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Skoll Foundation

The Skoll Foundation presents itself as a philanthropic organization focused on catalyzing transformational, systems-level social change. It supports social entrepreneurs, movement builders, system orchestrators, and global coalitions advancing equitable solutions to global problems. The foundation operates through strategic grantmaking—most notably its unrestricted $2 million Skoll Award for Social Innovation—and by investing a significant portion of its endowment in impact-aligned causes. It also convenes leaders annually at the Skoll World Forum. The foundation's strategic priorities center on strengthening global health systems (particularly community health workers), climate action and environmental sustainability (including preventing deforestation and securing Indigenous land rights), reimagining inclusive economies (such as supporting smallholder agriculture, employee ownership, and girls' education), promoting effective governance, and advancing racial justice. Its approach emphasizes cross-sector collaboration, centering equity, and empowering leaders with lived experience proximate to the challenges they address.

Publications 2026 calendar Monday brief Language on the move Search their words

Skoll Foundation

Noubar Afeyan, the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering and the co-founder and board chair of Aurora Humanitarian Init

This is what it looks like to cultivate local identity and voice within a global conversation.

The truest, most lasting form of peace is the one cultivated from person to person—not governments.

Last night, the Skoll World Forum community gathered to celebrate the 2026 Skoll Award for Social Innovation recipients:

As mission-driven organizations explore how to adapt to a changing sector, radical candor deserves a seat at the table.

At the 2026 Skoll World Forum, Richard Gere joined Project Dandelion Co-Founder and Skoll Board member Pat Mitchell to d

Jagdish, a laborer in Delhi, India, has been working as a mason for over 15 years, as his father did before him. He is o

Social entrepreneurs know: solving the biggest challenges of our time requires radical collaboration. It requires forgin

Releasing next week, a new short documentary “From Fields to Flight” follows Babita, a girl from India’s hinterlands who

It took a village (and then some) to get Tarun Cherukuri to the #SkollWF stage: six public institutions across three cou

Just one hour after delivering at home, a mother carried her newborn—blue and struggling— across Karachi on a motorcycle

Grace Matlhape grew up surrounded by civic-minded women in South Africa who organized resistance marches and made trays

A school’s impact cannot be understated. It creates a place where every child feels seen, safe, and filled with possibil

Building lasting partnerships takes more than a few moments of alignment. It requires sustained commitment, even when pr

Millions of India’s most vulnerable citizens are legally entitled to benefits like scholarships, labor protections, and

Our partners show us every day: voice matters. Whose voices get elevated, amplified, and celebrated has a profound impac

If AI is to serve us all, it must be built by us all.

Where does your music come from?

Smallholder farmers produce one-third of the world’s food yet receive only 0.3 percent of climate finance. A “just green

Former President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos brokered a peace agreement that ended more than 50 years of armed confli

Meet Babita: a drone pilot determined to rise beyond the limits set for her.

Change begins with education.

“I am committed to … using every part of the [capital] continuum to drive impact.”

After street vendors’ livelihoods are threatened, Manoj Kumar Rai transforms from a roadside paan seller into a communit

In India, nearly 30% of pregnancies are classified as high-risk, yet many women, especially in rural areas, remain unawa

No child should die because of where they were born.

Last month, social entrepreneurs and other innovative leaders from around the world came together in Oxford and online t

Empowered mothers lead to stronger communities.

When systems feel broken, community voice can be the fix.

At #SkollWF, Zia Akhter Abbas of The Citizens Foundation made a straightforward case: to help girls stay in school, brin

Wonderful recognition in Devex this month of the remarkable work by our partners at TheSidebar to expand the social chan

Lucia Ixchíu and Kynan Tegar brought the spirit of Earth’s enduring strength to the Opening Plenary of the 2026 Skoll Wo

#SkollWF takeaways from Axios

Human, animal, and planetary health are deeply interconnected.

Culture and policy are intertwined. That is why Alessandra Orofino is dedicated to influencing the climate conversation

Philanthropy cannot fill the gaps left by sovereign aid, “but what we can do is set the table.” - Marla Blow, Skoll Fou

What if trust in health care was less about trusting hospitals and more about trusting patients?

In South Africa, 15,000 women are running home-based preschools that reach 160,000 children every week. These women are

Who can new parents turn to when they don’t know what to do?

The Indigenous community of Sawesuma in Papua, Indonesia has relied on the sago palm tree for generations.

“What must we become to truly actualize the possibilities that face us today?”

As the world changes, so must global philanthropies.

“The people that are the closest to the problems are also the closest to the solutions.”

Across our core funding areas—climate, health, girls’ education, and smallholder agriculture—women form the backbone of

Months after the #SkollWF, we’re still carrying the energy from Oxford.

The world over, innovative social entrepreneurs are advancing lasting, transformational change in their communities. Thi

In times of disruption, sometimes the boldest thing to do is stay the course.

“This time requires courage, it requires wisdom, and it requires partnership.”

Systemic challenges call for systemic solutions.

What if the solution to the global health crisis already exists, and has been proven to save millions of lives? Muso, co

Congratulations on this important step forward! Proud to support this collaboration so more people around the world have

What do you want the world to look like in 50 years?

Access to health care is a challenge across the world, but particularly in India, where 70 percent of the population liv

When it comes to improving community health, it’s critical to share information in a way everyone can understand.

Global health innovator Muso documented a 63% drop in child mortality inside an active conflict zone. It’s the largest a

Meet Shellyna, an entrepreneur transforming public health and creating jobs in rural Bangladesh while challenging multip

Our team is back in the United States after a powerful visit to Nairobi for #Segal2026 #TheNextBeat, and Chief Program O

Getting sick shouldn’t cost you everything. In parts of West Africa, it no longer does. Muso has built a collaborative h

We’re proud to support C3 EmpowerHer and women-centered enterprises across the Middle East and North Africa that are lea

The healthcare model that's supporting children

Protecting the Amazon Basin—home to 47 million people, including 400 Indigenous communities—requires listening deeply to

ChildLife Foundation saves thousands of children’s lives—but that’s not the only impact it has in Pakistan.

Congratulations to Wawira Njiru on being named to the 2026 #TIME100Next list. She and her team at Food4Education (a 2024

Another huge step forward for community health and a major honor for one of our longstanding partners: Congratulations t

In early childhood, we have an innate, unique ability to learn. But when this crucial period is missed, neural pathways

“I believe the future is very exciting with AI, especially in health. We could be solving problems which were too diffic

Across rural India, millions of girls drop out of school because of distance, early marriage, or family circumstances. B

When building an organization to save lives, every detail matters.

Ninety percent of India’s workforce is in the informal economy, leading many workers to rely on daily wages without the

Connecting with our partners at #UNGA affirmed our belief that impact doesn't happen alone; it takes a like-minded commu

“The other requirement for good collaboration is commitment.”

“If you cannot get the experts to the patient, can you get their expertise to the patient?”

In Sierra Leone’s coastal town of Bonthe, mangroves are an essential part of local life—for construction, food, and a so

The Amazon Basin is connected in ways that extend beyond national borders and country-level policy, and at the cross-bio

As world leaders converge in New York this week for #UNGA81 and #ClimateWeekNYC, we will be listening and learning along

In the thousands of community-based early childhood education centers that SmartStart South Africa supports across South

“If I could change one thing today, it’s to move from keynote speakers to keynote listeners.”

Congratulations to Shabana Basij-Rasikh on being named to the 2026 #TIME100Next list. Shabana and the team at School of

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