International hotelier Conrad N. Hilton established the grantmaking foundation that bears his name in 1944 to help people living in poverty and experiencing disadvantages worldwide. Today, the work continues, concentrating on efforts to ensure healthy early childhood development and sustainable livelihoods for youth, supporting young people transitioning out of foster care, improving access to housing and support services for people experiencing homelessness, identifying solutions to safe water access, and lifting the work of Catholic sisters. Additionally, following the selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the USD 2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to an organisation doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering.
Development Co-operation Profiles
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Introduction
Private development finance
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation provided USD 200.7 million for development in 2022 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2021, this amount represents an increase of 36.3% in real terms.
Support to Ukraine
In 2022, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation provided USD 2 million of gross development finance to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s war of aggression.
COVID-19 response
In 2022, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation provided USD 9 million to support developing countries’ COVID-19 response. All this financing concerned activities to control the spread of the coronavirus through medical interventions.
Bilateral and multilateral allocations
In 2022, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation channelled its development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society (USD 172.5 million) and universities, research institutes or think‑tanks (USD 15.3 million).
Multilateral channels
In 2022, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation provided USD 3.8 million to the multilateral system, representing 1.9% of its development finance, all of which was earmarked for specific countries, regions, themes or purposes.
All of these multilateral contributions were provided to the United Nations (UN) system, most notably UNICEF (USD 3.3 million), UNDP (USD 250 thousand) and UN- Multi Partner Trust Fund Office (USD 250 thousand).
Civil society organisations
In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 172.5 million of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s gross development finance. Of this, 2.5% was allocated to CSOs as core support, while the remaining 97.5% was earmarked for specific projects or programmes. Over two-thirds (68.2%) of these contributions were channelled through international NGOs.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
Geographic and thematic focus
In 2022, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. USD 144.7 million was allocated to Africa and USD 29 million to Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting respectively for 72.1% and 14.5% of gross development finance. A sum of USD 19 million (9.5%) was unspecified by region in 2022, mainly including multi-regional programmes, core support and research grants.
Figure. Bilateral private development finance by recipient country
In 2022, 64.4% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Colombia and Kenya.
Least developed countries (LDCs) and other low-income countries (LICs) received USD 103 million (51.3%) of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s gross disbursements in 2022. Lower middle-income countries (LMICs) received USD 34.3 million (17.1%) and upper middle-income countries (UMICs) USD 25.9 million (12.9%), noting that USD 37.5 million (18.7%) was unallocated by income group.
Notes: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.
Furthermore, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation allocated USD 70.5 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2022 and USD 3 million to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2022, notably Haiti.
Fragile contexts
Support to fragile contexts reached USD 118.7 million in 2022, representing 59.1% of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s development finance. Of this, extremely fragile contexts received a sum of USD 7.6 million.
Notes: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral contributions that are allocated by country.
Sectors
In 2022, 79.3% of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s contributions were allocated to social infrastructure and services and 10.7% to economic infrastructure and services. In terms of sectors, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s largest allocations went to education (USD 87.7 million), health and population (USD 67.8 million), financial and business services (USD 25.7 million) and water and sanitation (USD 19.8 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 20.3 million.
Sustainable Development Goals
In 2022, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation committed the largest shares of its contributions to reduced inequalities (SDG 10), quality education (SDG 4), zero hunger (SDG 2) and decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Support to gender equality and women’s empowerment amounted USD 40.3 million.
Additional resources
Official website: https://www.hiltonfoundation.org
The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, the Sustainable Development Goal focus of private development finance, channels of delivery, unspecified/unallocated allocations, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.