Grant Details

The Citi Foundation aims to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. Priority is placed on the following areas:

• Financial Inclusion - supports efforts to develop a more inclusive financial system that provides greater access to financial products, services and capital to low-income communities and individuals.
• Youth Economic Opportunities - supports programs that help young people to link education goals with leadership skills training, professional networks, and onramps to employment to increase the number of low-income youth, ages 16-25, who are able to get a job or start an income-generating business.
• Urban Transformation - urban transformation initiatives that build vibrant cities that offer economic opportunities for low-income residents.

All proposals are evaluated based on the following criteria:

• How innovative or influential is the program and will it support our efforts to promote scale and thought leadership?
• What will be the result from this proposed grant and how will we know it has been achieved? Results are not the services or programs offered, but the positive changes in behavior or improved economic conditions for those served as a result of these efforts.
• How likely is it that the results can be achieved? Our focus is on such factors as past success of program and organization, experience of key personnel leading the program, validity of the approach or model, and organizational capability.
• Is this the best possible use of Citi Foundation funds given other opportunities before us?