The Rockefeller Foundation's mission to promote the well-being of people throughout the world has remained unchanged since its founding in 1913. Today, that mission is applied to an era of rapid globalization. Our vision is that this century will be one in which globalization's benefits are more widely shared and its challenges are more easily weathered. To realize this vision, the Foundation seeks to achieve two fundamental goals in our work. First, we seek to build resilience that enhances individual, community and institutional capacity to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of acute crises and chronic stresses. Second, we seek to promote growth with equity in which the poor and vulnerable have more access to opportunities that improve their lives.
In order to achieve these goals, the Foundation constructs its work into time-bound initiatives that have defined objectives and strategies for impact. These initiatives address challenges that lie either within or at the intersections of five issue areas: basic survival safeguards, global health, environment and climate change, urbanization, and social and economic security.
There are several strategic principles that guide the Foundation's work. We seek to mobilize systemic transformations by integrating policy, financial, social, and technological solutions. We test pilot projects, spin them off, or join others to help implement successful demonstrations on a wider scale. We aim to inform public policy through support for research, advocacy, and coalition-building. Many of our interventions take advantage of tipping points and break bottlenecks that are impeding progress. We also seek to create an enabling environment for our work by fostering innovation, convening partnerships, and building networks.
Our success in realizing our goals is driven by the individuals and organizations that we support. We aim to share the strategy of each initiative clearly so that our partners can see and assess their contributions towards the broader impact that we collectively seek.
