Grantmaking Portfolios

The Global Fund for Children's grantmaking program is guided by children's basic needs for growth and development. Since fall 2006, our grantmaking program has been divided into four strategic portfolios: Learning, Safety, Enterprise, and Healthy Minds and Bodies. A fifth portfolio, Creative Opportunities, allows us to support promising new approaches that do not readily fall into the other four categories.

Learning

As the foundation of a child's development and a key determinant of future opportunities, access to basic education is at the core of our grantmaking. Priorities within this portfolio include early childhood development, second-chance schools, and schools without walls.

Enterprise

Practicing leadership, acquiring vocational and life skills, and engaging in entrepreneurship help children and youth to build economic and intellectual assets that can serve as the foundation for self-determination and future advancement. Priorities within this portfolio include youth-led enterprise, children's savings, vocational training, and leadership promotion.

Safety

Children thrive in secure environments that are free from abuse and neglect. Yet countless children are regularly subjected to hazardous labor, sexual exploitation and trafficking, armed conflict, and other forms of violence. Programs within this portfolio work to protect children from these threats and to develop safe spaces in which children can grow to their full potential.

Healthy Minds and Bodies

Children must be healthy, well-nourished, and free from harmful substances in order to reach their potential and participate fully in community life. Priorities in the Healthy Minds and Bodies portfolio include health education and access to information, HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation, and psychosocial health support.

Creative Opportunities

Creativity allows organizations-and children-to thrive. We therefore maintain a fifth portfolio that supports innovation and creativity among grantee partners and provides us with the flexibility to seize strategic opportunities in new and exciting areas affecting children.

Previous Portfolios

You can read about our previous portfolios here.