Governance and legal structures

Legal status

Gavi is a Swiss Foundation with international institution status in Switzerland and public charity status in the United States.

In the United States, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is recognised as a foreign equivalent of a US public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. This charitable status exempts Gavi from US federal income tax and state tax. In addition, the charitable status enables private foundations to contribute to Gavi without having to undertake oversight responsibility to ensure the funds are used for charitable purposes, which involves extensive reporting and legal work. Most private foundations, therefore, require that grantee organisations have 501(c)(3) public charity status given the administrative burden of making contributions to organisations without this charitable status.

Legal Note: Our legal name is "The Gavi Alliance".

Gavi is also associated with two additional organisations

The International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm)

IFFIm is an international development financing initiative, which raises finance in the international capital markets to support Gavi programmes. IFFIm is incorporated as a private company in England and Wales and is registered with the UK Charity Commission as a charity. Gavi is the sole member of IFFIm.

COVAX

Gavi is co-leading COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. This involves coordinating the COVAX Facility, a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.