My vision for philanthropy is a simple one: ensure children can lead healthy, safe and happy lives. Every child, no matter where they are born, deserves the chance to grow up in an environment that offers dignity, opportunity and the freedom to flourish. Over almost 25 years of philanthropy, I’ve seen that the reality of making this happen is less simple. It’s a goal that cannot be achieved by philanthropy alone – only through collective action does it become possible.
Time and again we’ve seen that if we want impact that truly lasts, we must go beyond quick fixes and instead focus on root cause interventions that can give children the futures they deserve.
This should be a time of great global optimism. Never before have we held the answers to so many of the intractable problems children face. We’ve seen medical breakthroughs that have eliminated neglected tropical diseases on national and global scales; there are nutritional “wonder” products like ready-to-use therapeutic food, which can stop children wasting; we’re in touching distance of ending the epidemic of HIV through the miracle of lenacapavir. And it’s not just health – we have the blueprints to help children both survive and thrive: education and skills programmes which have a direct path to employment, holistic approaches to preventing violence against children, and international examples of clean growth, which demonstrate a roadmap to a prosperous and sustainable future.
The potential to improve global living standards is extraordinary. It should be simple. But progress is still not happening fast enough. Growing cynicism means that individuals no longer see themselves as part of a wider, connected world. A world where we can all make a difference.
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At CIFF, we are guided by both the heart and the head. The heart is our shared intuition – our deeply held belief that no child should go hungry, die from preventable disease, or grow up without safety or hope. Children should be born in healthy environments, have access to clean water, nourishing food, resilient health systems and opportunities to thrive. The head is how we make this happen. It is our commitment to use intellect, pragmatism and evidence in identifying scalable, cost-effective solutions delivered through strong partnerships.
To understand the real forces shaping children’s lives, we must take 10 steps back. Time and again we’ve seen that if we want impact that truly lasts, we must go beyond quick fixes and instead focus on root cause interventions that can give children the futures they deserve. This also means listening to those with more experience and collaborating with dedicated leaders inside and outside government who are striving to create a brighter future for their communities. A few moments from this past year stand out in reinforcing this approach:
Protecting children means protecting the planet today and for the future.
Climate change continues to be one of the greatest threats to children, and confronting it demands broader thinking. Throughout 2025, I’ve had the privilege of seeing bold climate action translate into real, immediate improvements in people’s lives, while helping communities and economies grow stronger. In Indonesia, the government launched a renewable energy initiative that will bring clean power to 80,000 villages – expanding job opportunities, strengthening community resilience and ultimately improving health and education outcomes. This kind of impact reminds us why long-term thinking matters.
To end violence against children, we must transform the systems that allow it to persist.
It takes education systems that nurture opportunity, social protection that supports families, community leaders who can educate and governments that have ambition to protect children from harm. In Africa, we have been working to end child “marriage” through working with a coalition of partners who share this belief. Together, we’re not just responding to harm – we are working to heal the whole system so that children can be guaranteed safety, dignity and hope. This model is now being replicated across many countries, – reinforcing the whole-child, whole-community that sits at the heart of CIFF’s approach.
When crises collide for children, our solutions must be integrated.
Through the Child Nutrition Fund and our partnership with GAVI, we’ve shown that combining nutrition services, vaccinations and social protection in a single, streamlined approach is both life-saving and cost-effective, especially in remote or fragile settings. In 2025, this approach enabled hundreds of thousands of children in Ethiopia to be screened for severe acute malnutrition, receive essential vaccines and be connected to programmes that help families stay resilient.
There is hope in knowing that many of the problems we face already have solutions. Our job is to support innovation for the ones that don’t – and to scale the solutions that work. That is why last year CIFF committed US$1.45 billion to initiatives focused on climate action, health and nutrition, as well as opportunity and choice for women and girls. CIFF now has over US$4 billion in active multi-year investments. As CIFF’s founder, it's clear to me that more funding is essential, and a key part of our role is to continue to mobilise more of it. However, true impact requires more than money alone. It relies on meaningful collaboration, shared purpose and the relentless pursuit of building a better world.
As I reflect on the year, I want to thank our partners who make real change possible, our trustees, Kate Hampton, CIFF’s CEO, and our staff who drive this work forward every day. The way to honour people is by doing the best job we can and through working together, we can bring more people along with us on this journey.
