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The David and Lucile Packard Foundation was created in 1964 by David Packard, the co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Company, and Lucile Salter Packard. Throughout their lives in business and philanthropy, the Packards sought to use private funds for the public good, giving back to a society which enabledthem to prosper. Guided by the business philosophy and values of its Founders, the Foundation invests in and takes smart risks with innovative people and organizations to improve the lives of children, enable the creative pursuit of science, advance reproductive health, and conserve and restore earth’s natural systems.

DFID, the Department for International Development leads the British government’s fight against world poverty. One in five people in the world today, over 1 billion people, live in poverty on less than one dollar a day. In an increasingly interdependent world, many problems - like conflict, crime, pollution, and diseases such as HIV and AIDS - are caused or made worse by poverty. DFID supports long-term programmes to help tackle the underlying causes of poverty. DFID also responds to emergencies, both natural and human-made.

The Surdna Foundation believes the next decade will bring enormously challenging, complicated, and sometimes disruptive social, economic and cultural changes. To meet these challenges, we will serve the public good by operating a Family Foundation that funds, shapes and promotes effective, long-term solutions. We will analyze issues fully, examine the larger systems which affect them, involve grantmakers and grant recipients, define the results we want to achieve, fund separately and collaboratively, work enthusiastically, take risks to find the best solutions, and learn systematically from our successes and failures.

USAID is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. Their work supports long-term and equitable economic growth and advances U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting: economic growth, agriculture and trade; global health; and, democracy, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance. USAID provides assistance in five regions of the world: Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia; Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Eurasia; and The Middle East. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., USAID’s strength is its field offices around the world. They work in close partnership with private voluntary organizations, indigenous organizations, universities, American businesses, international agencies, other governments, and other U.S. government agencies. USAID has working relationships with more than 3,500 American companies and over 300 U.S.-based private voluntary organizations.

GEF, the Global Environment Facility unites 179 member governments — in partnership with international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector — to address global environmental issues. An independent financial organization, the GEF provides grants to developing countries and countries with economies in transition for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants. These projects benefit the global environment, linking local, national, and global environmental challenges and promoting sustainable livelihoods. Established in 1991, the GEF is today the largest funder of projects to improve the global environment. The GEF has allocated $8.8 billion, supplemented by more than $38.7 billion in cofinancing, for more than 2,400 projects in more than 165 developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Through its Small Grants Programme (SGP), the GEF has also made more than 10,000 small grants directly to nongovernmental and community organizations.

Forest Trends is a Washington D.C.-based international non-profit organization that was created in 1999 by leaders from conservation organizations, forest products firms, research groups, multilateral development banks, private investment funds and philanthropic foundations. Our mission is four-fold: to expand the value of forests to society; to promote sustainable forest management and conservation by creating and capturing market values for ecosystem services; to support innovative projects and companies that are developing these markets; and to enhance the livelihoods of local communities living in and around those forests. We do this by analyzing strategic market and policy issues, catalyzing connections between forward looking producers, communities and investors, and developing new financial tools to help markets work for conservation and people. Our approach integrates the fundamental dimensions of ecology, economy and equity because our goal is to have an impact on a scale that is meaningful globally and for a diverse set of stakeholders.