Development philanthropy has increased dramatically in the last ten years.
Private foundations are set up by individuals, families or groups of individuals and unlike charities do not generally seek funding from the public.
Foundations are therefore potentially able to take greater financial and innovation risks than government donors and so can bring an exciting new approach to the table.
Additionally, Foundations and their high-profile founders and supporters are often able to engage the media very effectively to gain maximum exposure for development issues.
Foundations are becoming major players in international development. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives approximately US$800 million annually for global health alone. This approaches the annual budget of the United Nations World Health Organization (made up of 193 nations). The Foundation provided 17% (US$86 million) in 2006 of the global resources for polio eradication.
DFID is currently engaging with over 20 private foundations on development initiatives. These are generally through non-financial collaboration - sharing knowledge and expertise.
For example, through membership of the International Forum for Research Donors, DFID's research and evidence department has strategic discussions with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and others. These are aimed at sharing knowledge on areas like research, communication and value for money.
DFID also co-funds programmes with some foundations. For example, alongside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we have funded:
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also one of the founding donors to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (the GAVI Alliance). It has taken the lead on working with vaccine manufacturers to reduce vaccine prices and develop new vaccines. This is an important area DFID will continue to collaborate with the Foundation.
While we may jointly fund a particular programme, we will rarely fund the foundations themselves. An exception is the Clinton Foundation, where we provided £9 million over three years to the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). Chaired by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) is saving lives in low and middle-income countries, by helping people gain access to essential medicines and health services.
DFID also collaborates with the Nike Foundation which invests in adolescent girls as a powerful force for change and poverty alleviation in the developing world.
The Nike Foundation's expertise in communications and working with girls, combined with the reach, scale and knowledge of DFID creates a powerful partnership in the GirlHub joint venture. GirlHub aims to transform the lives of girls and influence decision-makers in developing countries to do more for girls and to do it better.
The Transparency and Accountability Initiative (TAI) was launched in March 2010, and is co-chaired by DFID and the George Soros Open Society Foundation. It helps citizens to hold governing institutions to account and brings together private donors to stimulate innovation in major areas of development work such as climate financing, natural resource governance, aid and budget transparency.
In terms of grant making private foundations have been seen in the past as less transparent than government organisations. However many foundations, are seeking to increase their transparency and accountability to recipient communities. Where DFID works on joint programmes with foundations we encourage enhanced transparency and accountability and actively share our experience in these area.
The influence and impact of private foundations in international development continues to grow. Therefore they are important partners in global development. Many parts of DFID have direct technical and programme links with foundations but we are seeking to build on these to develop more strategic dialogues on the role of foundations in the changing development architecture. To support this, DFID has dedicated staff capacity in the Global Partnerships Department (GPD) to take this forward. Contact Matt Easton in GPD for more information.
We are holding the first DFID-hosted event for UK-based foundations at the end of January 2013, aimed at sharing our experience and views on how we might work together better to address the international development challenges of the coming years.
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DFID worked with the Gates Foundation and the GAVI Alliance to raise the money to vaccinate 250 million children. Picture: Giacomo Pirozzi/Panos