Development Co‑operation Profiles: Jacobs Foundation
Table of contents
The Jacobs Foundation is a charitable foundation based in Switzerland, established in 1989 by Klaus J. Jacobs and his family.
It is committed to advancing child development and education. The foundation’s work focuses on promoting evidence-based approaches to education and learning by supporting related research initiatives and ensuring their integration into education policies and practices internationally.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Jacobs Foundation provided USD 3.7 million for development in 2024 through its cross-border funding. Compared to 2023, this amount represents a decrease of 92% in real terms. Grants represented 100% of Jacobs Foundation’s gross disbursements.
Jacobs Foundation provided all of its development finance bilaterally in 2024.
In 2024, the Jacobs Foundation channelled its bilateral development finance mostly through universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 2.7 million) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 1 million).
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 1 million of the Jacobs Foundation’s gross bilateral finance, of which 100% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 26.4% 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 65.6% to 26.4%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2024, Jacobs Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa. USD 700 thousand was allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean and USD 400 thousand to Africa, accounting respectively for 18.6% and 12% of gross bilateral development finance. A sum of USD 2.5 million (69.4%) was unallocated by region, mainly including multi-regional programmes and research grants.
In 2024, 24.4% of gross development finance went to the top 5 recipients, most notably Argentina (6.2%), Brazil (6.2%), and Colombia (6.2%).
Jacobs Foundation allocated the highest share (18.6%) of its bilateral development finance to upper middle-income countries in 2024, followed by lower middle-income countries (5.8%), noting that USD 2.8 million (75.6%) was unallocated by income group.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 50 thousand in 2024, representing 1.5% of Jacobs Foundation’s bilateral development finance.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the entirety of Jacobs Foundation’s allocations went to social infrastructure and services, with a strong focus on support to education (USD 11.3 million).
In 2024, Jacobs Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: https://jacobsfoundation.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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