The COVID-19 crisis that has spread across the globe has been swift and devastating. It magnified existing inequities and disproportionately hurt communities with weak health systems and limited access to care. The Skoll Foundation supports social innovations that strengthen health systems in an equitable manner and build global systems for pandemic prevention and response.

In 2020, we focused our investment in areas most likely to be affected by the spreading pandemic. We looked for opportunities to support a coordinated response across public, private, and civil society sectors both globally and in the U.S., while striking a balance between immediate and longer-term solutions.

Globally, we invested in efforts to fight the pandemic in South Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Africa was a particular focus given existing gaps in healthcare and the opportunity for a coordinated response through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The Africa CDC was able to coordinate across government, business, civil society, and philanthropy through a unique Africa Donor Collaborative.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) were a key part of the Africa CDC’s frontline response, but often lacked critical supplies, such as personal protective equipment. To address this need, the Skoll Foundation invested in Direct Relief and Skoll Awardee VillageReach. Both organizations are part of the  COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa (CAFA), a coalition of 30+ organizations which partner with government ministries, donors, and others to secure supplies for CHWs and strengthen supply chains.

We prioritized action in the United States in response to the lack of a unified national plan, which contributed to the U.S. being among the hardest hit countries in the world. To facilitate unified action to stop the spread of the pandemic and safely reopen the country, we partnered with the nonpartisan COVID Collaborative (an initiative of UNITE), which assembled leading experts in public health, education, and economics to bring recommendations to state and local leaders and vulnerable communities.

As part of our efforts to address the pandemic in the U.S., we partnered with The Rockefeller Foundation to invest in rapid testing pilot programs and testing guidance to inform safer and sustained opening of schools and businesses. We also invested in the Gladstone Institute's development of a CRISPR-based rapid, inexpensive point-of-care diagnostic with the potential to be deployed globally to test for COVID-19 and other diseases.

We supported Mirimus, which won a special XPRIZE for COVID-19 interventions, for their pooled testing approach. We also invested in research on treatments, including a clinical trial of fluvoxamine, a globally available low-cost option that could, if proven, reduce severe cases of COVID.

Climate change is a global existential threat requiring urgent, collective, and coordinated action. The Skoll Foundation supports social innovations that advance renewable solutions, shape policies, influence private sector action, develop new narratives, and build strong support for climate action around the world. These social innovations mitigate climate change and advance climate justice in partnership with the hardest hit communities.

A critical element of building lasting public support for constructive, equitable climate action in the U.S. is investing in climate communications and movement infrastructure. In 2020, we partnered with the Digital Climate Coalition, a new, highly coordinated network of communications organizations committed to tackling the climate crisis through digital outreach and infrastructure, research, information sharing, and communications campaigns.   

We invested in Communicating Our Power, led by the Climate Justice Alliance, the Solutions Project, and the Center for Story-based Strategy in coordination with the Digital Hub. This initiative will establish a cohort of 20 frontline organizations—supported with financial resources, tools, training, and technical assistance—to build their capacity to communicate their bold, solutions-centric visions for climate justice and a regenerative economy. Our investment in Potential Energy, which brings together America’s leading creative, analytic, and media agencies to shift the narrative on climate change, complements this work.

We supported the work of Skoll Awardee Ceres to engage the business and investment community to further promote climate-friendly practices and advocate for constructive climate policy. The Capricorn Investment Group, our sister organization and manager of the Skoll Foundation endowment, complements this work with its leadership in clean tech investments.

The Skoll Foundation continues to support a variety of social entrepreneurs tackling climate change in critical geographies. For example, our investment in strengthening the capacity and technology of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in China will support green transformation of enterprises and help accelerate reductions in industrial air, climate, and water emissions.

Our current economic systems are extractive and unsustainable, maximizing the wealth of the few over the wellbeing of all and prioritizing short-term gains over long-term sustainability. The Skoll Foundation supports social innovations that create more inclusive economic systems and advance economic dignity for the marginalized. Solutions to achieve these goals include shifting institutional practices and policies and ensuring equitable access to capital without sacrificing our planet for profit.

In 2020, we supported a range of initiatives focused on shifting corporate, government, and private sector behavior and helping to build the power of communities most economically impacted by COVID-19. The Health Initiative aims to shift billions of dollars into drivers of health outcomes—including access to food, jobs, and housing—by building a powerful constituency to advance new regulations and shift corporate practices.

We invested in Imperative 21, of which Skoll Awardee B Lab is a founding steward. Imperative 21 is a business-led network that equips leaders to challenge the notion of shareholder primacy in favor of “stakeholder capitalism," a more inclusive economic paradigm that creates shared wellbeing on a healthy planet. It also works to shift the cultural narrative, realign economic incentives, and facilitate a supportive policy environment.

Advancing equity in economic policy to meet immediate needs while also thinking about ways to build back was another focus last year. PolicyLink has been at the forefront of this work in the U.S., while uplifting the voices and solutions of those most impacted. The Families and Workers Fund is a collaborative philanthropic effort to support solutions to drive the long-term structural change needed for an equitable recovery from the health and economic crises caused by COVID-19.   

We seek to support community-driven solutions and leaders of an inclusive and sustainable economy. Our investment in Common Future supports efforts to shift power and capital directly to Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, and minority communities by catalyzing local and national investment and philanthropy, and by reshaping the economic narrative.

We also support organizations like Data for Black Lives in building the infrastructure for a new model of data-driven advocacy and algorithmic justice that bolsters grassroots movements and combats systems of oppression created by incomplete and unrepresentative data sets. 

Weak institutions and unaccountable governments disrupt people’s lives, sow mistrust, and lead to inequality, poverty, civil unrest, and global instability. The Skoll Foundation supports social innovations that promote effective governance, strengthen democratic institutions, and advance global security. The governance they seek puts people first, pursues accountability, and protects human rights for all.

We focused much of our effective governance efforts last year in the U.S., where free and fair elections were under threat and trust in institutions had steadily declined. As across all our work, we sought to balance investments between immediate interventions and longer-term infrastructure strengthening. We also aimed to support proximate, community-based efforts and national civic engagement and activation.

To address the unprecedented threat that the COVID-19 pandemic posed to the 2020 U.S. elections, we invested in the Healthy Elections Project, a joint Stanford-MIT initiative that brought together academics and election administration experts to assess and promote best practices to ensure that the election could proceed with integrity, safety, and equal access. The initiative tackles voter suppression and hinderance by redesigning fundamental aspects of election administration to ensure equitable access to all voters, regardless of demographic background. We also invested in organizations like Fair Count, which leads on-the-ground efforts to combat voter suppression.

The films produced by our sister organization, Participant, including Slay the Dragon, John Lewis: Good Trouble, and American Utopia gave inspiration to all who fight for free and fair elections and ensure that every vote is counted.

We invested in the power-shifting work of New Profit’s Civic Lab, which partners with democracy entrepreneurs to build civic trust in the U.S. in innovative ways. We also supported PushBlack and Pulso in their efforts to create communities of interest around shared culture, history, and values to mobilize civic action. Both use the power of narrative, history, and news to educate and activate communities to build their personal power and create lasting economic and political change. 

The Skoll Foundation also invested in the Alliance for Youth Organizing, a network of community-based organizations focused on increasing young voter turnout and civic engagement in 19 states. The youth organizing infrastructure it is building center on driving sustainability, equity, and impact. The alliance grows “people power” by supporting these organizations’ capacity to strengthen democracy and address injustice through on-the-ground organizing. 

Targeted disenfranchisement, economic inequity, health disparities, violence, and genocide are rooted in centuries of systemic racism, sexism, colonialism, and slavery. The Skoll Foundation supports social innovations that address inter-generational oppression, remove systemic barriers that limit opportunity, and elevate oppressed voices and narratives to shift attitudes and behavior.

Last year we invested in efforts to advance racial justice in the U.S. that focus on partnering with and elevating the voices of those closest to the challenges. NDN Collective builds Indigenous power and strengthens resilience within the Native/Indigenous community through its storytelling, community building, and grantmaking. As a proximate grantmaking organization, NDN Collective increases the Foundation’s proximity to Native-led and Native-focused innovations and social enterprises. As COVID-19 disproportionately affected Native and Indigenous populations throughout the U.S., it became even more important for the Foundation to support NDN’s efforts to build trusted and sustainable health systems for its communities.  

The Foundation’s investment in the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund, another proximate grantmaker, helps build durable, local organizations and alliances within and beyond the diverse Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. These grassroots organizations reimagine social narratives, promote civic participation, and build anti-racist coalitions at local and regional levels. As a longstanding champion of multiracial solidarity, AAPI Civic Engagement Fund’s research and movement building efforts uplift voices across communities.

For Freedoms encourages civic engagement through artist-driven discourse and direct action. The Skoll Foundation’s investment increases the organization’s capacity to re-orient historical memory and elevate oppressed voices and stories. This work eventually leads to greater interest in understanding of non-White communities and their place in the American narrative. Its 50 State Initiative put billboards in every state—including in Virginia in partnership with Skoll Awardee Equal Justice Initiative—to infuse nuanced, artistic thinking into public discourse in advance of the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Through voter toolkits and public events, For Freedoms also explores how arts and culture are vital to an active, participatory, inclusive, and free democracy.