Balkan Trust for Democracy was founded in March 2003 by German Marshall Fund of the United States, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, receiving a US$30 million donation.

Other donors included Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Tipping Point Foundation, Compagnia di San Paolo, Robert Bosch Foundation, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the foreign affairs ministries of Denmark and Greece.

[2] During the first mandate, the organization covered Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, and Serbia.

[1] From 2013, its geographical scope was reduced to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.

[2] Balkan Trust for Democracy supports three types of programs; grant-making, policy dialogue, and leadership development.