably.
• The Pelorus Foundation: Protects, preserves and promotes at-risk wildlife and environments across the planet through supporting sustainable projects.
• Vote Solar: Aims to transform our energy system to run on 100% clean energy, expanding clean energy opportunities to millions of customers in 25 states.
• Wolf Conservation Center: An environmental education organization that works to protect and preserve wolves in North America, the top predator that allows the environment to flourish.

Other Worthy Causes

• ALS ONE: Provides research, care and funding for those suffering with ALS.
• American Lung Association: The leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease, through research, education and advocacy.
• CaringKind: Creates, delivers, and promotes comprehensive and compassionate care and support services for individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
• Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation: Dedicated to finding the cures for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and to improving the quality of life of children and adults affected by these diseases.
• Cycle Kids: Improves the lives of children by increasing confidence, self-esteem, and overall well-being through the experience of learning to ride a bike and making healthy eating choices.
• Diabetes Research Institute Foundation: Created to cure diabetes, which is and will continue to be its singular focus until that goal is reached.
• Fondazione Theodora Onlus: Improves the well-being of children in hospitals, hospices and specialist care centers by providing visits from professional performers trained to work in a medical environment.
• Hance Family Foundation: Honors the lives of three young children killed in a car accident by providing unique self-esteem programs worldwide, focused on social-emotional learning.
• Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation: Helps children impacted by violence and abuse in their homes, schools, and communities.
• Lucky Dog Animal Rescue: Dedicated to rescuing homeless, neglected, and abandoned animals from certain euthanasia and finding them loving homes.
• Lung Cancer Research Foundation: Working to put an end to lung cancer for good, by focusing on fundraising, awareness, and education.
• RVNAhealth: Cares for people of all ages in the comfort of their own homes in Ridgefield, CT and Fairfield County.
• Solving Kids’ Cancer: Finds, funds, and advocates for breakthrough treatment options to cure children with the most fatal pediatric cancers.
• Team IMPACT: Aims to improve the quality of life for children facing life-threatening illnesses by harnessing the power of teamwork and matching these courageous kids with college athletic teams.
• The Hole in the Wall Gang: Founded in 1988 by Paul Newman to give every child – no matter their illness – the chance to “raise a little hell,” they offer a variety of year-round programs in hospitals and clinics as well as in camper homes and communities to more than 20,000 seriously ill children and their families each year.
• The Institute of Cancer Research, London: Focuses on cancer research, specializing in oncology.
• The Joseph Keane Fund: Supplies resources to families who experienced perinatal loss at Bridgeport Hospital.
• The Parkinson’s Foundation: A national organization whose mission is to make life better for people with Parkinson’s disease by improving care and advancing research toward a cure.
• UR Medicine Home Care (Meals on Wheels): Provides nutritious meals delivered by screened, compassionate, and caring volunteers who are always ready with a pleasant greeting and a warm smile.
• Zest: Offers support and opportunity to people living in disadvantaged areas of Leeds, UK, addressing health inequalities and social isolation through activities.