Skoll Foundation

Skoll Foundation is a US private foundation based in Palo Alto, CA.

Profile derived from the foundation's IRS Form 990-PF filings (TY2024, TY2023, TY2022) and its website, with every statement checked against those sources. Sources read on 7 October 2026.

Priority Areas

The Skoll Foundation invests in social entrepreneurs and other social innovators with a compelling vision, creative solutions and proven approaches, whose organisations advance bold and equitable solutions to pressing problems. Its stated priorities include strengthening global health systems through community health; securing Indigenous land rights and developing climate-positive, forest-based economies; expanding economic opportunity through sustainable, climate-resilient smallholder agriculture; and removing barriers to girls’ education and economic independence. It favours leaders proximate to the communities they serve and approaches grounded in lived experience and collaboration. The foundation supports organisations tackling interconnected problems and focuses on problems and places ripe for change with high potential for major impact. Its Skoll Awards provide unrestricted funding to organisations with demonstrated impact and potential to catalyse transformational change.

Themes

• Community health
• Indigenous land rights
• Smallholder agriculture
• Girls’ education

Geographic Focus

Priority: Around the world.

What They Don't Fund

• Skoll Awards for Social Innovation only: Individuals, either through scholarships or other forms of financial support; New or concept-stage business plans or ideas; Programs promoting religious or ideological doctrine, such as those principally sectarian in nature; Lobbying (beyond that allowed by law for charitable organizations); Film financing; Endowments, cash reserves, or deficit reductions; Public schools and school districts; Institutions that discriminate on the basis of race, creed, age, gender, or sexual orientation in policy or practice; Event sponsorship; Political campaigns; Organizations whose missions and work focus on a single municipality, province, or state; Local offices of parent organizations or specific programs within organizations

Candidates are identified through a multi-year sourcing process, including direct engagement and referrals or nominations from the foundation’s partner network. The foundation does not accept direct applications; an organisation must be referred or nominated by a network partner to be considered.

• Repeat giving: In its TY2024 filing, 83% of its grant dollars to organisations went to organisations it had also funded in its TY2022 or TY2023 filing.
• Grant size: Across its TY2022, TY2023 and TY2024 filings, half of its 682 grants to organisations were $100,000 or less.

What the foundation says:

• The organisation or initiative should target transformational, system-level impact, working above the community level and having a compelling plan for long-term growth and sustainability.
• The organisation should have strong leadership and governance, sound finances and partnerships that enable it to scale its work.
• The organisation should show a track record of impact and a learning orientation that helps it increase impact over time.
• The organisation should be at a critical inflection point, with a system poised to shift and its impact poised to scale.
• The organisation should be proximate to the challenge it works to address.
• The award should uniquely catalyse the organisation’s work, and the organisation should benefit from the Skoll network and other resources.