THE TOP 10 FOUNDATIONS FOR NGO FUNDING – WHO’S GIVING BILLIONS IN AID?
In this time of tight budgets, an overlooked source of donor funding, are private foundations.
By Geno Teofilo
6/29/20263 min read
In the NGO world, all NGOs and UN agencies have to constantly seek funding. Money must be found to start new relief programs or development projects, or to continue operating their well established, existing programs before they have to be shut down (for lack of funding). No lifesaving programs or development projects can start, or continue without generous donors. The biggest donors to NGOs for these important programs are usually government agencies, or United Nations agencies (who also get their funding from governments).
But another often overlooked source of donor funding, are private foundations. They award BILLIONS in grants for relief and development every year. Some are well known, and regularly make the news. Others, you probably never heard of, but they are from billion dollar corporations, that you have definitely heard of.
There are many foundations worth mention. Below are the top 10 that are above the rest in annual grants, that are given for relief and development worldwide.
Top 10 Private Foundations for Global Relief and Development
About the above:
7 of the top 10 foundations that are funding NGOs today are based in the USA. That’s not surprising. America is the world’s wealthiest country, with the most billionaires, and the most mult-billionaire corporations. Add to that, America has a long tradition of charity. While the current White House administration has made extreme and drastic cuts to foreign aid, including for relief and development, that will not change the American culture of helping those in times of need. These foundations are private, and they will continue to fund relief and development, out of reach of political cuts to government funding.
4 of the top 10 foundations are based in New York City. Following the wealth trend above, New York City is America’s financial capital, home of Wall Street, many of the world’s biggest banks, and many billionaires (such as Michael Bloomberg, and the Rockefeller family, who have foundations). The concentration of wealth, led to the creation of these foundations.
The oldest of these 10 is the Rockefeller Foundation, founded in 1913. John D. Rockefeller made his wealth mainly from the Standard Oil Co. The newest is Coefficient Giving (former Open Philanthropy), founded in 2014. This was founded by Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna. Funding came from his early years as the first Chief Technology Officer of Facebook, and his later software business Asana.
Other notable foundations with major funding for relief and development include:
11) Oak Foundation Geneva, Switzerland $240M - $260M
12) The LEGO Foundation Billund, Denmark $220M – $250M
13) The Howard G. Buffett Foundation Decatur, USA $180M - $240M
14) William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Menlo Park, USA $150M - $180M
15) David and Lucile Packard Foundation Los Altos, USA $110M - $140M
While the primary focus for each foundation is listed above, they do fund other aspects of relief and development, but on a smaller scale.
Given that the American government budget for foreign aid has been drastically cut, foundations have filled a number of these critical funding gaps. However it has been nowhere near enough, as many lifesaving programs have been forced to close since 2024. With millions of people in urgent need of aid across the globe, funding for many crises is grossly inadequate. It is hoped that many more billionaires, and billionaire corporations, will create more foundations soon, to help fill the gaps left by these cuts to lifesaving relief and development programs.
(**NOTE** - Budgets frequently change, and different online reporting systems can give varying results. The above listed figures are best estimates, from publicly accessed data.)