The Skoll Foundation is a

private foundation A private foundation is a Tax exemption, tax-exempt organization that does not rely on broad public support and generally claims to serve humanitarian purposes. Unlike a Foundation (nonprofit), charitable foundation, a private foundation does no ...

based in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Billionaire entrepreneur

Jeffrey Skoll Jeffrey Stuart Skoll (born January 16, 1965) is a Canadian engineer, billionaire internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly thr ...

created the foundation in 1999. The total assets of the foundation (including its affiliated funds) amount to $1.127 billion as of 2018. The combined entities made

grants Grant or Grants may refer to: People * Grant (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Grant (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters ** Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), the 18th president of the U ...

totaling about $71 million in 2018 (and disbursements of $56M), based on unaudited numbers reported by the foundation. According to the most recent audited financial statements, the non-grant expenses for the foundation totaled around $17 million in 2018.

History

Skoll set up the foundation in 1999 to fund

social entrepreneurship Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, Startup company, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to ...

through awards, grants and educational programs at

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

Universities. Skoll, the first president of

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

, 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 Saïd Business School (Oxford Saïd or SBS) is the business school of the University of Oxford. The school is a provider of management education. Business and management classes started at Oxford in 1965 when the Centre of Management Studies, ...

. 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 April 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 South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. In March 2021, the foundation hired Marla Blow as its president and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

. She had formerly served as the senior vice president for social impact in North America for the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. 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,

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

s, water security,

nuclear proliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries, particularly those not recognized as List of states with nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapon states by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonl ...

, 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 Zika fever, also known as Zika virus disease or simply Zika, is an infectious disease caused by the Zika virus. Most cases have no symptoms, but when present they are usually mild and can resemble dengue fever. Symptoms may include fever, conju ...

virus during the

2016 Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

; 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 Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy Human food, food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Simila ...

hot spots. The foundation began funding research into pandemic preparedness and prevention in 2009. Simultaneously, the organization funded research into climate change

water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is ''physical.'' The other is ''economic water scarcity''. Physic ...

, 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 Cross-species transmission (CST), also called interspecies transmission, host jump, or spillover, is the transmission of an infectious pathogen, such as a virus, between hosts belonging to different species. Once introduced into an individual o ...

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 The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is a public health agency of the African Union to support the public health initiatives of member states and strengthen the capacity of their health institutions to deal with dis ...

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

at Oxford University to establish the

Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship is an academic entity for the advancement of social entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. The Centre's goal is to "maximise the impact of social entrepreneurship to trans ...

. 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 A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

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

leaders at the

Said Business School Said can refer to: * Speech, or the act of speaking * Saʽid, a male Arabic given name * Said (honorific), a honorific in Islamic culture * Said, Iran (disambiguation), multiple places in Iran * Port Said, a city in Egypt * Saïd Business Scho ...

at to discuss solutions to social challenges. The foundation held its first forum in 2004. Attendance was roughly 1200 as of the 2019 Forum, and the delegates represented around 80 countries. The event facilitates

impact investing Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an a ...

Notable speakers

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship

Each year, the Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. The foundation accepts nominations from within its network. The following list of Skoll Awards organized by year. Skoll claims the awards are to raise awareness through storytelling. "We felt that part of our mission was to create a ceremony where these folks are given more notoriety.”

References

External links

* {{Official website
List of Skoll Awardees

Skoll Global Threats Fund
Development charities based in the United States Foundations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in California Social entrepreneurship Social welfare charities based in the United States Organizations based in Palo Alto, California Organizations established in 1999 1999 establishments in California