Endowment Fund
The Crop Trust’s Endowment Fund provides long-term, sustainable funding to help safeguard the world’s crop diversity. Contributions from governments and other donors are invested across a diversified range of asset classes and global markets guided by a responsible investment approach, with the objective of generating long-term returns while managing investment risk. Annual withdrawals from the Fund provide reliable funding to strengthen the global system of genebanks.
The Endowment Fund supports key genebanks to protect crop diversity and provides system-wide services for all genebanks. This is an essential element of the funding strategy of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
What Will it Cost to Secure Global Crop Diversity Forever?
An Endowment Fund of USD 850 million should generate the annual returns needed – around USD 34 million each year – to guarantee key crop diversity collections are conserved and available in perpetuity.
Support from governments, private sector companies, organizations and foundations is essential. Conserving crop diversity is the first, crucial step in ensuring food and nutritional security.
How Does the Crop Trust’s Endowment Fund Work?
The Endowment Fund is designed to provide a permanent source of funding for the conservation of crop diversity. Contributions from governments, foundations and other donors are invested to generate returns that provide predictable support for key genebanks and other activities essential to safeguarding crop diversity in perpetuity. This long-term investment horizon allows the Fund to withstand short-term market fluctuations while pursuing the growth needed to sustain its mission.
Each year, subject to Executive Board approval, up to 4% of the Fund’s average market value over the preceding twelve quarters may be withdrawn to support its mission. These resources help conserve and make available crop diversity held in key genebank collections, develop innovative digital tools for genebanks and safeguard seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
As of 30 June 2026, the market value of the Fund was approximately USD 425 million.
Discover more by reading the Crop Trust’s Annual Reports and Financial Statements
How are the Funds Used?
Disbursements from the Endowment Fund support the essential operations of:
- CGIAR genebanks – 11 international genebanks conserving 750,000+ samples of key crops like rice, maize and beans – some of the most studied and used collections in the world.
- Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees – Based in Fiji, CePaCT conserves taro, yam and other Pacific staples.
- World Vegetable Center – Holds 65,000+ vegetables varieties in two genebanks, including Africa’s only dedicated vegetable genebank.
The Endowment Fund contributes to the annual operational costs of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, in conjunction with the Government of Norway and the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre (NordGen).
The Fund also supports development of essential digital tools to enhance the management and accessibility of crop diversity.
- Genesys is a global platform that enables data sharing by genebanks worldwide.
- GRIN-Global Community Edition (GGCE) offers a flexible, tailored system for managing genebank operations.
These tools ensure efficient information flow, strengthening conservation efforts and driving agricultural innovation.
The Endowment Fund also supports the operations of the Crop Trust secretariat based in Bonn, Germany.
How Much Money Has Been Distributed?
Since 2005, more than USD 106 million has been withdrawn from the Endowment Fund to support the core mission of the Crop Trust.
Why Do Genebanks Need Guaranteed Long-term Funding?
Genebank collections require constant maintenance, and even brief disruptions or lapses in funding can lead to the permanent loss of seeds and other plant samples. Funding for genebanks is often inadequate, variable and unpredictable. This can put at risk invaluable resources that the whole world depends on. Funding can come from national governments, universities or foundations, and may increase or decrease based on availability of funds, organizational priorities or other issues. The Endowment Fund ensures that genebanks can perform the essential operations to maintain supported collections.
Only the predictable, long-term support that an endowment provides can secure a global system of conservation that requires ongoing care. The endowment is a long-term solution to a long-term problem.
Why Should We Invest in Long-term Support for Genebanks?
By contributing to the Endowment Fund, our donors ensure that future generations have the raw materials necessary to develop food crops that can address the challenges of tomorrow – increasing temperatures, stronger and more frequent droughts and floods, rising sea levels, pest and disease outbreaks and more frequent extreme weather.
Breeding new varieties can help overcome production shortages caused by these and other shocks. And this crop improvement needs the diversity that is increasingly only found in genebanks.
What is the Return On Investment From Supporting Crop Diversity?
The value of crop diversity conserved in genebanks can be difficult to quantify. One way considers the downstream economic value of new crops developed using crop diversity.
For example, a 2020 study on Andean potato diversity found that a single variety of potato, bred using material conserved at the International Potato Center genebank, delivered an estimated USD 1 billion in value to farmers in Uganda. That’s a single variety of a single crop in a single country.
Our Commitment to Responsible Investing
The Crop Trust manages the Endowment Fund with a long-term investment horizon and, as a responsible asset owner, recognizes that environmental, social and governance factors can have a material impact on investment risks and returns and should therefore be considered as part of the investment process.
The Crop Trust’s approach to responsible investment is set out in the Sustainable Investment Framework, which forms part of the Investment Policy. The Framework sets out how sustainability considerations are incorporated into the management of the Fund, through ESG integration, stewardship and engagement, selective exclusions and the consideration of sustainability and impact opportunities.
The Crop Trust is a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI) – an international network of investors working together to advance responsible investment. As a signatory, the Crop Trust regularly reports on its responsible investment activities and practices, with the results publicly available.
The Crop Trust also reports on its approach to climate-related risks and opportunities, and published its first Climate Disclosures Report in 2026. The report outlines how climate considerations are incorporated into the management of the Endowment Fund and reports on carbon emissions associated with the investment portfolio.
More information on the Crop Trust approach to responsible investment, including the Sustainable Investment Framework, is available in the Investment Policy
How Can You Help?
While government donations to the Endowment Fund remain our primary source of funding, the Crop Trust also receives support for our mission from individuals, foundations and companies.
Whether you are a concerned individual or a corporate leader sharing our vision of food security for future world generations, every contribution counts.
Contact us to learn more about how you can contribute to a sustainable, resilient and food-secure future for all.