About Mastercard Foundation
The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organizations to empower young people in Africa and Indigenous youth in Canada to access quality education and meaningful, dignified, and fulfilling work.
Focus Areas
Education and TransitionsDigitalAgricultureHealthRefugees and Displaced PersonsDisability Inclusion
Who They Fund
youth (children and adolescents)young people at risk of financial exclusion / underbanked youth
Funding Style
programmatic grantsdirect service supportpartnership-driven funding
About Mastercard Foundation
A defining feature of Mastercard Foundation’s recent grantmaking is its scale in youth learning and financial inclusion, with one of the largest awards going to UNICEF for Youth Learning at $98,413,360 in 2023. The foundation pairs that large-scale education work with major investments in access to financial services and economic opportunity, including $28,289,078 to Inkomoko for Financial Inclusion in 2024 and $22,673,980 to One Acre Fund for Financial Inclusion in 2025. Its recent portfolio also includes university partnerships, multilateral agencies, and nonprofit intermediaries, suggesting a strong preference for partnering with organizations that can operate at significant scale. Across the grants list, Youth Learning and Financial Inclusion appear repeatedly, while other listed focus areas such as Agriculture, Health, Refugees and Displaced Persons, and Disability Inclusion sit within a broader youth-centered strategy. The recipient set includes organizations such as Carnegie Mellon University, Grassroots Business Partners Inc, Shining Hope for Communities Inc, and United Nations Development Programme, showing a mix of education, livelihoods, and systems-oriented funding. The foundation’s work is consistently tied to young people, especially in Africa and Indigenous youth in Canada, through support for education and transitions into dignified work.
What Mastercard Foundation Funds
In youth learning, Mastercard Foundation backs large institutional partners. It gave $40,434,702 to Arizona State University in 2025 for Youth Learning and $22,692,711 to Carnegie Mellon University in 2024 for Youth Learning, alongside $14,999,999 to University of California Berkeley in 2025 for Youth Learning. That pattern points to higher-education and training-linked grantmaking rather than small project grants. Financial inclusion is another major lane. The foundation awarded $20,000,000 to Consultative Group to Assist the Poor in 2024 for Financial Inclusion and $12,781,452 to United Nations Development Programme in 2024 for Financial Inclusion. It also funded Grassroots Business Partners Inc at $17,497,123 in 2024 for Financial Inclusion. The portfolio includes agriculture-linked work as well, with $22,673,980 to One Acre Fund in 2025 for Financial Inclusion and $9,804,050 to Heifer Project International in 2025 for Youth Learning. These grants show an interest in youth livelihoods and the systems around them.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$270.4M
Total Assets
$50.3B
Total Revenue
$6.5B
Total Expenses
$1.6B
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $250K and $3.6M, with a median of $1.3M.
25th Percentile
$250K
Median
$1.3M
75th Percentile
$3.6M
Geographic Reach
National17 states funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Leadership
DOUGLAS KASAMBALA
Accepts unsolicited proposals
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