Trusts and foundations

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

The Foundation was created in 1944 by Conrad N. Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels and left his fortune to help the world’s disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Between 1985 and 2015, $130 million of Foundation funding has been given to their safeguarding vision work. The Foundation’s current support for vision projects focuses on blinding trachoma and cataracts, two common forms of avoidable blindness.

The Foundation has awarded three grants to Sightsavers. Two of these grants are assisting the governments of Mali and Tanzania to eliminate blinding trachoma. The funding is used to deal with a backlog of trichiasis trachomatous (TT) cases – where eyelashes have turned inward and scrape the surface of the eye, requiring urgent surgery to prevent blindness. The third grant is helping to tackle blindness among older people in the central Morogoro region of Tanzania.

We work in partnership with the ministries of health and with national coordinating partners The Carter Center, Helen Keller International and HelpAge International on these grants. The Tanzania grant for trachoma is part of The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust Trachoma Initiative in Africa.

IZUMI Foundation

Sightsavers has been awarded a grant of $348,000 from the IZUMI Foundation to eliminate blinding trachoma, a devastating neglected tropical disease, from five regions of Mali. Between 2014 and 2016, its support will enable us to protect thousands of people from avoidable blindness by providing eyelid operations.

GiveWell

Charity evaluator GiveWell, based in San Francisco, has named Sightsavers as one of seven ‘top charities’ for our work on treating children for parasitic infections, known as deworming. GiveWell is known for its in-depth analysis to find and recommend outstanding charities to donors.

Sightsavers is proud to have been awarded a $2.9 million grant from GiveWell to scale up deworming projects to treat disabling neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Africa. The Givewell evaluation of our deworming work resulted in a recommendation of our “strong track record and excellent cost-effectiveness”. We were also endorsed because of our standout record of transparency.

The elimination and control of five NTDs, which cause sight loss, severe disfigurement and disability, is a core part of Sightsavers’ work in 24 Sub-Saharan African countries.

GiveWell’s support has enabled Sightsavers to develop strategies in five countries to distribute treatment for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths. This forms part of our integrated NTD work in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria and Guinea Bissau.

The Baxter International Foundation

The Baxter International Foundation awarded a grant of US$84,000 to support our Vision Delhi initiative, providing primary eye care services to 30,000 people with visual impairments in some of India’s poorest communities.

The Higgins-Trapnell Family Foundation

The Higgins-Trapnell Family Foundation, based in California, has been a dedicated supporter of our work for more than 10 years.

President Priscilla Higgins-Trapnell told Sightsavers: “The Higgins-Trapnell Family Foundation has been honored to support Sightsavers International for many years. With Sightsavers we know the money we donate is used to make a huge difference to people who are facing debilitating eye issues, from river blindness to cataracts, preventing disease and restoring sight. We are confident that our money is used efficiently and effectively and we do appreciate the reports that we receive describing the outcomes of the work that we have been supporting. The most recent report tells of the success of Togo river blindness prevention, which reached almost 2.5 million people in Togo, providing vital treatment to prevent river blindness. That’s a lot of people – what a great way to go Sightsavers!”