OVERVIEW: The Skees Family Foundation focuses its global development grantmaking on poverty alleviation, education and job creation. Its grantmaking related to women and girls focuses on education, rights, sexual exploitation, and violence.
IP TAKE: The overall goal of this funder’s grantmaking is to create equal opportunity for all people. Even though Skees is not accessible, all of its grants are unrestricted. This is an excellent funder especially for smaller and grassroots organizations.
PROFILE: The Skees Family Foundation established in 2005 by Suzanne Skees, daughter of Ohio lawyer Hugh Skees, to carry on her family’s tradition of philanthropy. The San Francisco-based funder’s main objective is “to end poverty by partnering with social entrepreneurs, scaling self-help models in education and job creation and leveraging storytelling for social change.” The foundation supports organizations in the United States, Africa, Asia, Central America, South America, India and the Pacific. Its global development grantmaking centers on poverty alleviation, education, and job creation.
The Skees Family Foundation offers three main types of grants: Seed Grants are awarded for one-year and range from $5,000 to $10,000. Organizations must have an annual budget of $25,000 or less to qualify. Catalyst Grants are awarded for three years and total $45,000. These are reserved for groups with annual budgets ranging from $500,000 to $1 million.Storytelling Grants are one-year grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. The foundation gives preference to previous grantees here.
Grants for Global Development
Skees is a funder apart. It only requires that grantees conduct work related to the foundation's overall mission of poverty alleviation. Since the foundation names education and job creation as specific areas of interest, Skees gives widely to related causes. However, the foundation also considers other root causes of poverty. As a result, it awards grants to support healthcare, WASH, women’s and girls’ empowerment, education, food security, and nutrition, among others. On a smaller scale, Skees also funds groups that address sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of young women.
Grants for Women and Girls
As part of its broad poverty mission, the Skees Foundation awards grants to support women’s empowerment, girls’ education, sex trafficking, and sexual exploitation of young women. Past grantees in the women’s empowerment space include Age Africa, which received funding for its work in girls’ education in Africa, and the Destiny Foundation, which received a grant for its work rescuing young women from trafficking and sexual exploitation. Other grantees include Akilah Institute for Women, Advancing Girls’ Education: Africa, and the Destiny Foundation.
Grants for Violence Prevention
As part of its broad global poverty mission, the Skees Foundation supports efforts to reduce crime and violence around the world, especially against women, girls, children, and ethnic minorities. Past violence prevention grantees in this space include Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, which received funding for its network promoting restorative justice in peace in the Southside of Chicago and Tomorrow’s Youth Organization, which works with underserved children in the Middle East by offering high quality early education, offering career guidance for young people and creating safe spaces within local communities. Other violence prevention grantees include The Artemis Center Dayton’s Domestic Violence Resource Agency, among others.
Important Grant Details:
Grants generally range from $2,000 to $15,000. To learn more about the organizations receiving Skees Family support, explore its current grantees list. While the foundation sometimes supports organizations operating in the United States, its primary focus is global, with initiatives in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the Pacific Islands, and the Caribbean. The foundation does not accept unsolicited requests for funding.
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