Swift Foundation

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OVERVIEW: The Swift Foundation’s human rights, conservation, and global development grantmaking focuses on restoring and protecting the rights of indigenous people.

IP TAKE: The Swift Foundation conducts the majority of its grantmaking through recommendations from its board, staff, and partner organizations. It prefers a proactive approach to its funding. While it does not accept unsolicited proposals, it may respond to letters of inquiry, so make sure to write a concise letter that you’re ready to pitch briefly. Persistence is key and can pay off provided that your work closely aligns with this funder’s mission.

This funder geographically focuses its grantmaking on the Pacific Northwest, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, North American Native Networks and Africa. 

Please note that this foundation with be sunsetting by December 2028. “By moving into a spend down at this urgent moment in history, Swift Foundation is able to provide significant resources to our partners and help envision a stronger future for all concerned,” said John F. Swift, president and founder.

PROFILE: Established in 1999 by John Swift with funds from the sale of his family’s shares in UPS, the Swift Foundation follows its founder’s lifelong commitment to “peoples who protect the places they live, love, know, and share with all our relations.” In 2009, the foundation expanded its grantmaking to mission-related investing, indigenous people’s rights, and protecting biodiversity. Its current philanthropic activities consist of Grantmaking Programs and Mission-Related Investing. 

The Swift Foundation takes a “holistic approach” to its grantmaking, prioritizing its giving based on conceptual concentric circles:

  • The Core Circle, the highest priority grantmaking, consists of “Indigenous peoples’ organizations, NGOs, movements, collectives, networks, land defenders, farmers, local communities, community-based organizations, and social movements, whose work most closely aligns with protecting Mother Earth.”

  • The Inner Circle represents “community-based organizations, cooperatives and small business collectives, grassroots NGOs, and Indigenous led foundations whose goal is collective envisioning of alternative futures.”

  • The Outer Circle includes “regional and international NGOs, indigenous and social movements, research organizations, and human rights organizations whose goal is knowledge co-production, learning, providing strategic support to indigenous and local community initiatives threatened by state, corporate, or other forces.”

  • Finally, the Periphery includes other “philanthropic alliances and networks motivated by promoting systemic change through solidarity philanthropy, specific media organizations and/or initiatives.”

Grants for Environmental Conservation

The Swift Foundation has supported “organizations working to restore diverse ecosystems and agricultural landscapes, and organizations working to protect and revitalize biological and cultural diversity.” This work includes preserving ecosystems, protecting sacred sites, restoring wild salmon fisheries, land rights advocacy, expanding agroecological farming systems and reviving indigenous crops and wild game. The foundation strongly prioritizes organizations that work with or are led by indigenous peoples and local communities. Past conservation grantees include EarthRights International, which received funding for its work protecting communities threatened by extractive industries and infrastructure projects; and Gaia Amazonas, for its work protecting the biological and cultural diversity of the Amazon rainforest.

Grants for Global Development and Sustainable Agriculture

The Swift Foundation invests in social entrepreneurs working to improve local economies. This work often includes assistance to small-scale farmers, small business development and programs promoting economic stability for marginalized populations. Past global development grantees include Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, which received funding for its work creating equitable local economies; and Ecodecision, which received a grant for its work in biodiversity conservation and sustainable rural livelihood.

Grants for Global Security and Indigenous People’s Rights

Indigenous peoples rights is the central theme across all of Swift’s priority grantmaking programs. According to its site, the foundation seeks to “prioritize and predominantly fund the work arising from Indigenous people and their local communities, as well as local and/or community-based organizations who are responsible to their home places in solidarity with neighboring Indigenous communities.”

Past rights-related grants include EarthRights International, which received funding for its work helping to protect local communities threatened by extractive industries and infrastructure projects; and the International Indigenous Women’s Forum, which received a grant for its work encouraging indigenous women leaders and human rights activists to work together and coordinate agendas. 

Important Grant Details:

Though grants typically range from $40,000 to $80,000, most first-time grantees receive awards between $20,000 and $35,000. This funder geographically focuses its grantmaking on the Pacific Northwest, Ecuador, Peru, Columbia, North America Native Networks and Africa. To learn more about the type of organizations Swift supports, explore its grantee partners page.

PEOPLE:

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