The Skoll Foundation is an American private foundation based in Washington D.C. as of 2026, having relocated from Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. It was founded by Jeffrey Skoll in 1999.
The Skoll Foundation's total assets (including its affiliated funds) exceed $2 billion as of 2025. The combined entities made grant disbursements totaling about $106 million in 2025, based on unaudited numbers reported by the foundation. According to Skoll's most recent audited financial statements (2024), the non-grant expenses for the foundation totaled around $32 million in 2025.
History Skoll set up the foundation in 1999 to fund social entrepreneurship through awards, grants and educational programs at Oxford and Harvard Universities. Skoll, the first president of eBay, created the Skoll Foundation after setting up the eBay Foundation.
In 2001, Skoll hired Sally Osberg, formerly the founding executive director of the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. Osberg was the foundation's first employee, president and CEO. Osberg claims that she led the organization through its startup, implementation and renewal phases. Osberg and her colleagues set up platforms to connect civil society members with private and public sector leaders. These platforms included partnerships with Sundance Festival and Oxford's Saïd Business School.
In 2003, Skoll established the private Skoll Foundation. The two entities, which have distinct governing bodies but share staff and offices, together operate the foundation's grantmaking and other programs.
In 2017, Osberg announced plans to step down from the role of CEO. In 2018, Richard Fahey assumed the role of interim president after 14 years of executive leadership at the foundation. In February 2019, Donald Gips was appointed as the foundation's CEO. Formerly, Gips served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa. In March 2021, the foundation hired Marla Blow as its president and chief operating officer. She had formerly served as the senior vice president for social impact in North America for the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. She was promoted to CEO as of June 1, 2025.
The foundation, which moved to its Palo Alto headquarters in 2004, also collaborated closely with the Skoll Global Threats Fund, established in 2009, to address climate change, pandemics, water security, nuclear proliferation, and conflict in the Middle East. Some of the fund's initiatives supported by the foundation have included an app, developed in partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Health, that allowed monitoring of health conditions and potential infection by the Zika virus during the 2016 Olympics; supporting surveillance technologies that identify epidemics at their earliest outbreak; and development of an online tool that will help policymakers identify global water risk and food security hot spots.
The foundation began funding research into pandemic preparedness and prevention in 2009. Simultaneously, the organization funded research into climate change water scarcity, nuclear weapons and conflict in the Middle East; it called this its Global Threats Fund. Previously, the foundation partnered with Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org to fund Nathan Wolfe's 2008 research into cross-species transmission amongst Cameroonian bushmeat hunters. In 2018 the fund created Ending Pandemics, a non-profit spun out from its research into pandemic detection and rapid response.
Skoll increased the foundation's 2020 grant to $200 million to respond to the pandemic's economic, health and social impact. The African Field Epidemiology Network, a group that works with Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention were the foundation's first COVID-related grantees. The foundation also gave sixty-four past and current Skoll grantees $50,000 in emergency funding during this period.
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford In 2003, the foundation donated $7.5M to the Saïd Business School at Oxford University to establish the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. The center studies and promotes socially purposed businesses and hosts a one-year MBA programme in social entrepreneurship. The grant also funded an endowed lectureship, program director, visiting fellows, five MBA student fellowships, visiting fellows, and the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Centre's activities concentrate on educating social change leaders, practical research and convening leaders in the social change field.
Skoll World Forum The annual Skoll World Forum assembles social entrepreneurship leaders at the Said Business School to discuss solutions to social challenges. The foundation held its first forum in 2004. Attendance was roughly 1,200 as of the 2019 Forum, and the delegates represented around 80 countries. The event facilitates impact investing.
In 2026, the event attracted thousands of philanthropists and social entrepreneurs, and artificial intelligence was a prominent topic of discussion. Comedian Trevor Noah discussed AI with Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and chairman of Moderna.
Notable speakers
The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship
Each year, the Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship: + Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship awardees Year Organization Awardee(s) 2005 Barefoot College Bunker Roy 2005 CAMFED Ann Cotton 2005 Citizen Schools Eric Schwarz 2005 Fair Trade USA Paul Rice 2005 Fundación Paraguaya Martin Burt 2005 GoodWeave International Nina Smith 2005 Institute for One World Health Victoria Hale 2005 International Development Enterprises Amitabha Sadangi 2005KickStart International 2005 Recode (formerly the Center for Digital Inclusion) Rodrigo Baggio 2005 Root Capital Willy Foote 2005 Sonidos de la Tierra Luis Szaran 2005 WITNESS Gillian Caldwell 2006 Afghan Institute of Learning Sakena Yacoobi 2006 Aflatoun Jeroo Billimoria 2006 Benetech Jim Fruchterman 2006 Ceres Mindy Lubber 2006 Ciudad Saludable Albina Ruiz 2006 Community and Individual Development Association City Campus Taddy Blecher 2006 Health Care Without Harm Gary Cohen 2006 Institute for Development Studies and Practices Quratulain Bakhteari 2006 International Bridges to Justice Karen I. Tse 2006 PeerForward formally, College Summit J.B. Schramm 2006 Riders for Health 2006 Room to Read John Wood 2006 Roots of Peace Heidi Kuhn 2006 Saude Crianca Vera Cordeiro 2006 Search for Common Ground 2006 VillageReach Blaise Judja-Sato 2007 Friends International Sebastien Marot 2007 Fundacion Escuela Nueva Vicky Colbert 2007 Global Footprint Network 2007 Gram Vikas Joe Madiath 2007 Kashf Foundation Roshaneh Zafar 2007 Manchester Bidwell Corporation William Strickland 2007 Marine Stewardship Council Rupert Howes 2007 Verité Daniel Viederman 2007 WE, formerly Free The Children 2007 YouthBuild USA Dorothy Stoneman 2008 Amazon Conservation Team 2008 American Council on Renewable Energy Michael Eckhart 2008 Arzu Connie Duckworth 2008 Digital Divide Data 2008 Kiva 2008 mothers2mothers 2008 OneSky Jenny Bowen 2008 OneVoice Movement Daniel Lubetzky 2008 Partners In Health Paul Farmer 2008 Population and Community Development Association Mechai Viravaidya 2008 Voice of the Free, formerly Visayan Forum Foundation Maria Cecilia Flores-Oebanda 2009 APOPO Bart Weetjens 2009 Bioregional Development Group 2009 EcoPeace Middle East 2009 Gaia Amazonas Martin von Hildebrand 2009 INJAZ Al-Arab Soraya Salti 2009 International Center for Transitional Justice 2009 Teach for All Wendy Kopp 2009 Vision Spring Jordan Kassalow 2009 Water.org Gary White 2010 Building Markets Scott Gilmore 2010 Encore.org Marc Freedman 2010 Forest Trends Michael Jenkins 2010 Imazon 2010 One Acre Fund Andrew Youn 2010 Telapak 2010 Tostan Molly Melching 2011 Health Leads Rebecca Onie 2011 New Teacher Center Ellen Moir 2011 Pratham Madhav Chavan 2011 Water for People Ned Breslin2012Gawad Kalinga 2012 Landesa Tim Hanstad 2012 Proximity Designs 2012NidanArbind Singh 2013 BasicNeeds Chris Underhill 2013 The Citizens Foundation Mushtaq Chhapra 2013 Crisis Action Gemma Mortensen 2013 Independent Diplomat Carne Ross 2013 Khan Academy Sal Khan 2013 World Health Partners Gopi Gopalakrishnan 2014 B Lab 2014 Fundación Capital Yves Moury 2014 Girls Not Brides Mabel van Oranje 2014 Global Witness 2014 Medic Mobile Josh Nesbit 2014 Slum Dwellers International Jockin Arputham 2014 Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) Sam Parker 2015 Blue Ventures lasdair Harris 2015 Educate Girls Foundation Safeena Husain 2015 Foundation for Ecological Security Jagdeesh Rao Puppala 2015 Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs Ma Jun (environmentalist) 2016 Breakthrough 2016 Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson 2016 Living Goods Chuck Slaughter 2016 Namati Vivek Maru 2016 Videre Oren Yakobovich 2017 Babban Gona Kola Masha 2017 Build Change Elizabeth Hausler 2017 Last Mile Health Raj Panjabi 2017 Polaris Project Bradley Myles 2018 Angaza Lesley Silverthorn Marincola> 2018 Callisto (project) Jess Ladd 2018 Code for America Jennifer Pahlka 2018 Global Health Corps Barbara Bush 2018 myAgro Anushka Ratnayake 2018 SELCO India Harish Hande 2019 Crisis Text Line Nancy Lublin 2019 Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator 2019 mPedigree 2019 mPharma Gregory Rockson 2019 Thorn (organization) Julie Cordua 2020 ARMMAN Aparna Hegde 2020 Centre for Tech and Civil Life 2020 Glasswing International 2020 Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project 2020 International Council on Clean Transportation Drew Kodjak 2022Common FutureRodney Foxworth2022Financing Alliance for HealthAngela Gichaga2022MapBiomasTasso Azevedo2022NDN CollectiveNick Tilsen2022Noora Health Edith Elliott Shahed Alam2022NOSSASAlessandra Orofino2023AMAN2023Reach Digital HealthDebbie Rogers2023Protect DemocracyIan Bassin2023ConexsusCarina Pimenta2023PolicyLinkMichael McAfee2024Food for EducationWawira Njiru2024IllumiNative Crystal Echo Hawk Michael Johnson2024MeedanEd Bice2024SaveLIFE FoundationPiyush Tewari2025Apis & Heritage Capital Partners (A&H) Todd Leverette Philip Reeves2025Community Health Impact Coalition Madeleine Ballard Margaret Odera 2025EarthEnable Gayatri Datar 2025Healthy Learners Lonnie Hackett Ignicious Bulongo 2025Pacto pela Democracia Flávia Pellegrino 2026 Childlife Foundation Ahson Rabbani 2026 Indus Action Tarun Cherukuri 2026 SmartStart Grace Matlhape
See also Social entrepreneurship Maryana Iskander Saïd Business School
References
Further reading
Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works by Sally R. Osberg and Roger L. Martin. Harvard Business Review Press, 2015. Wish You Happy Forever: What China's Orphans Taught Me about Moving Mountains by Jenny Bowen. HarperCollins Publishers, 2014. However Long the Night: Molly Melching's Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph by Aimee Molloy. HarperCollins Publishers, 2014. The Business of Good: Social Entrepreneurship and the New Bottom Line by Jason Haber. Entrepreneur Press, 2016. Anne-Marie Slaughter, "Social Entrepreneurs can give the government a lift," Financial Times May 77, 2016, retrieved 2017-02-17 at Social entrepreneurs can give the government a lift "Al Gore is hugely optimistic when it comes to one thing about climate change," Quartz, April 15, 2016, Al Gore is hugely optimistic when it comes to one thing about climate change Sebastien Turbot, "The Web connects me to the world, but conferences unite me with my tribe," Entrepreneur, April 11, 2016, The Web Connects Me to the World, But Conferences Unite Me With My Tribe Adva Saldinger, "Mary Robinson on Climate and Development," Devex, April 26, 2016, Mary Robinson on climate and development