# IDP Foundation IDP Foundation is an Endowment / Foundation based in Chicago, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation - **Headquarters:** Chicago, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** Chicago, IL, United States - **Founded:** 2008 - **Assets under management:** $49 million (Altss estimate) - **Website:** idpfoundation.org - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/idp-foundation-inc- ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About Irene Pritzker and Liesel Pritzker Simmons co-founded IDP Foundation in 2008 as a vehicle for deploying a branch of the Pritzker family fortune into sustainable development. Liesel, who also co-founded the impact investment office Blue Haven Initiative with her husband Ian Simmons, brings a structured-capital lens to the foundation's work. The foundation holds Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council, a designation achieved in 2021, and operates from Chicago, Illinois. The foundation's primary program, the IDP Rising Schools Program, targets the affordable non-state education sector in West and East Africa. It provides a blend of concessionary loans, training, and capacity-building support to low-fee private school proprietors in Ghana and Kenya. In addition to direct program-related investments, the foundation engages in venture philanthropy and has made fund commitments through impact fund managers, consistent with its membership in the Global Impact Investing Network. The foundation's investment activity spans early-stage education enterprises, growth-stage school finance vehicles, and venture debt structures, with geographic concentration in sub-Saharan Africa. It co-founded and holds a board seat on the Global Schools Forum, a peer network for non-state school operators in developing countries. The foundation manages an estimated $49 million in assets, a figure that is not publicly disclosed by the firm. It operates alongside Blue Haven Initiative, the family's main impact investment entity, which pursues a broader multi-asset, for-profit impact mandate. The foundation participates in Big Bang Philanthropy, a collaborative of like-minded funders, reinforcing its approach of combining philanthropic grants with catalytic capital. A decades-long affiliation with the UN Office of Partnerships, headed by IDP Rising Schools advisory board chair Amir Dossal, ties the small foundation to large-scale multilateral development dialogue. IDP Foundation's structural difference lies in its total integration of a foundation's concessionary capital tools — PRIs, grants, and technical assistance — with a networks-driven operating model. Rather than relying on external grant-making intermediaries, the foundation directly convenes school operators, financial institutions, and government stakeholders in Ghana and Kenya, maintaining a lean, family-led governance structure that keeps decision-making with Irene Pritzker and Liesel Pritzker Simmons. ## Sectors - Education - Financial Services - Healthcare Services ## People - Irene D. Pritzker — Chair and Co-Founder - Liesel Pritzker Simmons — Vice Chair and Co-Founder ## Questions ### How does IDP Foundation's investment model differ from a traditional grant-making foundation? IDP Foundation primarily uses program-related investments (PRIs) — concessionary loans, equity, and venture debt — instead of one-time grants. In its flagship Rising Schools Program in Ghana and Kenya, the foundation lends capital to proprietors of low-fee private schools and couples the loans with management training provided by local partners. The goal is to create self-sustaining school businesses that can repay the capital, allowing it to be redeployed. ### Who runs investment decisions at IDP Foundation? Irene D. Pritzker serves as Chair and Liesel Pritzker Simmons serves as Vice Chair. Because the foundation is structured as a lean family philanthropy, investment decisions for program-related investments and fund commitments are made by the principals. Liesel's concurrent role at Blue Haven Initiative creates a direct bridge between the foundation's concessionary toolkit and the family's broader for-profit impact portfolio. ### What is IDP Foundation's known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs? Through its membership in Big Bang Philanthropy and its relationship with Blue Haven Initiative, IDP Foundation can co-invest alongside aligned impact GPs and family offices. The foundation's program-related investment structure allows it to take direct positions in individual school operators while also committing capital to third-party-managed impact funds targeting education and financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa. ### How is IDP Foundation related to Blue Haven Initiative? Blue Haven Initiative is the for-profit impact investment office co-founded by Liesel Pritzker Simmons and her husband Ian Simmons. IDP Foundation, co-founded by Liesel and her mother Irene Pritzker, is the family's non-profit philanthropic vehicle. While legally separate, they share a principal and a strategy of using structured capital to drive social outcomes, with IDP Foundation focusing on concessionary education investments in sub-Saharan Africa. ## Related profiles - [The Phi Beta Kappa Society](https://altss.com/profile/the-phi-beta-kappa-society) - [International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans](https://altss.com/profile/international-foundation-of-employee-benefit-plans) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/idp-foundation Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology