The Luminos Fund secures increased commitment of $10 million from founder Legatum to expand access to foundational learning for out-of-school children
BOSTON, June 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ --The Luminos Fund, an international nonprofit delivering transformative education to children denied access to school, today announced a landmark $10 million funding commitment from founding donor Legatum. This recommitment of funding by Legatum will enable Luminos to push ahead with its ambitious plans to expand its accelerated learning programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
"Research has proven that Luminos' programmes are one of the best buys in international education."The Luminos Fund was born out of Legatum's early philanthropic investments in accelerated education programmes in West Africa. These programmes laid the groundwork for what would become Luminos in 2016: a stand-alone collaborative investment fund with a mission to help the world's most marginalised children access primary education, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where 1 in 5 children remain out of school. To date, Luminos has given over 377,000 children a second chance at learning.
"This commitment of funds is a powerful reaffirmation of Legatum's belief in our mission and model", said Caitlin Baron, CEO of the Luminos Fund. "At a time when humanitarian budgets across the world are coming under increasing pressure, this funding enables us to continue to grow and reach more children, to help them rediscover the joy and the opportunity of learning and give them a better chance of living their best lives. It also demonstrates that private philanthropy has a vital role to play in the provision of high impact, humanitarian support."
Guy Cave, President of the Legatum Foundation, added, "Under Caitlin's leadership, Luminos has achieved huge impact, directly impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of children who otherwise would have been shut out of education for the rest of their lives. Research has proven that Luminos' programmes are one of the best buys in international education, and so this renewed funding is a big vote of confidence in Luminos, its brilliant team, and its prospects for expanding its impact in target regions."
For journalists interested in learning more, interviews are available with Caitlin Baron, CEO at The Luminos Fund, and Guy Cave, President of the Legatum Foundation. Case studies and additional data on programme impact are also available upon request.
For more information, please email Michael Stulman (michael@luminosfund.org), Director of Communications, The Luminos Fund.
About The Luminos Fund
The Luminos Fund runs catch-up education programmes for some of the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach children in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. In just one school year, out-of-school children learn how to read, write, and do maths – to learn how to learn – through a joyful, activity-based curriculum. As an international education nonprofit, our mission is to ensure all children have equal access to joyful, foundational learning, especially those shut out of education by crisis, poverty, or discrimination. To date, Luminos has helped over 377,407 children secure a second chance to learn.
www.luminosfund.org
About Legatum
Legatum is an investment partnership, with offices in London and Dubai, that invests its capital and ideas in initiatives it believes will shape a better future. Since 2006, Legatum has created a diverse collection of ventures to meet big global challenges and increase prosperity around the world.
Legatum's portfolio includes:
- Investments in listed and private businesses with a focus on the consumer, technology, and finance sectors.
- The END Fund formed to control and eliminate the five most common neglected tropical diseases by 2030. To date the Fund has directly impacted over 480 million lives.
- The Luminos Fund gives children excluded from school due to poverty, conflict or discrimination, a second chance at mainstream education. To date, it has supported more than 377,000 children to return to school.
- The Freedom Fund identifies and invests in the most effective community-led efforts to eradicate modern slavery. In the last nine years, the fund has helped liberate more than 30,000 people from slavery.
- The Prosperity Institute is a research and policy organisation with a focus on understanding prosperity's building blocks and the complex interactions between them. The Institute's purpose is to unlock how individuals, families, communities and nations can become more prosperous.
For more information visit www.legatum.com.
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