Foundations and Trusts

Hundreds of foundations work with Save the Children to fulfill their individual missions and help us achieve four priority results for children: protection from harm; education and development; health and nourishment; the ability to thrive in food-secure and economically viable households. Save the Children welcomes both general mission support and designated grant funding. We honor the unique preferences and philanthropic goals of each of our foundation partners.

A Somali mother and her child sit in a shelter at a transit site in Ethiopia, where they receive supplement food from Save the Children. Photo credit: David Kaluber

East Africa Hunger Crisis

Your foundation may be aware that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding across East Africa, including north east Kenya, Ethiopia and large parts of Somalia. A deadly combination of failed rains and rising food prices has left millions of people facing hunger and starvation. Save the Children has launched a $100 million appeal to initiate desperately needed feeding programs for malnourished children. To learn more about the drought crisis and how your support can help children, please visit this page on our website. Save the Children is especially appealing to private foundations to support this life-saving effort. Often times in such dire situations, we see foundations — including those that do not normally support disaster relief efforts — come forward with special gifts because they recognize that the need is so great and wish to help. We’ve already received generous support from various donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationand A Glimmer of Hope, and we hope your foundation might be one of those to come forward with support in this crisis. A gift of any size will make a huge difference for children in need.

One trustee told us why her foundation came forward with support for drought-affected children…

"I understand that donors are weary, because a lot of charities are asking family foundations for extra gifts right now and times are hard. Ours is a small foundation; we’re not a Gates Foundation. It’s hard to keep coming up with funds to give to emergencies when your own foundation’s capital is being depleted. However, I understand that in hunger crises like these, you only have a limited window of time to help prevent starvation, and that sometimes you just have to feed people.

As a humanitarian, one has to feel for every human, but especially for children. A drought and hunger crisis like this is so hugely devastating to children — it hits children so quickly and catastrophically. Sometimes it’s easy to think of Africa as always going through cycles like this, and to realize that people are probably going to die, and thus think that there’s nothing you can do about it. I think donors, and especially foundations and family foundations, need to change this way of thinking, especially at this particular time. We can in fact save many people and in particular, many children, who, though they are quick to decline in a hunger crisis, are also very quick to recover when given even the minimum of basic nutrition, if they are reached in time.

My faith is in Save the Children — your judgment is good about where the help is needed. You have been vetted by so many organizations; you know how to use the funds. I have confidence that you will deliver them where needed. Our family foundation gives to Save the Children because we have made children's needs a priority in our mission. And when you’re feeding people, you’re feeding children."

Benefits to Foundation Partners

• Opportunity to support innovative programs that create real and lasting change in the lives of children in need in over 50 countries and the United States
• Work with a highly professional foundation relations team
• Confer with Save the Children field workers and discipline experts through conference calls and site visits
• Confidence in working with an organization that consistently earns top marks in efficiency from the American Institute of Philanthropy, the Better Business Bureau, Charity Navigator, and Forbes Charity Survey. In fiscal year 2008, 92 percent of all expenditures went to program services.

To begin a conversation about your foundation's priorities and partnership opportunities with Save the Children, please contact Miyuki Arikawa, Manager, Foundations & Trusts: 203.221.4000.

Last updated February 2012