Since leaving eBay’s helm in 2001, the company’s first president, Jeff Skoll, has directed his life and wealth toward philanthropy.
Through direct funding, organizational support, and partnerships, the Skoll Foundation supports social leaders and nonprofits working to address global problems—particularly in health, education, equity, justice, and climate. To focus on issues such as pandemics, water security, nuclear nonproliferation, and Middle East conflict, Skoll created the Skoll Global Threats Fund in 2009. As of today, Skoll has distributed about $1.12 billion worldwide.
Skoll founded the film production company, Participant in 2004 to advance purpose-driven storytelling. Examples include “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006) highlighted the dangers of climate change. “The Help” (2011) detailed the lives of African-American women domestic workers in the Civil Rights era. “Spotlight” (2015) told the story of journalists who exposed sex abuse in the Catholic Church. And “ROMA” (2018) provided a deep look into the life of a domestic worker in Mexico City, focusing squarely on issues of class, race, and social inequality.
Skoll’s repertoire of deliberate actions to provoke global change, commitment to humanitarian causes, and purposeful passion for storytelling is what makes him one of 2023’s Worthy 100.
