Development Co‑operation Profiles: Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
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The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is a family foundation, established in 1999 by the Dell family and it is not affiliated with Dell Technologies. The Foundation is based in Austin, Texas, United States, and has offices in India and South Africa.
With respect to activities benefiting developing countries, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation supports initiatives in education, including global scholarship programmes; health, including child health; and family economic stability.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation provided USD 55.2 million for development in 2024 through its cross-border funding. Compared to 2023, this amount represents an increase of 16.2% in real terms. Grants represented 67.5% of Michael & Susan Dell Foundation’s gross disbursements, while the remainder was extended in the form of loans (7.7%) and equities (24.8%).
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation provided all of its development finance bilaterally in 2024.
In 2024, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation channelled its bilateral development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 31.3 million), public private partnerships (PPPs) and private sector (USD 19.6 million) and universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 3.9 million).
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 31.3 million of Michael & Susan Dell Foundation’s gross bilateral finance, of which 64.4% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 56.6% 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 60% to 56.6%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2024, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Asia (excluding the Middle East) and Africa. USD 34.3 million was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle East) and USD 21 million to Africa, accounting respectively for 62% and 38% of gross bilateral development finance.
In 2024, 93.9% of gross development finance went to the top 3 recipients, most notably India (62%), South Africa (24.2%), and Kenya (7.6%).
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation allocated the highest share (69.6%) of its bilateral development finance to lower middle-income countries in 2024, followed by upper middle-income countries (24.2%), noting that USD 3.4 million (6.1%) was unallocated by income group.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 4.2 million in 2024, representing 7.6% of Michael & Susan Dell Foundation’s bilateral development finance. This rise in 2024 compared to 2023 is driven by an increase in activities supporting Kenya.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest allocations (76.6% of bilateral contributions) by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation went to social infrastructure and services, with a strong focus on support to education (USD 36.9 million). The second largest sector was economic infrastructure and services (USD 9.3 million), focusing on banking and financial services (USD 9 million). This was followed by production sectors (USD 3.7 million).
In the period 2023-2024, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation committed 1.1% of screened bilateral allocable development finance to gender equality and women’s empowerment, compared to 0.5% in 2021-2022 and a private philanthropic average of 33.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 500 thousand 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 1.1% in 2023-2024, compared with the private philanthropic average of 11.9%.
The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation screens all bilateral allocable contributions activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (100% 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 2024, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Support for SDG 5 (gender equality) amounted to USD 900 thousand.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: www.dell.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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