Development Co‑operation Profiles

Mastercard Foundation

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Introduction

The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organisations to enable young people in Africa and in Indigenous communities in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. It is one of the largest private foundations in the world, and it is on a mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. It was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company.

The Mastercard Foundation is an independent organisation, and its policies, operations, and program decisions are made by its own board of directors and senior leadership team. It is a registered Canadian charity with offices in Toronto, Kigali, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, Lagos, Dakar, and Addis Ababa.

Private development finance

The Mastercard Foundation provided USD 1.2 billion for development in 2022 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2021, this amount represents a decrease of 16% in real terms.

 

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COVID-19 response

In 2022, the Mastercard Foundation provided USD 260.6 million to support developing countries’ COVID-19 response. Of this, 78.8% concerned activities to control the spread of the coronavirus through medical interventions, mostly in the context of the foundation’s support to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bilateral and multilateral allocations

In 2022, the Mastercard Foundation channelled its development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society (USD 525 million), universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 316.2 million) and multilateral organisations (USD 183.5 million).

 

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Multilateral channels

In 2022, the Mastercard Foundation provided USD 183.5 million to the multilateral system, representing 15.8% of its development finance, all of which was earmarked for specific countries, regions, themes or purposes. These multilateral contributions were provided to United Nations (UN) entities and the World Bank Group.

 

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The UN system received USD 170.8 million from the Mastercard Foundation in 2022, representing 93.1% of its contributions to the multilateral system. The most significant UN recipients were UNICEF (USD 100.2 million), WFP (USD 64.6 million) and FAO (USD 5.6 million).

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 525 million of the Mastercard Foundation’s gross development finance. Of this, 34.9% was allocated to CSOs as core support, while the remaining 65.1% was earmarked for specific projects or programmes. More than half of these contributions were channelled through NGOs based in developing countries.

Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

 

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Geographic and thematic focus

In 2022, the Mastercard Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa. USD 1.1 billion was allocated to Africa, accounting for 98.1% of gross development finance. A sum of USD 22 million (1.9%) was unspecified by region in 2022.

Figure. Bilateral private development finance by recipient country

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In 2022, 54.3% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Uganda.

 

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Least developed countries (LDCs) received USD 212 million (18.3%) of the Mastercard Foundation’s gross disbursements in 2022. The Mastercard Foundation allocated the largest share (37%) of its development finance to lower middle-income countries in 2022, noting that USD 500.9 million (43.2%) was unallocated by income group.

 

Notes: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Furthermore, the Mastercard Foundation allocated USD 170.5 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2022, and USD 3.3 million to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2022, most notably Sao Tome and Principe, Comoros and Mauritius.

Fragile contexts

Support to fragile contexts reached USD 322.2 million in 2022, representing 27.8% of the Mastercard Foundation’s development finance. Of these, extremely fragile contexts received a sum of USD 10.6 million.

 

Notes: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral contributions that are allocated by country.

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Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

Sectors

In 2022, 46.1% of the Mastercard Foundation’s contributions were allocated to social infrastructure and services, 24.9% to economic infrastructure and services and 28.8% to production sectors. In terms of sectors, the Mastercard Foundation’s largest allocations went to agriculture, forestry and fishing (USD 820.3 million), education (USD 792.1 million), financial and business services (USD 710 million) and health and population (USD 368.4 million).

 

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Sustainable Development Goals

In 2022, the Mastercard Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to quality education (SDG 4), reduced inequalities (SDG 10) and decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Support for gender equality and women’s empowerment amounted to USD 105.7 million. Contributions to combatting climate change totalled USD 129.2 million.

 

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Additional resources

Official website: https://mastercardfdn.org

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, the Sustainable Development Goal focus of private development finance, channels of delivery, unspecified/unallocated allocations, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.