Development Co‑operation Profiles: Bloomberg Family Foundation
Table of contents
The Bloomberg Family Foundation is a United States–based charitable organisation founded by Michael Bloomberg in 2006 and operates as part of Bloomberg Philanthropies. Its work is organised around five principal program areas: public health, the arts, education, the environment, and government innovation. In addition, the foundation supports special Founder’s Projects and Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono consulting initiative that provides advisory services to cities worldwide.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Bloomberg Family Foundation provided USD 163.9 million for development in 2024 through its cross-border funding. Compared to 2023, this amount represents an increase of 10.8% in real terms. Grants represented 100% of Bloomberg Family Foundation’s gross disbursements.
Bloomberg Family Foundation provided all of its development finance bilaterally in 2024, while 18.5% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, the Bloomberg Family Foundation channelled its bilateral development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 80.5 million), universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 40.6 million) and multilateral organisations (USD 30.3 million).
In 2024, Bloomberg Family Foundation provided USD 30.3 million to the multilateral system. Of this, USD 30.3 million was non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. 82% of total development finance was channelled through United Nations (UN) organisations and the World Bank.
The UN system received USD 20.1 million from Bloomberg Family Foundation in 2024. The most significant UN recipients were the World Health Organisation (WHO) (USD 11.7 million) the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) (USD 5.4 million) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) (USD 2.7 million).
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 80.5 million of the Bloomberg Family Foundation’s gross bilateral finance, of which 7.2% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 49.1% of total bilateral development finance was earmarked to specific projects or programmes. From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs decreased as a share of bilateral philanthropic development finance, from 61.6% to 49.1%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2024, Bloomberg Family Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Asia (excluding the Middle East) and Africa. USD 19.5 million was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle East) and USD 5.4 million to Africa, accounting respectively for 11.9% and 3.3% of gross bilateral development finance. A sum of USD 135 million (82.4%) was unallocated by region, mainly including multi-regional programmes and research grants
In 2024, 17.6% of gross development finance went to the top 9 recipients, most notably India (10.7%) and Kenya (3.3%).
Bloomberg Family Foundation allocated the highest share (15.3%) of its bilateral development finance to lower middle-income countries in 2024, followed by upper middle-income countries (2.3%), noting that USD 135 million (82.4%) was unallocated by income group.
In 2024, Bloomberg Family Foundation provided USD 1.2 million of gross development finance in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 5.4 million in 2024, representing 3.3% of Bloomberg Family Foundation’s bilateral development finance.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest allocations (79% of bilateral contributions) by Bloomberg Family Foundation went to social infrastructure and services, with a strong focus on support to health and population (USD 129.4 million). The second largest sector was economic infrastructure and services (USD 23.3 million), focusing on energy (USD 23.3 million). This was followed by multi-sector allocations (USD 10 million).
In the period 2023-2024, Bloomberg Family Foundation committed 1.8% of screened bilateral allocable development finance to gender equality and women’s empowerment, compared to 1% in 2021-2022 and a private philanthropic average of 33.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 2.8 million of screened bilateral allocable contributions in support of gender equality on average per year. In addition:
The share of screened bilateral allocable contributions committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective was 1.8% in 2023-2024, compared with the private philanthropic average of 11.9%.
Bloomberg Family Foundation screens all bilateral allocable contributions activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2023-2024).
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation.
In 2023-2024, Bloomberg Family Foundation committed 23.8% of its total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 37.1 million) in support of the environment, down from 37% in 2021-2022. The private philanthropic average was 12.4%. In addition:
20.8% of total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 32.5 million) focused on climate change overall (the private philanthropic average was 12.9%), down from 28.9% in 2021-2022. Bloomberg Family Foundation had a greater focus on mitigation (20.8%) than on adaptation (0.4%) in 2023-2024.
3.3% of screened bilateral allocable contributions (USD 5.2 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the private philanthropic average was 4.3%), down from 8.4% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
In 2024, Bloomberg Family Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 2 (zero hunger) and SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: https://www.bloomberg.org/.
The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, channels of delivery, bilateral unspecified/unallocated/allocable development finance, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
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