by Thomas Catenacci
Foster’s Outriders, a Christian nonprofit organization, announced Thursday that it would match all donations up to $500,000 given to the ongoing tornado relief effort in the Midwest.
The group, founded by the late Foster Friess in 2018, noted that the recent tornadoes — which swept through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee on Dec. 10 and killed at least 76 people — were among the most devastating in U.S. history in an email sent to donors on Thursday. Photos of the storm’s aftermath in Mayfield, Kentucky, showed massive wreckage with entire blocks of homes wiped out.
Foster’s Outriders will double donations in coordination with a tornado relief effort spearheaded by Relevant Church and Hardin Baptist Church, two local churches in Kentucky. The churches have organized the Mayfield Challenge Fund for their joint effort.
“Foster believed that a local church or charity can most closely be held to account to ensure that support is being fairly and quickly distributed,” Foster Friess’ wife, Lynn Friess, wrote in the email. “The Mayfield Challenge is managed by two local churches directly working to help those in need.”
“Every gift makes a difference,” she wrote. “Join us in coming together as Americans and supporting our neighbors in Kentucky.”
She added that her husband believed partnering with local churches and organizations was the most effective way to support communities in need. Foster Friess similarly worked with local groups after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Dorian which tormented the Bahamas in 2019.
Foster Friess gave hundreds of millions of dollars to charities over the course of his life. In January 2021, he gave $100,000 to 400 of his closest friends, instructing them to donate the money to a charity of their choosing.
He often credited his faith for his charitable giving.
“If this was my money, I probably wouldn’t give one cent, but it is the Lord’s money and He inspires us to give generously,” Foster Friess told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview in January.
Foster Friess passed away on May 27.
Foster Friess was an investor in the Daily Caller and donated to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Thomas Catenacci is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Kentucky Tornado Cleanup” by Team Rubicon.
