Developmentaid logo
Register

Funding priorities of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in 2024 and 2025

Sofia Oliveira
Sofia Oliveira Oct 29, 2026
Funding priorities of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in 2024 and 2025

Add us as your preferred source on Google to see more of our content in Search.

Google logoAdd to Preferred Sources

Between 2024 and 2025, the Hilton Foundation provided US$600 million in grant payments, with a large share (45%) being allocated to three priority areas: Catholic Sisters, Early Childhood, and Homelessness. Read on to learn more about the geographical and thematic priorities of this donor, along with information about the grant calls available.

Businessman Conrad Hilton established the well-known Hilton Hotel network, which provided him with the vital skills and funds to launch a foundation dedicated to supporting global humanitarian efforts — the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (the Hilton Foundation). Since its establishment in 1944, it has distributed over US$4 billion in grants.

In 2024, the Hilton Foundation approved 414 grants and disbursed US$298 million in grant payments. In 2025, the approved payments totaled US$302 million (+1.4%).

For this article, we analyzed the 2024 and 2025 records from the Hilton Foundation’s own grantees database to offer more insights into how the funds were distributed and what the priority intervention areas were.

38% of Hilton Foundation grants had an international scope

Looking at the geographical distribution of grants, the Hilton Foundation has favored both U.S.-based projects and international programs– those benefiting two or more countries. These represent 35% and 38% of the total grants distributed in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Africa is third on the list of priority regions with 18% of the awarded grants.

Figure 1 – Percentage of grants, per region, awarded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in 2024 and 2025.

This data was retrieved directly from the Grantees Database of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

The three funding priorities: Catholic Sisters, Early Childhood, and Homelessness

The Hilton Foundation focuses its philanthropy on seven core intervention areas, with two additional priorities having been added:

  • Catholic Sisters: funding networks of sisters who work toward improving their local communities, especially for those who need help the most (e.g., people dealing with forced displacement, marginalized communities).
  • Early childhood: ensuring children aged under 3 and their caregivers have access to adequate services.
  • Foster Youth: supporting teenagers and youth in the transition from foster care to an independent adult life, addressing gaps in education, employment, health and well-being.
  • Opportunity Youth: enabling teenagers and youth to develop the skills and ecosystem they need to build a successful career.
  • Homelessness: finding solutions to prevent chronic homelessness in Los Angeles, U.S.
  • Refugees: promoting the integration of families who have been forcibly displaced by violence or natural disasters.
  • Safe water: delivering safe water to rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Disaster Relief and Recovery: strengthening the response to humanitarian crises (additional focus area).
  • Aviation: providing air travel for those delivering urgent humanitarian aid around the world, and training pilots and aviation workers in underserved communities (additional focus area).

However, nearly 45% of the funds in 2024 and 2025 were allocated to three of the core areas, suggesting these are the top priorities of the foundation:

  1. Catholic Sisters, US$99 million (17% of the total)
  2. Early Childhood Development, US$96 million (16% of the total)
  3. Homelessness, US$74 million (12% of the total)

The amounts awarded in every intervention area in the two years analyzed remained fairly stable, suggesting no shift in priorities.

Table I – Approved grant payments (in US$ million) made in 2024 and 2025, per focus area, by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

The figures are rounded. The totals are calculated from rounded figures. The table also displays the change (in %) in the awarded amount between 2024 and 2025. This data was retrieved directly from the Grantees Database of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

How to apply for Hilton Foundation grants

Most of the Hilton Foundation’s grantmaking involves establishing long-term relationships with its partners, which means it does not accept unsolicited applications.

However, there are two ways to receive financial support from this foundation even without being invited to submit a formal proposal. For instance, a call for nonprofits and schools providing direct services within the Conejo Valley (U.S.), called the Good Neighbor Program, accepts funding requests for up to US$10,000. Although this year’s call for proposals closed on August 28, it is expected the program will run again next year, so there is plenty of time to prepare a proposal.

Secondly, the foundation is responsible for the world’s largest annual humanitarian award, which recognizes the excellent contribution of a selected nonprofit toward alleviating human suffering. This is a US$3 million monetary award that has run every year since 1996. The last three recipients were Last Mile Health (2026), Mines Advisory Group (2025), and Amazon Frontlines (2024).

Nominations for this award are open all year and can be accessed by visiting Nominate your organization for the 2028 edition. Employees, founders, and individuals who receive payment from an organization cannot put forward that organization for the award, but an organization can be nominated by an eligible person who meets the foundation’s requirements.

Looking for insights into other foundations?

We prepare these insight articles to help you to quickly grasp the geographical and thematic priorities of each foundation analyzed. If you are looking for alternative donors, take a look at our earlier articles:

At DevelopmentAid, you can also access near-real-time information on the development sector. Consider becoming a member to take advantage of our advanced filtering tools for grants and subscribe to our development news digest.