The Vitol Foundation is a charity group which stems from the $500 billion energy company Vitol. ¹ The group promotes abortion and birth control access, a universal health care system, increased education for refugee youth, and increased access to public schools. The group will only invest in cost effective systems which work directly with local, state, and federal governments. The group will not invest in volunteer, internship, or scholarship programs. Vitol foundation invests based on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. ²

History

Vitol’s former CEO, Ian Taylor, made the company’s first donation in 2002. The Vitol Foundation was created in Switzerland in 2006 with the idea of continuing to make charitable donations to causes commonly related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) business practices. Although the group is connected with the Vitol energy company, it claims to be independently run, while still following the ideas of ESG. The CIO of Vitol, Gerard Delsad, says ESG is being incorporated into the company’s investments and he believes it is the right way to do business. ³ The foundation has sectors in many countries with the United States sector being headquartered in Houston, Texas. ⁴

Investment Strategy

The Vitol Foundation donates to groups of all sizes whose ideas align with the foundation, and it works with government groups. The foundation will not fund groups that work in parallel with or through local authorities and systems. Projects focusing exclusively on infrastructure, technology, and physical assets, are not funded, meaning there must be social and educational involvement. The foundation will not work with volunteer programs, internship programs, or scholarship programs. There must be returns for the foundation. ⁵

Education

The Vitol Foundation invests heavily in education for specific groups such as low-income youth, women, and refugees. Specifically, it seeks to increase access to education for refugee children, address shortcomings of the public education system, use cost-effective methods to increase private schooling, and find innovations to diversify the education workforce. The group did not give a direct example of what it intends to improve in the public education system, but it will only invest with groups working directly with local authorities such as school boards. The foundation also stipulates that private schooling models must be cost effective, meaning it must be affordable to create private schools. ⁶

Health

The Vitol foundation wants to implement universal health care. It proposes that both charity and for-profit organizations pick up the slack in low-income areas of the world. The group focuses on abortion and birth control access as well as integration of social and emotional health services. ⁷

Other

Vitol Foundation also invests in economic development, water and sanitation, and humanitarian relief. One focus of its economic development plan is to invest in businesses which promote women, youth, and refugees. The groups water and sanitation strategy is increasing access to safely managed water in order to promote gender equality, productivity, health, security, and dignity. The group’s focus for humanitarian relief is to help clean up low scale natural disasters, specifically ones which do not show up on the news. ⁸

1. McNair, Ros. “Vitol 2022 Volumes and Review.” Vitol.com, March 20, 2023. https://www.vitol.com/vitol-2022-volumes-and-review/.
2. “Our Story.” Vitol Foundation, February 14, 2023. https://vitol-foundation.com/our-story/.
3. “Environment & Social.” Vitol.com, June 14, 2023. https://www.vitol.com/environment-social/.
4. “Our Story.” Vitol Foundation, February 14, 2023. https://vitol-foundation.com/our-story/.
5.  The Vitol Foundation strategy. Accessed December 2, 2023. https://vitol-foundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Vitol-Foundation-Report-Strategy.pdf.
6.  The Vitol Foundation strategy. Accessed December 2, 2023. https://vitol-foundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Vitol-Foundation-Report-Strategy.pdf.
7. The Vitol Foundation strategy. Accessed December 2, 2023. https://vitol-foundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Vitol-Foundation-Report-Strategy.pdf.
8.  The Vitol Foundation strategy. Accessed December 2, 2023. https://vitol-foundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Vitol-Foundation-Report-Strategy.pdf.