11 Biggest Foundations in the World

There are many bad things happening in the world at any given time, but there are also foundations out there, such as these 11 biggest foundations in the world, who try to make the world a better place, to fix things up a little and bring some happiness to those who need it the most.

Whether we’re talking about a charitable foundation or private foundation that’s known to be engaged in philanthropy, they’re all nonprofit organizations that are looking to lend out a helping hand. More often than not, they’re tied to the name of a billionaire who wants to give back to the world they’re living in, which is an admirable decision.

These foundations donate funds to support other organizations or have their own purposes lined up, such as fighting big diseases, getting water to areas in Africa and so on.

In general, each country has its own rules about the way these foundations are run, but there are some common grounds. For instance, there are no shareholders like in a typical large company, although a ruling board can exist to vote on various matters such as new issues to tackle, new projects to take on and how much money to direct for a certain cause, for instance.

When you finish with this list, you may want to read about Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust’s latest bet on China & and two other latest hedge fund moves.

For our list today we took a look at the largest foundations in the world ranked by their financial endowment. We started off with a list published a few years back by ARCO and then went and rechecked all the financial data for more accuracy, using the latest filings we could find. But keep in mind, that precise and the newest information about the endowments are very hard to find, so the values we state here should be taken with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, the foundations on our list are certainly among the biggest in the world, as they have been in the past years too.  Financial endowments are donations of money or properties to nonprofit organizations for the support of their activities. Basically, it’s the money they have at their disposal to invest in making water drinkable in various areas of the world, eradicating poverty, improving literacy and so on. Without further ado, here are the 11 biggest foundations in the world.

11. William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Country – USA

Endowment – around $9 billion

Also known as the Hewlett Foundation, this is an American private foundation, established back in the 60s by one of the people behind the Hewlett-Packard IT giant. The purpose of the foundation is to hand out money for a variety of causes, ranging from education, climate, journalism and reproductive health.

Over the years, it has gifted $400 million to Stanford University for various programs, $460 million to Climate Works Foundation and much more for reducing global warming and promoting environmental protection efforts in drought-ridden California, and so on.

10. The MasterCard Foundation

Country – Canada

Endowment – around  $9.1 billion

Established just a decade ago, the MasterCard Foundation seeks to help promote education among the young as well as the financial inclusion to aid towards the prosperity of developing countries. While it has been active in many areas of the world, the foundation seems to have found a focus in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has partnered with others to help achieve its goals, including non-governmental organizations such as Freedom from Hunger, Catholic Relief Services, Water.org, Women’s World Banking, Save the Children, YouthBuild, Swisscontact, and many more.

9. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Country – USA

Endowment – around $9.2 billion

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranks 9th on our list of biggest foundations in the world. It is the largest organization in the United States to solely focus on health issues. With its headquarters in New Jersey, the foundation’s goal is to improve health and healthcare for all Americans, making it pretty clear what its area of focus is.

The grants the foundation offers cover a range of health issues, such as childhood obesity, while also taking care of additional training for doctors and nurses, something that isn’t always funded properly.

The foundation isn’t only focused on helping people out with their healthcare, but also on the issues that cause the problems in the first place, such as violence, lack of housing, poverty and lack of access to proper food sources.

The man behind the foundation is Robert Wood Johnson II, the same that gave the world the brand Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s largest companies.

8. Azim Premji Foundation

Country – India

Endowment – around $9.8 billion

Indian business mogul Azim Hashim Premji is the chairman of Wipro Limited, a huge IT company. Aside from founding his own charity, he’s known for donating a quarter of his personal wealth and is one of the people who pledged to hand out an extra 25 percent in the next few years.

The foundation ranks 8th on our list of biggest foundations in the world. It is run by Premji focuses on helping out those who are in need of education , but also seeks to create a sustainable society through his efforts. While the foundation’s efforts are spread all over India, it has been known to focus on rural areas where many schools lack in equipment and personnel.

7. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation

Country – United Arab Emirates

Endowment – around $10 billion

Also known as Sheikh Mohammed, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, as well as Emir of Dubai. Coming from one of the wealthiest families in the world, the Sheikh put $10 billion in the Foundation back in 2007.

This is one of the largest charitable donations in history and it helped shape up the foundation which seeks to bring more understanding between the Arab region and the rest of the world. In the past, the foundation has delivered books to children, helped kickstart translation of various literary works into Arab language, assisted Pakistan with food and more.

6. Kamehameha Schools

Country – USA

Endowment – around $11.1 billion

If the name sounds like it belongs in Hawaii, it’s because it does. In fact, the Kamehameha Schools is a private school system in the beautiful islands of Hawaii established by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate. Originally it was destined for boys only, only to later open up a school for girls as well.

Its main goal is to educate children of Hawaiian descent starting from the smallest ones and up to those of high school age. There’s an admission program and children are handpicked, but in the end, they win an education.

5. Ford Foundation

Country – USA

Endowment – around $12.4 billion

Focused on human welfare, Ford Foundation, the number 5 on our list of biggest foundations in the world is a private foundation created back in the 30s by Edsel and Henry Ford. Over the years it has grown into a massive foundation with big funds, especially after selling its Ford Motor Company non-voting shares, which it owned about 90 percent of. Nowadays it has no role in the way the automobile company is run.

The foundation offers grants to higher education, civil rights, economic development, environmental issues and so on. Furthermore, the foundation seeks to help establish democratic and accountable governments, to impose economic fairness, the opportunity of education for children and young people, as well as ensuring the freedom of expression.

4. Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Country – USA

Endowment – around $18.2 billion

The name of Howard Hughes is no stranger to those with an interest in the world’s big personalities. On top of being a businessman, Hughes was also an investor, an aviator, an engineer specialized in the aerospace field, inventor, and philanthropist.

Founded in 1953, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute ranks 4th on our list of biggest foundations in the world. It is one of the largest organizations privately funded focusing on biological and medical research. In the beginning, the foundation sought to understand “the genesis of life itself,” as Hughes himself said. Across the years, the research it got involved in spread to genetics, immunology, and molecular biology.

3. Wellcome Trust

Country – United Kingdom

Endowment – around $24 billion

Based in London, Wellcome Trust ranks 3rd on our list of biggest foundations in the world. It is a charity specialized in biomedical research. Established in the 30s by Sir Henry Wellcome, a pharmaceutical tycoon, the foundation wants to improve the health of both humans and animals. With an endowment of some $24 billion, it is one of the largest foundations in the world and second only to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation when it comes to investments in the medical field.

While it has held stock in pharma giant Glaxo, back when its name was GlaxoWellcome plc., the foundation sold all interests in the company some two decades ago. Nowadays, it focuses on investing in biomedical research, including in initiatives seeking to fight Ebola and cancer.

2. Stichting INGKA Foundation

Country – Netherlands

Endowment – around $36 billion

Although this is a foundation based in the Netherlands, it was actually created in the 80s by the man behind IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish billionaire that likes living the simple life.

The foundation ranks second on our list of biggest foundations in the world and it seeks to promote and support innovation regarding architectural and interior design, although in recent years its interests have expanded to helping out children in less fortunate areas of the world. Money is handed out on a regular basis, including towards the refugee camps in Kenya, as well as UN agencies such as UNICEF and Save the Children.

1. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Country – USA

Endowment – around $44.3 billion

You might have been expecting to see this name at the top of our list since this is one of the best-known names when it comes to charity. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was created in 2000 and has grown to the largest in the world, with over $44 billion in endowments.

The foundation run by one of the founders of Microsoft and his wife focuses on global healthcare, extreme poverty, education and access to information technology.

Some of the most important areas where the foundation has invested its money are those related to sanitation, with efforts being taken to provide sustainable sanitation services for those who can’t afford it in areas that don’t benefit from sewage systems or proper water supplies. Among other endeavors, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also fights malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, polio and more, militating for vaccination.

The list of issues the foundation is involved in is particularly long, making it also one of the most active charitable organizations in the world. Overall, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation tops the list of the 11 biggest foundations in the world.