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: The Skoll Foundation is an influential U.S. philanthropy best known for support of social entrepreneurs and changemakers through its annual Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. According to past coverage at Inside Philanthropy, “the idea of finding and backing people with the vision to tackle big problems—and the talent to turn creative ideas into real-world results—has always been of more interest to Skoll than any one issue.” This focus has recently broadened, as Skoll seeks to not only identify and fund social entrepreneurs, but to strengthen the systems and networks supporting their work. This is a shift from the “who” to the “what,” according to Shivani Garg Patel, chief strategy officer at Skoll. While the Skoll Foundation conducts traditional grantmaking, it also supports for-profit social enterprises, hosts the powerhouse Skoll World Forum (which IP has reported on), and runs their prestigious Skoll Awards. Grants tend to support large organizations, incubators and social enterprise funds, which, in turn, make smaller grants to organizations that have a direct impact in the foundation’s areas of interest. Skoll also partners with media organizations like Sundance, NPR, and HarperOne as part of its “storytelling partnerships” program.

Skoll does not accept unsolicited grant proposals and is not a particularly accessible funder. Skoll has an internal process for selecting grantees and takes recommendations from its community of nonprofits and social enterprises. However, Skoll is collaborative funder and 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. For interested grantseekers, deep networking may be the best way to get onto Skoll’s radar.

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.” According to Skoll’s website, the foundation is composed of two separate funding entities: The Skoll Foundation along with The Skoll Fund, a supporting organization with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The latter is a donor-advised fund (DAF), and therefore its financial activities are more opaque.

The Skoll Foundation previously housed The Skoll Global Threats Fund, which sunset in 2017 and spun off into separate organizations that are no longer a part of the foundation: the Ending Pandemics initiative and the Climate Advocacy Lab.

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. 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

In addition to its other funding priorities, the effective governance program focuses 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 initiatives that help corporations and industries adopt inclusive and sustainable practices.
The foundation 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 Global Treasure Award goes “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 (which includes the Skull Fund, a DAF at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation) has disbursed around $100 million in grant payments annually in recent years, with the majority of grants ranging from $10,000 to $500,00. It held more than $1.5 billion in assets as of 2025. Many of Skoll’s grantees receive multi-year support that totals several million.

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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