Skoll Foundation
OVERVIEW: The Skoll Foundation currently makes grants and investments in areas including health and pandemics, climate change, inclusive economies, effective governance and racial justice.
IP TAKE: In its largest areas of giving, inclusive economies and effective governance, the Skoll Foundation has recently shifted its focus to include pressing problems in the U.S. In addition to traditional grantmaking, this funder supports for-profit social enterprises, and runs a prestigious awards program for innovators whose work has had broad impact on “pressing problems” in the U.S. and around the world.
Skoll tends to support large organizations, incubators and social enterprise funds, which, in turn, make smaller grants to organizations that have direct impact in the foundation’s areas of interest. Unfortunately, it’s not an accessible funder, preferring a proactive approach and choosing instead to take recommendations from its community of nonprofits and social enterprises. This is a collaborative funder that likes to fund grantees for multiple cycles, providing long-term support, which makes breaking into this space even more competitive. This is a good partner to have if you’re looking to scale.
PROFILE: The Skoll Foundation was established in 1999 by Jeff Skoll, a Canadian tech innovator who was eBay’s first president and first full-time employee. Skoll has since gone on to found the Jeff Skoll Group, a portfolio of philanthropic and commercial enterprises that includes Participant Media. Based in Palo Alto, California, the Skoll Foundation envisions “a sustainable world of peace and prosperity for all.” In addition to traditional grantmaking, Skoll has supported entrepreneurs and for-profit social enterprises that have the potential to effect significant change in the foundation’s areas of interest, which include health and pandemics, climate action, inclusive economies, effective governance, Justice and equity, and Information Integrity. The foundation also runs awards and fellowship programs. Most notable among these is the Skoll Awards For Social Innovation, which annually invests in a group of organizations “whose work targets the root causes of societal problems that are ripe for transformational social change.”
Grants for Global Development, Global Security and Human Rights
The Skoll Foundation’s grantmaking for global development stems from its inclusive economies and effective governance grantmaking areas. In recent years, grantmaking from these two programs has focused on issues in the U.S., but some international organizations and programs continue to receive support. Grantmaking for inclusive economies “supports social innovations that create more inclusive economic systems and advance economic dignity for the marginalized.” Skoll’s work in this area has focused on initiatives that promote “equitable access to capital” as well as sustainable growth for underserved geographical areas and communities. Past grantees include GoodWeave, an organization that aims to end child labor in developing countries around the world, and Root Capital, a U.S.-based organization that offers low-cost loans and financial advisement to small businesses in rural areas of Africa and Latin America.
Skoll also makes grants for global development via its effective governance program, which “supports social innovations that promote effective governance, strengthen democratic institutions, and advance global security.” It currently focuses on election practices in the U.S., but has also supported global initiatives that support nuclear nonproliferation initiatives and governmental protections of human rights in developing nations. Past grantees include Namati, which works with grassroots organizations to train legal advocates for citizenship rights, land stewardship and health, and the Social Progress Imperative, a U.S.-based organization that calculates and publishes the Social Progress Index, an indicator that quantifies quality of life “independent of economic indicators” of the world’s nations. In the area of nuclear nonproliferation, the foundation has provided ongoing support to the Ploughshares Fund and N-Square, a multinational, multidisciplinary effort to end the nuclear arms race.
Grants for Global Health
The Skoll Foundation makes grants for global health through its health and pandemics and effective governance grantmaking areas. The health and pandemics program is the foundation’s newest initiative and “supports social innovations helping to prevent the next pandemic and strengthen health systems.” It funded efforts to fight the COVID-19 crisis in South Asia, Latin America and Africa. The foundation partnered with the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Africa Donor Collaborative to support coordinated pandemic response “across government, business, civil society, and philanthropy.” Skoll also helped to prepare and protect frontline healthcare workers in Africa by supporting Direct Relief and VillageReach, an organization that partners with African governments to bring healthcare to underserved rural areas.
The Skoll Foundation also supports global health through its effective governance grantmaking, which has previously named health as an area of interest. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the foundation supported organizations that helped governments of developing countries to expand healthcare infrastructure and offer services to some of the poorest and most isolated people. One past grantee, the U.S.-based organization Last Mile Health, helps governments assemble and train teams of health professionals to serve people in remote areas. Other grantees include World Spine Care, Mothers2Mothers International and APOPO, an international organization that trains animals to detect tuberculosis.
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
The Skoll Foundation’s effective governance program has recently shifted gears to focus on pressing issues in the U.S., as opposed to the foundation’s more globally focused grantmaking of the previous decade. Skoll’s grantmaking focuses on protecting free and fair elections and rebuilding trust in government and public institutions throughout the U.S. In the area of elections, the foundation supported a collaboration between Stanford University and MIT, the Healthy Elections Project, which “brought together academics and election administration experts to assess and promote best practices to ensure that the election could proceed with integrity, safety, and equal access.” Another grantee, Georgia’s Fair Count, combats voter suppression and promotes civic engagement in geographic areas with traditionally low voter turnout. The foundation has also supported organizations that aim to “build civic trust in the U.S. in innovative ways.” One recent grant went to New Profit’s Civic Lab, a fund that invests and supports social entrepreneurs who advance equity and opportunity in the U.S. Other recent grantees include PushBlack and Pulso, both of which aim to educate and engage communities toward sustainable change.
Grants for Work and Economic Opportunity
Skoll’s grantmaking program for inclusive economies “aims to support a global transition to a new economic paradigm that centers the needs of all stakeholders—people and planet—and takes a long-term view to focus on economic well-being for all.” Areas of interest have included the development and advancement of equitable economic policy and initiative that help corporations and industry adopt inclusive and sustainable practices. The fund has made grants to PolicyLink, a research and policy development institute that promotes equitable economic practice and accountability in governance. Other grantees in the areas of work and economic opportunity include the Families and Workers Fund, Imperative 21 and Data for Black Lives.
Grants for Women and Girls
The Skoll Foundation does not currently run a grantmaking program exclusive to women’s and girls’ causes, but it supports global organizations that support women’s health and education. In Africa, the foundation’s grantees include Mothers2Mothers International, which provides health services and counseling to HIV+ mothers, and CAMFED, the Campaign for Female Education, which aims to effect broad improvements in girls’ education across the continent. The foundation has also made grants to India’s Educate Girls, which works to improve access to primary education for vulnerable children in India.
Grants for Racial Justice
Skoll’s pursuing justice and equity funding program “supports social innovations that address inter-generational oppression, remove systemic barriers that limit opportunity, and elevate oppressed voices and narratives to shift attitudes and behavior.” A previous grant went to the NDN Collective, an indigenous-led collective that mobilizes communities “for justice and equity for all people and the planet.” Another grant supported the Asian American Pacific Islander Civic Engagement Fund, a collaborative that works with grassroots groups and communities to “foster a culture of civic participation.” Other recipients include New York Harm Reduction Educators, the youth group Radical Monarchs and For Freedoms, which engages artists and arts organizations in political discourse and action.
Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy
The Skoll Foundation’s climate action funding takes a broad approach to climate change mitigation and justice on a global scale. It “supports social innovations that mitigate climate change, influence private sector action, advance climate justice in partnership with the hardest-hit communities, and build strong support for climate action globally.” Recent areas of specific focus include initiatives to engage the private sector in the adoption of clean energy, policy development for clean energy and mitigation and support for communities that suffer disproportionately from climate change and pollution. The foundation made a $6 million grant to the Alliance for Climate Protection and a $2 million grant to Root Capital, which invests in sustainable agriculture in developing countries. Skoll also supports global climate change and conservation organizations including the Environmental Defense Fund, Echoing Green and Selco Capital, which has overseen large-scale solar projects in India.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
The Skoll Foundation also has a program focused on Information Integrity that touches on and informs each of its other priority areas. According to Skoll’s website, “Rampant information disorder […] threatens progress on justice and equity, effective governance, climate action, health, and many other societal goals.” Consequently, this area works to combat misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech and “supports social innovations that help build resilience to information disorder, bolster trusted information sources, and realign incentives of technology platforms to better serve democratic values and the public good.”
In addition to its grantmaking and investments in for-profit social enterprise, the foundation runs awards and fellowship programs. The Skoll Award for Social Innovation is generally awarded in the amount of $2 million to “a select group of social innovators whose work targets the root causes of societal problems that are ripe for transformational social change.” The foundation also occasionally grants a Global Treasure Award “to someone who would rightly be described as a global treasure.” Past recipients include Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter. The foundation also awards World Forum Fellowships that help leaders and change makers from developing countries attend the foundation’s annual event at Oxford.
Important Grant Details:
The Skoll Foundation makes between $20 and $35 million a year in grants, with an average grant size of about $5,000. Many of Skoll’s grantees receive multi-year support that totals several millions. The foundation’s largest giving areas are health, inclusive economies and effective governance, and it tends to give to large, collaborative funds and policy groups based in the U.S. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s community page or its recent tax filings.
This funder does not run an open grant application program. The Skoll Foundation works through its established community of social innovators. The foundation’s website features detailed profiles of its board and staff members, as well as a general contact page.
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