OVERVIEW: The Howard G. Buffett Foundation awards hundreds of millions in grants annually to organizations that address food security and conflict mitigation globally, along with human trafficking.
IP TAKE: Howard G. Buffett is a hands-on and peripatetic philanthropist behind a foundation known for bold grantmaking in international hotspots. HGBF is a large, strategic, staff-selected funder working in difficult operating environments, with current priorities spanning food security, smallholder agriculture, conflict-affected humanitarian response, demining, migration root causes, human trafficking, public safety and specialized conservation.
This is not an approachable foundation. HGBF is spending down by 2045, does not accept unsolicited proposals and typically does not provide general operating support. There is no evidence of a general LOI, open RFP, rolling application or DAF portal.
The realistic path here is not a cold proposal, but proof of serious field credibility inside one of HGBF’s narrow lanes. Strongest fits are large or highly specialized organizations able to execute complex, multi-year work in priority geographies such as Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Rwanda, Ukraine and the United States.
Warm-entry routes are most likely through existing operational ecosystems: Ukraine demining and humanitarian partners, priority-country food security and migration networks, state anti-trafficking task forces, law enforcement and victim-services coalitions, public-safety systems, or specialized conservation partners. Small, general-service nonprofits are unlikely fits unless already embedded in one of these systems or named in a restricted intermediary opportunity.
Reach out via the contact page with general questions, but a direct connection to Buffett and a deep track record within the foundation’s interest areas is likely the only way to explore funding opportunities. For a breakdown of the Buffett family’s broader giving, note Warren Buffett’s Grant Finder profile.
PROFILE: Based in Decatur, Illinois, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation was established in 1999 by Howard G. Buffett, the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, and new chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He has held several board and executive positions at Fortune 500 companies. According to the biography on his foundation’s site, Buffett is also “a farmer, photographer, businessman, sworn law enforcement officer, former elected official and Chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.” The foundation’s mission is “to catalyze transformational change to improve the standard of living and quality of life for the world’s most impoverished and marginalized populations.”
The Buffett Foundation names three main focus areas: food security, conflict mitigation, and countering/combating human trafficking, with public safety, community/local support, and cheetah/mountain gorilla conservation framed as smaller or related investments rather than coequal programs.
- Its geographic priorities include Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Rwanda, Ukraine and the United States, but the foundation has previously funded projects all over the world, including South America, the U.K., Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and many African Countries.
- The Buffett Foundation stipulates that it does not provide general operating support to its grantees and expects to spend down its assets by the end of 2045.
Grants for Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture
The food security focus area is its largest, accounting for approximately half of its grantmaking. In 2015, Buffett integrated water security work into its food security giving, and more recently, the foundation has articulated a commitment to supporting food security in “regions prone to conflict and areas with highly vulnerable populations and limited functioning governments.” As a result, the foundation’s work for food security often overlaps with its conflict mitigation work.
- Global food-security support is directed toward agricultural resource development and management for smallholder farmers in the developing world, including research, conservation-based production practices, water-resource management and education. It targets highly vulnerable, under-resourced farmers, including regions prone to conflict and weak governance.
- In the United States, food-security-related work includes raising awareness of hunger, especially rural hunger, and promoting conservation-based agricultural systems among U.S. farmers. U.S. grantees include the Sequoia Farm Foundation, North Dakota State University and Nebraska’s Center for Rural Affairs.
- Overall, this funding area emphasises smallholder agriculture, agricultural productivity, water-use/resource management, conservation agriculture, conflict-affected food systems and vulnerable geographies.
Geographies:
- Buffett’s food security grantmaking has responded to the war in Ukraine and its repercussions for grain distribution around the world.
- The Foundation made a grant of $22.6 million to the Black Sea Grain Initiative for the purchase and distribution of grain to communities experiencing severe hunger in Ethiopia and Yemen.
- Support has also gone to farming and food distribution efforts within Ukraine, with grants supporting local and smallholder farms via organizations like Mercy Corps’ Ukraine Agricultural Support Program, the Global Empowerment Mission and a collaboration with Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, to improve school-based nutrition throughout the country.
- In Central America and Mexico, the Foundation’s food grantmaking has focused on sustainable agricultural practices, with grants supporting organizations including the Water Smart Agriculture Initiative and Alianza Cacao II.
- In Rwanda, the Foundation has focused on supporting smallholder farmers through training, leadership development and sustainable irrigation. Grantees include the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture and the One Acre Fund. The foundation also collaborated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture to create the College of Agriculture and Natural Resource’s Undergraduate Scholars Program.
Grants for Global Development and Security
The foundation says it invests in conflict mitigation by working to end or improve conditions that fuel violence and conflict and by supporting communities affected by violence or conflict. It links this work to economic development, good governance, strong institutions, citizen security and the view that development is impossible without lasting peace.
- Current priority countries include Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Rwanda, Ukraine and the United States.
- The foundation’s own “Where We Work” page gives country-specific descriptions, including peace accord implementation and demining in Colombia; root causes of migration in Northern Triangle countries; food security and migration drivers in Mexico; smallholder agriculture and RICA in Rwanda; and major Ukraine relief, agricultural, infrastructure, prosthetics, demining, grain procurement and war-crimes documentation support.
- The foundation has been a major leader in the philanthropic response to the war in Ukraine, as IP has reported. Since the conflict began in 2022, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has deployed and committed more than $1.4 billion to the Ukrainian cause.
- The foundation has also supported the School of Leadership Afghanistan, which used funding to relocate female student refugees and support their continued learning at schools in Rwanda, Canada and the U.S.
Grants for Violence Prevention and Human Rights
The Buffett Foundation’s giving area for Human Trafficking, launched in 2021, focuses on interventions and programs in the U.S. Grantmaking supports “efforts of law enforcement, prosecutors and victim service providers in targeted communities to disrupt human traffickers, dismantle their networks and bring justice to victims of human trafficking.”
- The foundation says this U.S. initiative builds capacity and amplifies the work of law enforcement, prosecutors and victim service providers in targeted communities to disrupt traffickers, dismantle networks and bring justice to victims.
- The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, though some restricted continuation or intermediary-administered opportunities may appear for preidentified partners, such as state-administered anti-trafficking work.
- In Georgia, the Foundation has supported the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Georgia Legal Services and the victims services group Tapestri.
- There is at least one restricted public-agency/intermediary pathway in Georgia. Georgia’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council issued an HGBF Grant Program RFA for FY2025/FY2026 continuation funding, but eligibility was limited to Georgia agencies on an allocation list; applicants had to be public agencies, nonprofit organizations or combinations of such organizations, and the RFA funded human trafficking services connected to Georgia’s Labor Trafficking Task Force and related multidisciplinary work.
- The Georgia opportunity is not a general open call; it is continuation funding limited to agencies listed in the solicitation.
- Grantees include the Western District of New York Human Trafficking Task Force, Wisconsin’s United Migrant Opportunity Services, AEquitas and the International Rescue Committee Miami.
U.S. Public Safety, though not a main focus area, primarily supports public safety initiatives and agencies. Current materials suggest that prioritizes include support for law enforcement/public safety agencies, public safety training infrastructure, first responders, and related community safety efforts.
- Historically concentrated in Illinois, Nebraska, Arizona and Texas; current language emphasizes communities where the foundation has operations or employees, with Decatur, Illinois especially prominent.
- Public-safety support appears relationship- and institution-driven, especially through public agencies and foundation-affiliated entities.
- Learn more about this funder’s public safety giving.
Grants for Wildlife Conservation
While wildlife is no longer a broad funding focus for this funder, Buffett has provided ongoing support to organizations involved in cheetah and mountain gorilla conservation, which are past areas of focus.
- This is a smaller continuing area rooted in historical knowledge and relationships. Outside sources include the Cheetah Conservation Initiative, which says it is funded by HGBF with support from the Zoological Society of London and works across African countries where cheetahs reside.
- Grantees include the Nature Conservation Trust, the Wildlife Conservation Network and the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
Important Grant Details:
This funder’s grants range from $5,000 to the tens of millions, so funding can range widely. In a recent fiscal year, the foundation awarded over $500 million in grants.
- The foundation’s “About” page lists several affiliated entities—Nature Conservation Trust, Sequoia Farm Foundation, The Ukraine Foundation, Public Safety Training Foundation, and Farmers Youth Education Foundation—that manage large, multi-year commitments or direct operations.
- Buffett’s grantmaking is global in scope, and many grants support programs that work across several nations and regions.
- Buffett does not typically award grants for general operating support, preferring to fund specific projects and initiatives.
- The Foundation does not accept and will not respond to unsolicited proposals for funding; it appears to conduct is own research to select grantees.
- Use the Buffett Foundation’s contact page to submit general inquiries.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
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