Development Co-operation Profiles

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust is a U.S.-based philanthropy committed to helping people live better lives today and creating stronger, healthier futures for individuals and communities. The trust partners with people and organizations to invest in new ideas or research across six programme areas: Crohn’s Disease, Israel, Rural Healthcare, Type 1 Diabetes, Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa, and New York City. Its development finance primarily relates to programmes on Type 1 Diabetes, Vulnerable Children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust provided USD 67.5 million for development in 2022 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2021, this amount represents a decrease by 3.1% in real terms.

In 2022, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust provided USD 0.5 million of gross development finance to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s war of aggression. Moreover, USD 1.1 million was granted in support of Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers in neighbouring countries.

In 2022, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust channelled all of its development finance through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society.

In 2022, all development finance of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to CSOs was earmarked to specific projects or programmes.

Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

In 2022, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa, accounting respectively for 75.5% of gross bilateral development finance. A sum of USD 15.6 million (23.2%) was unspecified by region in 2022, mainly including multi-regional programmes. In this context, USD 0.7 million was provided in support of refugees and asylum-seekers in donor countries.

In 2022, 42.2% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Ghana.

Least developed countries (LDCs) and other low-income countries (LICs) received USD 23.8 million (35.2%) of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s gross disbursements in 2022, followed by lower middle-income countries (6.4%), noting that USD 39 million (57.8%) was unallocated by income group.

Furthermore, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust allocated USD 24.2 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2022.

Support to fragile contexts reached USD 23.8 million in 2022, representing 35.2% of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s development finance.

Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

In 2022, 65.4% of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s contributions were allocated to social infrastructure and services, 15.9% to economic infrastructure and services and 16.3% to production sectors. In terms of sectors, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s largest allocations went to health and populations (USD 41.8 million) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (USD 11 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 0.9 million.

In 2022, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust committed the largest shares of its contributions to no poverty (SDG 1), good health and well-being (SDG 3) and reduced inequalities (SDG 10) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Support to gender equality and women’s empowerment amounted to USD 6.2 million, and contributions to combatting climate change totalled USD 11.2 million.

Official website: https://helmsleytrust.org

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, the Sustainable Development Goal focus of private development finance, channels of delivery, unspecified/unallocated allocations, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.