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Global Security Grants

Learn more about grants for global security and grants for human rights by exploring Inside Philanthropy’s list of top global security and human rights nonprofits below. Subscribers can also explore funders using our Grant Finder Search Tool. Become a member.

Key Funders

Funding trends for global security philanthropy

The 2024 Global Peace Index found that “many of the conditions that precede major conflicts are higher than they have been since the end of the Second World War.” Conflict is becoming more widespread, and the nature of it is changing in a multipolar world with new technologies. After a retraction following the end of the Cold War, philanthropy for global security is growing again with the rise of new conflicts and threats to stability. With technology’s help, we can track global conflicts in real-time.

A 2019 survey by Candid and Centris showed that less than 1% of philanthropy goes to peace and security initiatives. But things have shifted since then, as Barry Knight reports in Alliance. Candid’s Peace and Security Funding Map indicates that global grantmaking for peace and security totaled at least $1 billion per year in 2021, 2022, and 2023, compared to around $700 million each year from 2018 to 2020. With a considerable amount of this funding happening in urgent response to the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, it remains to be seen whether there will be a long-term increase in giving for peace and security.

Peace and global security is a complex philanthropic space, which can be risky and challenging for funders. Further complications include social media and disinformation, AI, cyber security, and drones and other technology that contribute to the involvement of non-state groups. As the authoritarian turn in the geopolitical sphere returns, global philanthropy itself has been a target of efforts to close civic space, as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains.

 IP predicts a difficult road ahead for the few funders still dedicated to this space. That said, this is also an area where philanthropists can play a vital role addressing urgent needs and supporting long-term change. Grantmaking for global security overlaps with grantmaking for human rights, humanitarian relief, climate change, democracy, climate security, and other areas of philanthropy.

What do global security grants fund?

Grants for global security invest in a variety of projects and organizations, including efforts to prevent and resolve international conflicts, to build and promote peace, and to support stable and resilient societies.

This includes grants for research, institution building, policy advocacy, and grassroots activism. Philanthropy also addresses the effects of conflict and lack of stability with grants focused on humanitarian relief, food insecurity, the needs of refugees, and other specific impacts. 

Across this vast and varied philanthropic sector, funders are increasingly learning the importance of working at the local-level. Climate security and cyber security are also likely to see increasing grantmaker attention in coming years. 

Preliminary results from a 2023/24 survey by Social Change Initiative found that effective philanthropic interventions include “support for community-based peacebuilding, strengthening the capacity of organisations engaged in conflict transformation, supporting gender-based responses, and providing independent analysis and policy advice,” Barry Knight reported in Alliance.

History of grantmaking for global security 

As IP’s Philip Rojc previously reported, “mid-century magnates and prominent foundations were one key to the establishment of what has come to be known as the liberal international order.” In the aftermath of World War II, American philanthropists such as David Rockefeller resourced organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution that they hoped would advance peace and stability. Prominent philanthropists continued to focus on this area through the Cold War and the nuclear arms race.

Since the end of the Cold War, philanthropic attention has shifted to other priorities. The MacArthur Foundation’s wind-down of grantmaking to address nuclear challenges after four decades – with the final grants in this program made in 2022 – is one example of the post-Cold War shift. More recently, however, there are signs of renewed philanthropic attention to issues of peace and global security in the face of new global conflicts, new threats to security, and new forms of warfare.

Gaps in funding for global security 

Nuclear reduction is “historically underfunded,” Dr. Emma Belcher, CEO of the nuclear-focused Ploughshares Fund, told IP. That may be partly because it is a field where progress is incremental over decades, not the sort of issue where funders can expect to see an immediate return on investment. 

While philanthropic funding for peace has increased in the last few years, there is still a large gap between funding and need, especially in the face of multiple ongoing conflicts, the Social Change Initiative found. Reflecting on a 2024 gathering of 200 global delegates from the philanthropic and peace-building fields, SCI noted that funding for peacebuilding is inadequate overall, and “especially at the local cutting edge of conflict, where resources are often scarce.” Considering multiple forms of aid (not only philanthropy), the 2024 Global Peace Index highlights that “the limited bandwidth of the international community means that some well-known conflicts are likely to receive the bulk of aid and attention, while less publicized crises receive much less attention and aid than is required.”

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