Top Foundation Funders

1. Ford Foundation $55.8 M
2. Open Society Foundations $33.1 M
3. National Endowment for Democracy $15.7 M
4. Hivos $8.4 M
5. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation $6.8 M
6. The Oak Foundation $6.0 M
7. The California Endowment $5.7 M
8. Omidyar Network Fund $5.6 M
9. Wikimedia Foundation $5.6 M
10. EEA and Norway Grants $4.9 M
11. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation $4.5 M
12. Nationale Postcode Loterij $4.3 M
13. W. K. Kellogg Foundation $4.2 M
14. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation $4.1 M
15. Foundation For The Carolinas $4.0 M
16. The Atlantic Philanthropies $3.8 M
17. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation $3.1 M
18. American Jewish World Service $3.1 M
19. Humanity United $2.1 M
20. NoVo Foundation $2.0 M
21. UN Women's Fund for Gender Equality $1.8 M
22. The Sigrid Rausing Trust $1.5 M
23. The Nathan Cummings Foundation $1.4 M
24. The Skoll Foundation $1.3 M
25. Proteus Fund $1.2 M
26. M = Millions

Foundation Funding by Region

Region totals include both foundation grants directly to recipients based in the region specified and foundation grants to recipients located in other regions to do work benefiting the region specified. Grants may mention more than one region of benefit and therefore be counted in more than one category.

Foundation Funding by Issue

• Expression and Information Rights

  $80,289,015 (35%)
  670 Grants (28%)

• Civic and Political Participation

  $23,252,064 (10%)
  188 Grants (8%)

• Equality Rights and Freedom from Discrimination

  $20,523,781 (9%)
  279 Grants (12%)

• Sexual and Reproductive Rights

  $16,865,832 (7%)
  80 Grants (3%)

• Health and Well-being Rights

  $16,218,477 (7%)
  177 Grants (7%)

• Human Rights, General

  $16,137,168 (7%)
  188 Grants (8%)

• Freedom from Violence

  $10,516,012 (5%)
  147 Grants (6%)

• Economic and Labor Rights

  $9,407,293 (4%)
  85 Grants (4%)

• Environmental and Resource Rights

  $8,394,127 (4%)
  229 Grants (10%)

• Education, Religion, and Culture

  $8,090,011 (4%)
  125 Grants (5%)

• Migration and Displacement

  $7,551,090 (3%)
  70 Grants (3%)

• Access to Justice/Equality Before the Law

  $7,096,360 (3%)
  89 Grants (4%)

• Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding

  $2,608,059 (1%)
  51 Grants (2%)

Issue totals include foundation funding that could be identified as meant to address a specific issue. In order to provide unique totals and avoid double-counting, each foundation grant has been assigned to exactly one issue category within the human rights taxonomy.

Foundation Funding by Population

• Women & Girls

  $43,534,639 (19%)
  520 Grants (22%)

• Children & Youth

  $33,678,773 (15%)
  412 Grants (17%)

• Migrants & Refugees

  $16,855,421 (7%)
  190 Grants (8%)

• Indigenous Peoples

  $9,192,604 (4%)
  143 Grants (6%)

• LGBTQI

  $8,589,441 (4%)
  123 Grants (5%)

• People with Disabilities

  $4,531,611 (2%)
  60 Grants (3%)

• Human Rights Defenders

  $2,936,567 (1%)
  36 Grants (2%)

• Sex Workers

  $390,132 (0%)
  9 Grants (0%)

Population totals include foundation funding that could be identified as meant to benefit a specific group. Grants may serve multiple populations and would therefore be counted in more than one category.

Sample Grants

• Funder The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
  Recipient Well Told Story (Kenya)
  Description For the ShujaazFM youth communications and social change initiative.
• Funder Ukrainian Women's Fund
  Recipient Pro-Cimislia (Moldova)
  Description To attract active young leaders to the First Step to Success Program by developing and placing materials in mass media and creating pages in social networks to share the diverse opportunities of the program.