The Rockefeller Foundation was established in 1913 to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. Today, we apply this mission in the era of globalization.
Our vision is of a world with Smart Globalization—a world in which poor and vulnerable communities can more widely share in globalization’s benefits and more easily weather its burdens.
Our strategy focuses on two fundamental elements that contribute toward making this vision a reality. These are hallmarks of Rockefeller Foundation work.
First, we support innovations that enable individuals, communities and institutions to access greater social and economic opportunity.
While globalization fuels remarkable social progress and economic expansion in countries around the world, these same countries often also experience increasing inequality. Many families and communities fall further behind as the pace of change accelerates. Growth alone may not be sufficient to expand opportunity and improve lives. Therefore, we support efforts that tilt benefits of globalization and growth toward people who have not yet reached them. This means connecting people with new tools, practices, resources, services and products.
Second, we support interventions that enable individuals, communities and institutions to build stronger resilience to social, economic, health, and environmental challenges.
Even when opportunity is on the rise, unanticipated shocks occur and chronic risks build up over time. As the current financial crisis reminds us, millions can fall back into poverty as a result of global economic recession, a poor growing season, catastrophic health expenditure, or some other event beyond their control. Our work deliberately concentrates on resilience and builds human capacity to survive, learn, adapt and grow in the face of hardships, whether ecological, man-made or both.
