OVERVIEW: The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is a major global grantmaker with an interest in early childhood health and development, career pathways for youth, refugees, safe water and the work of the Catholic sisters around the world. In the U.S., Hilton supports early childhood education, foster youth and initiatives to end homelessness with an emphasis on Southern California.
IP TAKE: The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation became one of the largest family foundations in the U.S. in 2019, when Barron Hilton – the son of foundation founder Conrad N. Hilton – passed away, leaving 97% of his wealth to the foundation. Today, the Hilton Foundation holds over $7 billion in assets and continues to expand its grantmaking and global partnerships. Inside Philanthropy founder David Callahan has characterized Hilton as a foundation “that stands out for its deep compassion.” Its focus areas have evolved over the decades, but its commitment to its founding mandate to “relieve the suffering, the distressed and the destitute” has remained constant.
The Hilton Foundation is something of a moonshot for grantseekers. It takes a proactive approach to grantmaking and does not accept unsolicited inquiries. Hilton is oriented toward measurable results. It also tends to form long-term relationships with its grantees and engages in evaluation and research, which it shares widely via its website, conferences and other events. While the foundation is not particularly accessible, it is transparent. Its well-organized website features detailed information about its financials and grantees, as well as its staff and board, who may be contacted via social media.
PROFILE: The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was established in 1944 by hotel magnate Conrad N. Hilton. The foundation’s articles of incorporation require that “direct descendants of Conrad Hilton constitute a majority of the board.” In its mission statement, the founder further stipulates that because “the funds you will expend have come from many places in the world […] so let there be no territorial, religious, or color restrictions on your benefactions.” Hilton more recently committed to practicing and advocating for the use of strategic partnerships in philanthropy. Its website states, “We take a multi-sectoral approach to solving the entrenched problems that society faces: engaging philanthropy, private companies, government institutions, and civil society.”
- The foundation’s core grantmaking focus areas in Catholic Sisters, Foster Youth, Global Early Childhood Development, Homelessness, Opportunity Youth, Refugees and Safe Water. To a lesser extent, the foundation supports Disaster Relief and Recovery and Aviation.
- The Hilton Foundation also awards the annual Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, which grants $2.5 million to “a nonprofit organization judged to have made extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering.” It is “the world’s largest annual humanitarian award presented to a nonprofit organization.”
- Additionally, the foundation supports Locally-Led Development and runs a distinct program to pursue this objective. Hilton has committed to giving at least 25% of its international grantmaking to local organizations, and advocates for others in the sector to do the same. It also supports research and advocacy in the area of locally-led development “to show that outcomes are more impactful and sustained through local resourcing.”
Grants for Global Development and Health
The Hilton Foundation makes grants for global development and health through its Catholic Sisters, Global Early Childhood Development, Safe Water and Locally-Led Development programs.
- The initiative to support Catholic Sisters focuses on “providing resources to strengthen the skills of individual sisters, reinforcing the leadership and sustainability of congregations while fostering collaborative networks among Catholic sisters worldwide.”
- The U.S.-based African Sisters Education Collaborative received a grant of $6.5 million for its education and leadership development programs for “[s]isters [who] serve in areas that are geographically difficult to reach, lack adequate infrastructure and suffer from harsh climates, war, natural disasters, disease and violence.”
- Other grantees include major grants have supported Catholic University of Africa, the Catholic Health Association of India, the Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, which received about $2 million for their human services mission in rural areas of Haiti.
- Global Early Childhood Development takes a “two-generation approach that empowers caregivers and strengthens health services, providers, and policies for better child development outcomes.” According to the program’s current strategy, the foundation will make grants through 2025 to “scale effective approaches” and earmarks funds for research and evaluation that will “strengthen the global field for improved ECD.” It is likely that the foundation will unveil a new strategy statement for its work in this area beyond 2025.
- Grantmaking prioritizes initiatives and programs in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania.
- Grantee partners include Tanzania’s Hakielimu, which is involved in “early childhood development accountability” and REPSSI, which used funding to work in Mozambique “to improve the parenting practices and wellbeing of adolescent mothers and young women with children aged 0-3.”
- South Africa’s Stellenbosch University received funding to support grantee evaluations involving the measurement and analysis of relationships among “caregiver well-being, caregiving practices, and child development.”
Hilton’s Safe Water initiative operates in Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda and collaborates with communities, governmental agencies and others to support “stakeholders with system-strengthening and sustainable service delivery” of safe water and sanitation services.
- In addition to increasing access to clean water, the initiative maintains an evaluative component, identifying successful strategies and technologies for replication in other parts of the world.
- Ghana’s Ahafo Region Coordinating Council has received ongoing support for its work creating and scaling WASH master plans for its districts. Another grantee partner, Water4, Inc., received funding to expand an existing water facility to homes in Kaborole, Uganda. Other grantees of this program include Water Aid America, Water.org, Splash International and Care, Inc.
- The foundation’s Locally-Led Development program is a commitment to “allocate at least 25% of our international grantmaking to local organizations.”
- The strategy acknowledges that communities often “hold the deepest understanding of the challenges they face,” but don’t usually have the resources to effect change.
- In addition to partnering with “Global South leaders and bilateral agencies” to get funding where it will have the most impact, this program supports research on “how local resourcing leads to more impactful and sustained outcomes” and works to increase funding to community-led development issues.
Grants for Early Childhood Education and Public Health
A portion of Hilton’s Global Early Childhood Development works “to improve the developmental outcomes of all low-income young children (prenatal to three years) in Los Angeles County and the state of New Mexico.”
- Grantmaking focuses on caregiver support and prioritizes parents and caregivers under the age of 24. Additionally, funding supports capacity building for effective local organizations and practices, program evaluation and policy development for the expansion and improvement of early childhood services.
- Grantee partners in this work include UCLA’s Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, New Mexico’s Jardin de Los Ninos, Partners for Children South LA and the Changing Woman Initiative, which aims “to increase access to Indigenous doula and midwifery care for Native American birthing persons in New Mexico.”
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
The Hilton Foundation’s grantmaking for Refugees focuses on “improv[ing] the lives and livelihoods of refugee families and the communities hosting them.” Geographic priorities for this work include Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia and Uganda. The program’s specific goals include early childhood development programs, job and career development programs, forging collaborations with governments and communities and analyzing data for contribution to “to the global research and evidence base to drive innovative, sustainable and locally-led solutions.”
- One grantee partner, the Transcultural Psycho Social Organisation, operates in Africa, where it provides “support for refugee and host community members through mental health, positive parenting, and livelihoods interventions.” The foundation has also supported Kiva Microfunds, a nonprofit that helps refugees in Colombia, Ecuador and Uganda with financial security and access to services.
- Other grantees of this program include Colombia’s Fundacion Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar, which works toward the socioeconomic inclusion of migrant women, and the Acumen Fund, which supports “refugee owned and serving businesses in Uganda and Ethiopia.”
Grants for Housing, Homelessness, Work and Opportunity
The Hilton Foundation runs three programs that work in the areas of homelessness, housing and economic opportunity.
Grantmaking for Homelessness focuses on Los Angeles County and prioritizes the maintenance and expansion of permanent, affordable housing for high risk residents. In addition to housing programs, this initiative supports health and human services for vulnerable people, policy development for the prevention of homelessness and data analysis and research on successful interventions. Grantees of this program include the L.A. Family Housing Corporation, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
Hilton’s grantmaking for Foster Youth prioritizes young people between the ages of 14 and 26 who are either in or transitioning out of foster programs. Supports for transition age foster youth (TAY) include mental health, career development, educational and housing programs, as well as programs that support caregivers, counselors and others who work with TAY.
Recent grantmaking has prioritized interventions for exceptionally high risk youth, including “young people of color, young people who have been exploited […] and young women who are pregnant.”
This grantmaking program is national in scope. Grants have gone to New York City’s Anthos Home, Los Angeles’s Alliance for Children’s Rights and the Multi-Agency Alliance for Children in Atlanta.
The Hilton Foundation’s grantmaking program for Opportunity Youth focuses on young people between the ages of 14 and 24 “who are neither working nor in school.” Grants stemming from this program invest in programs and initiatives that work toward improved outcomes for this population.
The program funds direct services in the areas of career and skills development, as well as outreach to employers, policymakers and other stakeholders that impact the lives of opportunity youth. As with several other of Hilton’s grantmaking program, funding prioritizes “equity for those historically excluded,” including women, youth of color, immigrants and LGBTQ youth.
A grantee of this program, Lede New Orleans, offers journalism training to opportunity youth “to cover issues that affect them and uplift positive youth narratives.”
The foundation has also supported Los Angeles’s Liberty Hill Foundation, the Youth Transition Funders Group and Unite-L.A., inc.
- Hilton’s smaller Aviation program earmarks funds to support “equitable participation of minorities and underrepresented groups in aviation and aerospace.” Support has gone to Girls in Aviation Day, the Aerospace Professionals in Schools program and the Smithsonian’s Early Learning Discovery Stations for young learners..
Grants for Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Aid
The Hilton Foundation runs two smaller grantmaking programs that respond to disasters and crises around the world.
- Disaster Relief and Recovery provides “fast, flexible funding” to organizations responding to both “severe” disasters and “global forgotten crises” that result in ongoing food insecurity and safety issues of prolonged periods of time.
- The Aviation giving area partners with organizations to assist with humanitarian missions, including but not limited to delivery of basic needs, evacuations and transportation for medical personnel.
- Related grants have gone to organizations including the International Medical Corps, Air Serv International and AirLink.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
The Hilton Humanitarian Prize is awarded annually to one nonprofit “judged to have made extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering.” The prize is awarded in the amount of $2.5 million.
- This program “receives hundreds of nominations from around the world” each year. Nominees “are carefully vetted and reviewed which leads to a shortlist of finalists,” and the winner is selected by a jury comprised of “one Hilton Foundation board member, one Hilton family member, and six independent jurors from around the world whose experience in the humanitarian and development sectors uniquely position them to identify exceptional organizations.”
- Past laureates include the One Acre Fund, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Africa’s Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) and Homeboy Industries, among others.
Important Grant Details:
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation makes grants ranging from $15,000 to several million. Most grants fall in the $100,000 to $500,000 range.
This funder supports organizations of all sizes, but large national organizations and global NGOs get the largest grants.
This funder likes to “cultivate long-term projects and partner with organizations whose efforts are aligned with our program strategies.”
Catholic organizations number significantly among Hilton’s grantees.
U.S. grantmaking prioritizes Los Angeles County, but grants have supported national organizations and organizations operating in other areas.
The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.
For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s searchable grants database.
- The foundation’s staff may be reached by telephone at (818)815-3700 or via its contact page.
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