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Year two of the World Giving Report's Charity Insights reveals even more about the landscape for social purpose organisations in 33 countries around the world. Uncover the key trends and challenges facing the sector.
Year two of the World Giving Report's Charity Insights reveals even more about the landscape for social purpose organisations in 33 countries around the world. Uncover the key trends and challenges facing the sector.
When we asked charities around the world whether they feel financially and operationally set up for success over the next three years — less than two in five of them responded positively, and less than one in ten feel ‘very well set up’ for future success.
Larger charities, with over fifty employees, are more confident than their smaller counterparts, while those organisations that work on the frontline — providing crucial services — are among the most pessimistic.
Globally, there is no continent where the majority of charities feel well set up for the years ahead. However, the outlook is more positive for those based in North America, Oceania, and Asia, where over 40% feel well set up, while in South America it falls to only 26% who feel the same.
Based on CAF’s extensive research and charity advisory work, we have developed six characteristics of organisational resilience in social purpose organisations:
Across the world, charities are facing a variety of challenges that affect their resilience for the future. Below, we look at how often each challenge was cited as one of their top three, so we can understand which aspects of resilience are more and less important to social purpose organisations.
These two aspects of resilience are very closely related and often mutually reinforcing. Just over a third of charities (36%) mentioned one or more the challenges relating to them.
Charities are continuing to see increasing demand. Almost seven in ten (67%) have seen an increase in the past year, and the majority of them say they are finding it difficult to cope. However, amongst the adversity are stories of innovation and adaptation — for every challenge, charities have found practical ways to build resilience.
Below we showcase some of the hard-earned wisdom of charity leaders from around the world, spotlighting their successes and amplifying how funders and policy-makers could help contribute further to the resilience of civil society more broadly.
Building mutually supportive networks and strengthening the team in Mozambique…
"We work in collaboration with other civil society actors, which helps respond to demand. At the same time, hiring more qualified staff to respond to specific projects and demands was crucial."
Calling on funders to recognise the limitations of project-specific grants in Canada…
“The single most impactful shift would be a transition toward multi-year, flexible operational funding.”
“Like many organizations, we navigate a landscape dominated by short-term, project-specific grants. Flexible funding would allow us to invest in our internal capacity, retain our highly specialized talent, and plan strategically for the long term rather than constantly managing year-to-year cycles.”
Building trust through transparency in Nigeria…
“If a donor or partner has to work hard to understand what you do, you've already lost them… Radical transparency and simplicity build trust faster than anything else. Aim to be understood immediately, not just admired for your vocabulary.”
