Vitol Foundation

Vitol first began making charitable grants in 2002 and established the Vitol Foundation in 2006. The Vitol Foundation aims to help children and families living in deprivation to escape the cycle of poverty and fulfil their human potential. We achieve this by investing in initiatives and interventions across five Programme areas: Health, WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene), Education, Enterprise & Livelihoods and Humanitarian Response. Our focus is on supporting solutions that improve quality of performance, promote greater inclusion, foster appropriate innovation and catalyse access to finance, all within the broader context of poverty. This means that the work we support is invariably in low, and low to middle income countries, where the challenging effects of chronic under-development, conflict and natural disasters are commonplace. We work with key stakeholders across civil society, the private sector, national governments, public institutions and international partners to reinforce and improve existing in-country systems. Where these systems are not working or do not exist, we seek to address the status quo by promoting innovation – or successful solutions from similar settings – to bring about lasting and sustainable change. We consider our grants to be investments and look for initiatives with the potential to generate social returns in a sustainable way. We are able to provide financial support to NGOs, social businesses and private companies (provided any profit generated during the lifetime of our grant funding is reinvested in the business), but not usually to public authorities. Partners and projects are expected to have the potential to be transformational and impactful, effective and efficient, sustainable, scalable and replicable. In return, the Vitol Foundation aspires to be both responsive and flexible and to understand the evolving needs in difficult circumstances. We also actively encourage partnerships between and among donors, implementers and the public and private sectors. Across our Programme areas our objectives are fully aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. From the outset, we have supported initiatives globally and independently of business activities. In 2018, we funded 180 projects in 75 countries around the world. We only look to support organisations which have won the confidence of like-minded funders, align with our funding philosophy and which deserve wide support for the potential they demonstrate in bringing real impact to scale. We place great emphasis on working partnership between and among donors and implementers, and regret that we cannot accept unsolicited applications. For further information please contact us at foundation@vitol.com. We are a member of the Big Bang Philanthropy group; a consortium of like-minded funders working together to find and finance high impact, scalable organizations tackling global poverty. Learn more about us here: bigbangphilanthropy.org.