Skoll Foundation Grants 2026: Award, Eligibility, Grants

Updated Nov 10, 20264 official sources

Quick Answer: If you're a nonprofit or social enterprise hoping to apply, the Skoll Foundation had no open grant application on November 10, 2026.

Full answer and how we checked it

Its FAQ says it "only accepts referrals and nominations from our network of partners" for the Skoll Awards, which pay $2 million in unrestricted funding to fewer than 10 organizations a year. According to its Form 990-PF for 2024 (EIN 11-3659133), the foundation paid $44.9 million in 157 grants; after setting aside dues and matching gifts, the median grant was $150,000. There's no form to fill in: the realistic routes are building a track record big enough to be noticed, and using funders that do take applications.

Who this is for: This guide is for nonprofits and social enterprises, in the U.S. and abroad, that have heard of Skoll Foundation grants or the Skoll Award and want to know whether they can apply, what the money looks like, and who actually receives it. It also helps development staff decide whether to spend time on Skoll at all. Grantsights isn't affiliated with the Skoll Foundation.

Data note: Grant figures come from the Skoll Foundation's own Form 990-PF for calendar year 2024, read from the e-filed return on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer on November 10, 2026. Grantsights parsed all 157 lines of the grants-paid list, and they add up exactly to the return's total of $44,853,705 paid during the year. Grantsights set aside 15 lines worth $279,161: 14 membership dues lines (Council on Foundations, Candid, PEAK Grantmaking and similar groups) and 1 employee matching gift line, because no one applies for them. That leaves 142 grants worth $44,574,544, median $150,000. A multi-year grant can appear as more than one line, so counts are payments, not separate awards.

Last updated: 2026-11-10.

In this guide

Skoll Foundation grants open now: 0 public applications
How the Skoll Award works: $2 million, by nomination
Who Skoll Foundation grants actually fund
How to get on Skoll's radar, step by step
What Skoll's Award Pages Don't Tell You
Where to look instead of Skoll
How Grantsights Checked This Guide
Sources

Find the foundations most likely to fund your organization

Type your organization's name. We'll show the foundations that fund groups like yours, from their own IRS filings, with the reasons for each. Free, no sign-up. See a sample

Free: up to 5 foundations that fund your kind of work in your state, by email. From their own IRS 990-PF filings, with what they gave and how to apply where reported.

Research leads from past filings, not open grants. Confirm current eligibility and dates. We'll also offer the weekly grant email. We'll also send 4 short follow-ups with more funders and how to approach them. Unsubscribe anytime.

Skoll Foundation grants open now: 0 public applications

Grantsights checked 4 Skoll pages on November 10, 2026 and found 0 open applications, 0 posted deadlines and 0 forms for unsolicited requests.

Skoll route	What it pays	Who can get it	How you get in	Status on November 10, 2026	Source
Skoll Award for Social Innovation	$2 million unrestricted per awardee organization	Proven organizations at sub-national scale or larger, nonprofit or for-profit	Sourcing, referrals and nominations from Skoll's partner network	No public call. 2026 awardees named April 7, 2026	Skoll Awards page (opens in a new tab)
Other Skoll grants (operating support, project grants)	$2,500 to $7.0 million per line on the 2024 return	Organizations Skoll already knows	Skoll identifies them; no application described	No application.	Skoll FAQ (opens in a new tab)
Skoll World Forum delegate support	$75,000 lines on the 2024 return	Organizations sending delegates to the Forum	Partner invitations	By invitation. Forum ran April 21 to 24, 2026	Skoll home page (opens in a new tab)
Global Treasure Award	Not stated on the home page	Not stated	Not described	No public call found	Skoll home page (opens in a new tab)

The honest read: Skoll doesn't run a grant program you can apply to. The FAQ says the foundation runs a "multi-year sourcing process" for its awards and invests in "a limited number of organizations" that are highly aligned with its criteria. The FAQ adds that an organization can be considered once per cycle, even after an earlier decline, but only once a partner has referred or nominated it.

Get grant deadline alerts by email

About once a week, we email a short list of open grant calls with real deadlines from different funders. It isn't limited to the programs in this guide.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

How the Skoll Award works: $2 million, by nomination

According to the Skoll Awards program page, the foundation selects "fewer than 10 Awardees" a year, and each awardee organization receives "$2 million in unrestricted funding to scale their work." The home page says the awards have supported 122 social entrepreneurs and 100 organizations on 5 continents.

According to the April 7, 2026 announcement, the 2026 winners were:

ChildLife Foundation (Pakistan): partners with government to run emergency rooms in public hospitals and runs a 24/7 telemedicine network for district hospitals.
SmartStart (South Africa): a social franchise that helps underemployed community members open licensed early learning programs; the announcement says it reaches 160,000 children weekly through 15,000 programs.
Indus Action (India): helps eligible citizens get public benefits through government capacity building, open-source technology and research.

All 3 work at national scale in middle-income countries, which matches the eligibility page: the work must sit at a "sub-national, national, regional/multi-country, or global" scope, and organizations focused on a single municipality, province or state are ineligible.

What the Skoll Awards page asks for

The Skoll Awards page lists these requirements, as checked November 10, 2026:

A legal entity. Nonprofits, for-profits and hybrids all qualify. Organizations without U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity status, including foreign groups, must send extra documents.
Proven impact. The FAQ says the organization must have "already demonstrated impact" and be at an "inflection point" where more money could drive big change. Concept-stage plans are out.
Scale beyond one community. Work confined to one city or state is ineligible.
Sound finances. The page assesses financial health under "Ability to deliver," without a revenue floor.

According to the FAQ, the revenue signal matters most: organizations with annual revenue below $2.5 million (mainly in high-income countries) or below $1 million (mainly in low- and middle-income countries) "tend to be at a disadvantage."

Common mistake: emailing Skoll a proposal. The FAQ is explicit that the award runs only through referrals and nominations from partners, and the site offers no inbox for unsolicited requests. A cold email costs time and won't start a review.

Who Skoll Foundation grants actually fund

According to Grantsights analysis of the 2024 return, 142 grants worth $44.6 million went to 111 differently named recipients. The median was $150,000, and the middle half ran from $47,500 to $300,000. U.S. organizations received 84 grants worth $28.0 million (62.8%), and 58 grants worth $16.6 million (37.2%) went to organizations in 17 other countries, led by the United Kingdom, Switzerland, South Africa and Brazil.

Skoll grant size, 2024	Grants paid	Dollars	Share of the $44.6 million
Under $50,000	35	$596,200	1.3%
$50,000 to $99,999	21	$1,424,993	3.2%
$100,000 to $249,999	43	$6,829,332	15.3%
$250,000 to $499,999	18	$6,066,502	13.6%
$500,000 to $999,999	17	$11,372,946	25.5%
$1 million or more	8	$18,284,571	41.0%
Analyzed grants	142	$44,574,544	100%

The dollars are concentrated. Eight grants of $1 million or more took 41.0% of the money, and the single largest line, $7,021,950 to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for "novel bio-therapeutics research," was 15.8% of the analyzed total on its own.

Top recipients on the 2024 return

Recipient (2024)	Grants	Total paid	Purpose on the return
Mayo Clinic, Minnesota	1	$7,021,950	Novel bio-therapeutics research
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Geneva	1	$3,000,000	Africa Frontline First Catalytic Fund
Protect Democracy Project, Washington, D.C.	2	$2,150,000	General operating support
Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, Washington, D.C.	2	$1,750,000	BuildUS Fund; Decolonizing Wealth Project
Food for Education Foundation, Wisconsin	2	$1,600,000	General operating support
University of Oxford	1	$1,562,621	Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship
Reach Digital Health, South Africa	3	$1,520,000	Ecosystem and general operating support
2X Global, London	2	$1,500,000	Climate Gender Equity Fund
Center for Technology and Civic Life, Illinois	3	$1,200,000	General operating support
Last Mile Health, Massachusetts	2	$1,087,416	General operating support

What it pays for, with named examples

Unrestricted money is the norm. According to the 2024 return data, Grantsights counted 76 lines worth $17.3 million described as "general operating support" or "core support," about 39% of the analyzed dollars. For example, Code for America Labs in San Francisco received $400,000 in general operating support in 2024, Living Goods in Oakland received $400,000 and $200,000, and Khushi Baby received $613,005 and $306,502.

Global health and community health workers recur, matching the home page's focus areas. For example, Last Mile Health in Boston received $550,000 and $537,416, and for example, Swasti received $528,775 for a precision public health platform in India. Forests and Indigenous land rights show up in Brazil and Indonesia: Nossas Cidades in Rio de Janeiro received 6 grants worth $977,500, and Yayasan Auriga Nusantara in Bogor received $250,000.

Smaller grants exist, but they rarely look like a first grant to an unknown group. For example, 7 lines worth $100,000 in total paid for flood and heat-wave relief through groups already in Skoll's network, such as Nidan in Patna ($15,000) and mPedigree ($10,000 each for 2 flood responses).

2023 for comparison

According to the 2023 return data, the foundation listed 177 grant lines and $58,191,684 paid, so 2024 giving fell by about $13.3 million. Both years carry the same pattern: Mayo Clinic received $8,232,510 for the same bio-therapeutics research in 2023, the University of Oxford's Skoll Centre received $1,887,263 in 2 lines, and Skoll World Forum delegate support appears again. A large share of the budget goes to Skoll's own long-running commitments.

How to get on Skoll's radar, step by step

There's no application, so the steps below are about readiness rather than paperwork. They come from the Skoll Awards page, the FAQ and the 2024 return, as checked November 10, 2026.

Check the scale test first. If your work is confined to one city, county or state, the Skoll Awards page says you're ineligible. Look elsewhere.
Check the revenue signal. Below $2.5 million a year in a high-income country, the FAQ says you're at a disadvantage.
Build evidence. The awards page asks for demonstrated impact and an inflection point. Independent evaluations, government adoption and national reach are what the 2026 winners all show.
Work with the partner network. The FAQ says nominations come from "our network of partners." Skoll also pays into pooled funds run by other funders, such as TED's Audacious Project ($650,000 in 2024) and Co-Impact's systems change grants ($220,000), so those networks are part of the same circle.
Use the Forum honestly. The Skoll World Forum ran April 21 to 24, 2026 in Oxford. Attendance is by partner invitation, so treat it as a place to meet funders, not a pitch session.
Keep your files ready. Non-U.S. organizations without 501(c)(3) public charity status must supply extra documents if they're considered, so have audited accounts and governing documents in English.
Don't wait on Skoll. Build a pipeline of funders that take applications while you grow.

What Skoll's Award Pages Don't Tell You

Grantsights checked the Skoll Awards page, FAQ and home page against the foundation's 2 most recent returns, and 5 things stood out.

The award is a small share of the budget. Fewer than 10 awards of $2 million is under $20 million, while 2024 grants totaled $44.9 million. Much of the rest went to large global health funds, democracy groups, Oxford and conveners, none of which applied through an open process.

One research grant dwarfs the rest. The $7,021,950 Mayo Clinic line was the largest on the 2024 return, and it isn't in any focus area the home page lists. Don't read Skoll's totals as money available to social entrepreneurs.

Revenue matters more than the page admits. The awards page sets no revenue threshold, but the FAQ's $2.5 million and $1 million signals mean a young organization will struggle. Don't underestimate this: winners such as SmartStart already operate at national scale.

Single-state U.S. groups are shut out. A strong program in one state fails the scope test on paper. A red flag for U.S. applicants is a pitch built around a single metro area.

Memberships and matching gifts are in the totals. The 2024 grant list includes 14 membership dues lines and an employee matching gift through Bright Funds. They're small ($279,161), but databases that count every line will overstate the number of grantees.

Where to look instead of Skoll

Skoll's model leaves most nonprofits without a route, so here are funders that do take requests or post guidance.

Large national foundations with similar interests: the MacArthur Foundation grants guide covers a funder with big unrestricted awards that are also mostly invitation-only, and the MacKenzie Scott grants guide explains a giver who also finds grantees without applications. The Gates Foundation grants guide covers global health, where Skoll and Gates fund some of the same groups. For organizations at Skoll's earlier stage, the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation guide covers a venture philanthropy fund that takes applications year-round.

Building a pipeline you can apply to: the Dr. Scholl Foundation grants guide covers a family foundation that reads letters of inquiry every January, and see foundation grants for nonprofits, how to find foundation grants and grants for nonprofit operating costs for funders that pay general support. To check whether you qualify for open federal and state programs, use the Grantsights grant search.

U.S. federal money: federal grants are listed on Grants.gov's search page (opens in a new tab), which lets you filter open opportunities by eligibility and agency. A U.S. organization needs 501(c)(3) status for most private and federal grants; the IRS page on 501(c)(3) exemption requirements (opens in a new tab) explains what that status means.

Grantsights tools: the Skoll Foundation funder page summarizes the grants on its recent 990-PF filings, and Grantsights' community funder lists group private foundations that funded similar work by state, drawn from the grants on their own returns.

How Grantsights Checked This Guide

Grantsights checked 4 Skoll pages, 1 award announcement and 2 Skoll returns on November 10, 2026. ProPublica's record and the return header both show EIN 11-3659133 for the Skoll Foundation in San Francisco, a private foundation.

Skoll source	Finding	What to do with it
Skoll FAQ	Awards only through partner referrals and nominations; revenue signals of $2.5 million and $1 million	Don't send an unsolicited proposal
Skoll Awards page	$2 million unrestricted; fewer than 10 a year; scope and stage rules	Test your eligibility honestly
Skoll home page	Focus areas; 122 entrepreneurs and 100 organizations supported by the awards	Match your work to the focus areas
April 7, 2026 announcement	3 winners: ChildLife Foundation, SmartStart, Indus Action	See what a winner looks like
Form 990-PF, 2024	157 lines, $44,853,705 paid; $13,661,308 approved for future payment	Find peers and realistic amounts
Form 990-PF, 2023	177 lines, $58,191,684 paid	Compare years

Skoll's grant list is public because federal law requires it. According to IRS guidance on the private foundation annual return (opens in a new tab), every private foundation files Form 990-PF by the 15th day of the 5th month after its year ends, which is May 15 for a calendar-year foundation like Skoll; the 2025 return wasn't on ProPublica when Grantsights checked. The IRS page on public charities (opens in a new tab) explains why a foundation funded mainly by one family files a different return from a charity with broad public support. To read the list yourself, see how to read a 990-PF.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Skoll Foundation accept grant applications?

No open application was posted on November 10, 2026. The Skoll Foundation's FAQ says it only accepts referrals and nominations from its network of partners for the Skoll Awards, and that it invests in a limited number of organizations closely aligned with its mission. Its home page links to partner invitations and a contact page but describes no way to request funding. Treat Skoll as a funder that finds you.

How much is the Skoll Award for Social Innovation?

The Skoll Awards page says each awardee organization receives $2 million in unrestricted funding to scale its work, and that fewer than 10 awardees are chosen a year. The April 7, 2026 announcement named 3 winners: ChildLife Foundation in Pakistan, SmartStart in South Africa and Indus Action in India. The page doesn't say how the $2 million is paid out.

What is a typical Skoll Foundation grant?

Grantsights analysis of the foundation's 2024 Form 990-PF found 142 grants worth $44.6 million after setting aside 15 membership dues and matching gift lines. The median was $150,000, and the middle half ran from $47,500 to $300,000. Eight grants of $1 million or more took 41% of the dollars, led by $7,021,950 to Mayo Clinic for bio-therapeutics research.

Who is eligible for a Skoll Award?

The Skoll Awards page asks for a legally incorporated entity (nonprofit, for-profit or hybrid) that has already shown impact, works at a sub-national, national, regional or global scale, and has sound finances. It rules out concept-stage ideas and organizations focused on a single city, province or state. The FAQ says organizations with annual revenue under $2.5 million in high-income countries, or under $1 million in low- and middle-income countries, tend to be at a disadvantage.

Can a U.S. nonprofit get a Skoll Foundation grant?

Yes, but rarely by asking. According to the 2024 return, 84 of the 142 analyzed grants, worth $28.0 million, went to U.S. organizations, led by Washington, D.C. ($8.0 million) and Minnesota, where the single Mayo Clinic research grant was $7.0 million. Many were general operating support for national groups such as Code for America Labs, Living Goods and the Center for Technology and Civic Life. None of the lines points to an open call.

Is the Skoll Foundation the same as Jeff Skoll's other organizations?

No. This guide covers the Skoll Foundation in San Francisco, EIN 11-3659133, a private foundation that files Form 990-PF. Its home page also lists the Jeff Skoll Group, which it describes as a portfolio of enterprises, and the Skoll World Forum, a yearly convening in Oxford. Neither is a grant application route.

Last updated November 10, 2026. Published by Grantsights from public sources. See our editorial policy, how we build and check guides, corrections and how we make money.

Related Guides

Complete Guide