Foundation funding in support of global human rights initiatives totaled $3.7 billion in 2018, up from $3.2 billion the previous year, a report from Candid and the Human Rights Funders Network finds.

The report, Advancing Human Rights: Annual Review of Global Foundation Grantmaking – 2018 Key Findings (25 pages, PDF), found that 826 funders awarded 27,586 grants in support of human rights to 16,230 recipients. Roughly a quarter of those funders made just one or two grants in 2018, while the top twelve funders in the field accounted for $1.7 billion, or 45 percent of total grant dollars: the Ford Foundation ($287 million), Foundation to Promote Open Society (Open Society Foundations, $206 million), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ($205 million), NoVo Foundation ($186 million), the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation ($146 million), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation ($144 million), Oak Foundation ($133 million), Wellspring Philanthropic Fund ($123 million), Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($113 million), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ($67 million), John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($63 million), and California Endowment ($62 million). The top funders of human rights based in the Global South and East were the African Women's Development Fund (Ghana, $6 million), Women's Fund Asia (Sri Lanka, $3 million), Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres (Nicaragua, $2 million), and Kosovar Civil Society Foundation ($2 million).

According to the study, funding by a matched set of grantmakers increased in nine of thirteen human rights issue areas, with the largest growth seen in education, religion, and culture (a 35 percent increase); freedom from violence (25 percent); and human rights in general (25 percent). Funding for economic and labor rights declined 19 percent, due in large part to a $30 million reduction in grant dollars from the Ford Foundation, which had been the largest funder in that area in 2016 and 2017. Funding increased in support of seven of ten strategies analyzed, including security and resilience, which tripled from $4 million to $12 million, though it represented only 0.3 percent of total grant dollars; grassroots organizing (a 33 percent increase); coalition building collaboration (20 percent); and advocacy, systems reform, and implementation (6 percent).

The study also found that while 27 percent of 2018 grant dollars were provided as flexible general operating support, grant recipients in North America were significantly more likely to receive flexible general support than those in other regions. Only 8 percent of grant dollars designated to benefit sub-Saharan Africa was awarded to in-region recipients as flexible general support, compared with 29 percent in North America.

"Our findings are encouraging yet sobering at the same time," said Candid global partnerships research manager Inga Ingulfsen. "We are seeing some foundations increase their investment in human rights work. Unfortunately, we also continue to see a lack of willingness to provide funding to Global South and East organizations, even though those closest to the issues have the greatest potential for impact. We encourage foundations to provide direct and flexible funding to organizations, regardless of their region, to help uphold and protect human rights around the world."