Posted on 17 September 2019
Introduction
The funding landscape for humanitarian NGOs continues to change and is becoming even
more dynamic and innovative, not only in partnership and collaboration but also for
mechanisms for funding.
CID’s 2018 annual survey (on the international NGO sector) showed that while public
support is still the largest source of income, a multi-year decline appears to be continuing.
Public donations are now 15% lower than a decade ago. Furthermore, a 2019 research paper
on opportunities and challenges of the aid eco-system found that the current system of
public donations and rationing of funding, including high transaction costs and short-term
planning, encourages competition over collaboration.
There is a sense of urgency for non-profits and NGOs to rapidly attract support. An
increasing range of aid actors, including those considered ‘non-traditional’, within a crowded
humanitarian space presents both challenges and new ideas as divergent, and indeed
convergent, meet. One constant is that donors want to see more NGO cooperation and
cohesiveness to ensure that their investment has as much impact as possible, while
administrative overheads are further reduced.
Generally, New Zealand NGOs conduct their appeals and emergency fundraising in isolation
to each other. Working in relative isolation means that individual NGOs have limited public
exposure, fundraising costs are duplicated, and public messaging and advocacy/ awareness
campaigns can appear disjointed or ad hoc.
Access the full Report, here