Jakarta. Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara has formed a philanthropic arm equipped with roughly $100 million in initial capital.

The unit known as Danantara Indonesia Trust (DIT) came into existence in October 2025. The grant-maker will focus on bankrolling causes in health, sanitation, and education. Some dividends of state-run firms -- all of which are now under Danantara’s wings -- will go into funding DIT’s projects.

“Our policy commits us [Danantara] to annually allocate at least 1% of the total dividends that we receive from all state-owned enterprises [into DIT]. We have transferred around $100 million [to DIT] in end-2025," Danantara boss Rosan Roeslani told reporters in Jakarta on Monday.

Despite being almost eight months old, DIT had only sealed its first few memoranda of understanding (MoUs) that day, one of which involved the Health Ministry.

DIT has agreed to help the ministry roll out “hexavalent vaccines”, which are expected to safeguard kids from multiple diseases just through a single vaccination series. The support will go into the vaccination cold chain infrastructure and prenatal multivitamins.

“[DIT backing] is worth around Rp 250 billion [approximately $14.1 million],” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said.

DIT has teamed up with philanthropist Karya Salemba Empat for a three-year scholarship for 500 underprivileged university students. Last but not least is an MoU with the Indonesian Heritage Agency to set up a library at the National Museum to boost cultural literacy.

Danantara had long hinted at its intentions to create a unit on charitable causes, even aiming to turn Indonesia into ASEAN’s philanthropic hub. It had even asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become a partner in the trust fund when the businessman visited Jakarta last year. 

Asked about these updates, Rosan replied that the partnership with the Gates Foundation is more on turning DIT “into a credible, relevant, transparent philanthropic unit with great governance”.

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