Diversifying your funding
Blogs, resources, tools and training for you to ensure that you're making the most of all opportunities to raise funds.
Our business models resources will help your NGO think more innovatively and long-term about planning and implementing projects and strategies. The fundraising section will help you utilise individual giving and sponsorship. And the partnership section will help you cultivate relationships outside of grants and governmental institutions.
Business models
As traditional funding sources are drying up, a good business model enables an organisation to have both impact, reaching the communities that they want to support, and have financial sustainability to continue doing so.
It’s important for an organisation to be aware of their business model as it may be that there is another approach that is more suited to them. A new model could allow your organisation to scale impact faster than you do now or deliver the same change but at a cheaper price.
More on business models
Fundraising
In order to have financial sustainability, organisations need to have a diverse funding model that can withstand the fast-changing external funding environment. Institutional donors, such as DFID, the EU and Comic Relief, are either government or other large-scale development agencies with high value, multi-annual funds, institutional donors. Their funding for international development NGOs can provide regular, reliable, year-on-year resourcing for high quality development grants or contracts.
Fundraising from the public provides the much needed unrestricted funding for NGOs and gives them the flexibility to choose where and how they spend their income. But it is getting harder and harder to raise funds this way. Fundraising from corporate partners and corporate foundations provides an opportunity outside institutional funding but INGOs should consider what aligning with a brand or corporate could mean for them.
More on fundraising
Partnerships
Working in partnership is central to delivering the sustainable development goals. Many institutional donors now require grantees to work in consortia to deliver their programme, and INGOs are collaborating with business and other stakeholders to achieve impact at scale. Working with local partners is key to building the capacity and sustainability of local organisations and civil society.