Strengthening Emergency Relief with YachtAid Global

The DreAMBoat Community Fund (the Fund), an associate-led giving committee at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, recently awarded a three-year, $100,000 grant to YachtAid Global (YAG) to establish an emergency disaster relief fund. This grant will make a significant contribution towards YAG’s ability to execute relief and recovery efforts with the speed needed to reach those who require help the most in the immediate wake of impactful disasters.

Since its founding in 2006, YAG has become the recognized leader in facilitating yachting industry-wide engagement and collaboration for disaster relief and recovery, humanitarian aid and conservation management efforts across global coastal communities. These initiatives have saved lives and alleviated distress for communities in the Caribbean, Central America, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.

The YAG mission is to:

• Provide industry-wide disaster response leadership through logistics management and consultation
• Coordinate the acquisition and delivery of humanitarian aid to coastal communities in need or impacted by natural disasters in collaboration with a global network of volunteers, vetted NGOs and disaster relief experts
• Coordinate super yachts and crews to provide life-saving disaster response
• Identify and support sustainable local humanitarian initiatives
• Facilitate and promote visiting yachts and yacht crews to volunteer and engage in the communities they visit
• Help yacht owners and industry-related companies expand their philanthropic footprint

Through this mission, more than 250 YAG programs and projects have engaged more than 300 yachts in 25 countries in timely solutions for impacted communities. YAG’s work encompasses medevacs, search and rescue logistics, providing disaster relief aid and helping communities transition into recovery and return to full self-sufficiency.

“The DreAMBoat Community Fund’s grant to YachtAid Global will make it possible to respond in times of emergency when people’s lives are at stake and coastal communities are facing the highest degree of suffering after disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes,” said Zoran Selakovic, director of YachtAid Global. “With this grant, the DreAMBoat crew joins YachtAid Global in the shared belief that it is incumbent upon the yachting community to care for the people and the environments of the coastal communities around the globe who share with us their land, sea and spirit.”

The Fund is comprised of members of Arthur M. Blank’s yacht crew, and its purpose is to connect the DreAMBoat crew’s backgrounds and cultures to better the world’s oceans and communities for future generations. In 2022, Fund associates traveled to Yadua Island in Fiji to assist YAG in disaster recovery efforts in the wake of Tropical Storm Yasa.

YAG believes in changing the world without changing course, and the DreAMBoat Community Fund is happy to be on board for the journey.

Photo: A glimpse of the recovery endeavors on Yadua Island, Fiji, supported by a DreAMBoat committee grant in response to the aftermath of Tropical Storm Yasa.