David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Home
United States
Los Altos, CA
David and Lucile Packard Foundation

We work with people and communities to create enduring solutions for just societies and a healthy, resilient natural world.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a family foundation. We are guided by the enduring business philosophy and personal values of Lucile and David, who helped found one of the world’s leading technology companies. We work on the issues our founders cared about most:

• Improving the lives of children
• Enabling the creative pursuit of science
• Advancing reproductive health
• Conserving and restoring the earth’s natural systems

09/02/2026

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is threatening people's lives and the communities that steward the Congo Basin forests.

We provided $700,000 in emergency funding to experienced Ebola outbreak response teams and grantee partners embedded in affected communities. Their proximity, trust, and local knowledge are essential to a response that is timely, culturally grounded, and shaped by the needs of affected communities.

As Nigel Sizer, our Global Climate initiative director, said: "The health of the forests in the Congo Basin and the health of the communities who steward them cannot be separated."

Learn more about the organizations leading this response: https://www.packard.org/insights/news/packard-foundation-directs-emergency-funding-to-local-partners-responding-to-ebola-outbreak-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo/

09/01/2026

Most Americans, across political parties, already share a commitment to democratic values. Philanthropy is not yet investing in that common ground at scale.

Our Democracy, Rights, and Governance Program Officer Ben Chou analyzed the 2024 tax filings of the 15 largest democracy funders and found an estimated four-to-one gap: roughly $359 million toward base building, compared with $84 million toward what he calls majority activation, the work of reinforcing democratic values across political differences.

Both matter. Base building deepens participation within communities. Majority activation broadens the commitment to democratic norms across them.

Read Ben's perspective: https://www.philanthropy.com/opinion/to-defend-democracy-funders-must-give-beyond-their-comfort-zones/

08/26/2026

ICYMI: Nigel Sizer joined us as our new Global Climate initiative director this summer! 🌎

Nigel brings more than three decades of experience working globally on climate change, tropical forests, food systems, human rights, and sustainable development.

"Tropical forests are among our strongest natural defenses against climate change, and protecting them requires sustained, collective action," he said. “I’m excited to join the Packard Foundation and work alongside partners to support solutions led by Indigenous peoples and local communities that protect forests and slow climate change.”

Learn more about Nigel and our Global Climate initiative: https://www.packard.org/insights/news/nigel-sizer-global-climate-director/

08/25/2026

Child care isn’t just a family issue, it’s an economic development imperative.

Across the country, communities are finding new ways to bring local government, employers, philanthropy, and child care providers together to expand access to affordable, high-quality care while supporting a strong and growing workforce.

New findings from the Investing in America Child Care Partnership draw on work in six diverse communities to show what’s possible when child care is treated as essential economic infrastructure. From employer-supported care to new public-private financing models, these locally driven approaches offer a blueprint that other communities can build on.

As our Children and Families Director Katie Beckmann puts it: “We don't have to choose between growing our economy and supporting families.”

Read more about what these communities are learning and the opportunities to build and sustain these approaches across the country: https://ow.ly/onLG50ZFmu0

08/19/2026

At the Packard Foundation, we envision a just and equitable world where both people and nature flourish. Through our grantmaking, we work with people and communities across three interdependent goals.

🤝 Build just societies: We support leaders, organizations, and movements as they work toward collective change while fostering a thriving civil society.

🌎 Protect and restore our natural world: We champion bold climate solutions, an ocean that sustains us, and scientific innovation and discovery to secure the health and future of people and the planet.

❤️ Invest in families and communities: We promote resilient and vibrant communities where children and families thrive and have the power to shape their lives.

08/14/2026

"The idea with microrobots is that we can change the script. We can essentially direct where these drugs go more specifically and that way we can keep people safe." — Wyatt Shields, Packard Fellow

Every day, our bodies protect us from potential threats. Our skin keeps out pathogens. Mucus traps bacteria. These barriers are essential, but they can also prevent medicine from reaching the places it needs to go.

Wyatt and his team at CU Boulder Engineering are working to address this challenge with microscopic robots that could one day deliver treatments (like chemotherapy) to targeted sites in our bodies, making them more effective and lowering the risks of side effects.

🔗 Learn more: https://www.packard.org/insights/fellow-story/these-tiny-medical-robots-could-travel-through-your-body/

08/13/2026

A pastor teaching peacemaking in a divided town. A business owner opening their doors as a polling place. A veteran serving as a poll worker where their neighbors know their name.

These are the actions that keep a democracy healthy. Our Democracy, Rights, and Governance Program Officer Ben Chou makes the case that philanthropy has a real opportunity to back the trusted local leaders behind them, especially the ones working across political differences.

How funders can rise to that moment: https://www.philanthropy.com/opinion/to-defend-democracy-funders-must-give-beyond-their-comfort-zones/

08/11/2026

Most Americans, across political parties, share a commitment to democratic values. So how can philanthropy better support that common ground?

Our Democracy, Rights, and Governance Program Officer Ben Chou makes the case that mobilizing people to participate in democracy is not enough to protect it. Funders also need to support work that activates the vast majority of Americans who already believe in democratic values, so it becomes harder for anyone to break the norms that hold democracy together.

Read Ben's op-ed in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on building a more resilient democracy: https://www.philanthropy.com/opinion/to-defend-democracy-funders-must-give-beyond-their-comfort-zones/

08/07/2026

The Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering provide promising early career scientists, like Nicole Xu, with complete flexibility to pursue new ideas through unrestricted funding.

For Nicole, that’s meant freedom to take on high-risk projects without proven applications, like growing corals and sea sponges in her lab using tissue engineering for potential habitat restoration.

🔗 Learn more about her creative new approaches: https://www.packard.org/insights/fellow-story/these-robotic-jellyfish-could-help-us-better-understand-the-ocean/

08/05/2026

As our President and CEO Nancy Lindborg steps into the role of Board Chair at ClimateWorks, she sat down with their President and CEO Helen Mountford to discuss her path from humanitarian and development work into climate, why those two fields have run on parallel tracks, and what becomes possible when funders work across systems rather than in silos.

Their conversation gets at what it means to fund climate solutions that deliver for people, economies, and the planet.

🔗 Read the full conversation: https://www.climateworks.org/blog/in-conversation-nancy-lindborg-and-helen-mountford-on-climate-development-and-where-philanthropy-goes-from-here/

Address

343 2nd Street
Los Altos, CA
94022

Telephone

+16509177167

Website

http://www.packard.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when David and Lucile Packard Foundation posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Los Altos?