Development Co‑operation Profiles: David and Lucile Packard Foundation
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The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a United States-based family foundation established in 1964 by Lucile and David Packard, who co-founded the information technology company Hewlett-Packard.
The Foundation works with people and communities to create solutions for just societies and a healthy, resilient natural world. It supports leaders and organisations around the world to invest in children and families, protect and restore nature, and create just and inclusive societies.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation provided USD 142.7 million for development in 2024 through its cross-border funding. Compared to 2023, this amount represents a decrease of 34.2% in real terms. Grants represented 94.6% of David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s gross disbursements, while the remainder was extended in the form of loans (2.8%) and equities (2.6%).
David and Lucile Packard Foundation provided all of its development finance bilaterally in 2024, while 0.7% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation channelled its bilateral development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 121 million), public-private partnerships (PPPs) and private sector (USD 14.4 million) and universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 6.4 million).
In 2024, David and Lucile Packard Foundation provided USD 1 million to the multilateral system. All of this was non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. 100% of total development finance was channelled through United Nations (UN) organisations, and UN funds and programmes.
The UN system received USD 1 million from David and Lucile Packard Foundation in 2024. The most significant UN recipients were the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) (USD 500 thousand) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) (USD 500 thousand).
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 121 million of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s gross bilateral finance, of which 17.8% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 71.4% of total bilateral development finance was allocated to CSOs as core support, while 13.4% 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 94.3% to 84.7%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2024, David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Asia (excluding the Middle East) and Africa. USD 28.6 million was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle East) and USD 18.3 million to Africa, accounting respectively for 20% and 12.8% of gross bilateral development finance. A sum of USD 88.1 million (61.7%) was unallocated by region, mainly including core support and multi-regional programmes.
In 2024, 25.9% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, and most notably Indonesia (11.4%).
Least developed countries (LDCs) and other low-income countries (LICs) received respectively USD 14.3 million (10%) and USD 100 thousand (0.1%) of David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s gross disbursements in 2024. David and Lucile Packard Foundation allocated the highest share (17.1%) of its bilateral development finance to upper middle-income countries in 2024, followed by LDCs (10%), noting that USD 99.6 million (69.8%) was unallocated by income group.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation allocated USD 8.8 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2024, and USD 900 thousand to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2024. The main SIDS recipients are the Solomon Islands and Suriname.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 15.7 million in 2024, representing 11% of David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s bilateral development finance. Of this, contexts with extremely fragility received a sum of USD 4.2 million.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest allocations (72.9% of bilateral contributions) by David and Lucile Packard Foundation were under the multi-sector category, with a strong focus on support to general environment protection (USD 102.1 million). The second largest sector was social infrastructure and services (USD 30.4 million), focusing on health and population (USD 23.3 million). This was followed by production sectors (USD 7.2 million).
In the period 2023-2024, David and Lucile Packard Foundation committed 43.8% of screened bilateral allocable development finance to gender equality and women’s empowerment, compared to 21.7% in 2021-2022 and a private philanthropic average of 33.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 77.7 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 14.6% in 2023-2024, compared with the private philanthropic average of 11.9%.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation screens all bilateral allocable contributions activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% in 2023-2024).
David and Lucile Packard Foundation committed USD 1.3 million of contributions to end violence against women and girls and USD 700 thousand to support women’s rights organisations and movements, and government institutions on average per year 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, David and Lucile Packard Foundation committed 79.9% of its total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 141.6 million) in support of the environment, up from 71.5% in 2021-2022. The private philanthropic average was 12.4%. In addition:
61.2% of total bilateral allocable contributions (USD 108.5 million) focused on climate change overall (the private philanthropic average was 12.9%), up from 46.4% in 2021-2022. David and Lucile Packard Foundation had a greater focus on mitigation (59.1%) than on adaptation (30%) in 2023-2024.
39.9% of screened bilateral allocable contributions (USD 70.8 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the private philanthropic average was 4.3%), up from 33.6% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: https://www.packard.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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