Report on International Funding in 2009

I came across a report by Philanthropia Inc. on patterns in international funding for NGOs in the last year. Philanthropia specialises in international fundraising and philanthropy, advising nonprofit organisations in their fundraising efforts.

This report surveyed a small sample of NGOs around the world. It mentioned something that I have heard before that for many nonprofits, most of their funding - in this case 37% - comes from private donations (see below). Foundations provide 19%, government agencies 18% and corporations 13%.



Although it is important that nonprofits generate income of their own through services rendered and products sold, this only accounted for 8% of overall funding. This makes some sense, because ideally the organisation needs to focus on implementing their mission and the services or products provided are typically offered to the beneficiaries free of charge or at a highly subsidised cost.

For those organisations that received international funding (73% of respondents), most of the money came from foreign government agencies (see below).



For 70% of the nonprofits, the economic recession affected their operations, via loss of donors; having to devote more time and staff to fundraising; embarking on new fundraising initiatives; and letting go of some staff.

Notwithstanding, many organisations were optimistic that it would be easier to get international funding in 2010.