We explore areas where success isn’t guaranteed, and we’re not afraid to make mistakes, because the true successes of the past three decades have often been born out of the times when things haven’t always gone to plan. Our philanthropy provides a safety net which gives organizations and communities the confidence and means to make progress on complicated problems, and find the solutions which would otherwise be out of reach.

We recognize that the health of the environment is directly linked to the health and economic wellbeing of us all, that good health and healthcare is essential to improving all outcomes in a person’s life and that in order to help communities control their own fate they need support to sustainably improve their incomes, security, nutrition and surrounding environments.

Our investments span the geographies of Latin America, the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Asia Pacific and the Arctic. While some of what we have learned has been applied in different contexts, some of the complexity of the problems addressed is unique to the setting.

Every place is different and so we have collaborated closely for decades with trusted partners with deep expertise in regions across the world. We value honest dialogue with these partners, which we believe breeds deep trust, a culture of continuous improvement and an empowering flexibility that allows our ecosystem, and the communities we touch, to constantly experiment, evolve and reassess the road to the greatest impact.

And the common thread running throughout? Our founders, John and Ginger Sall, whose long-held plans to pledge the majority of their wealth to philanthropy, are driven by their compassion for this planet and the people and animals which live on it. These values led them to establish the Sall Family Foundation nearly 30 years ago. Their philanthropy is guided by humility, curiosity, science and they are on a continuous journey of learning and improvement. They have learned through deep listening to the lived experiences of local experts as well as world-renowned scientists that given the right information, communities with the agency to self-govern will create sustainable long-term benefits for people and nature. It is their belief that philanthropy should be measured by attention to any mistakes made and lessons learned along the way, and the impact felt by the world’s most vulnerable.