Date:   2014   |   Country:  Global   |   Sector:  Charity   |   Client:  Global Humanitarian NGO

While major charities are generally successful in raising large amounts in “restricted” funding – that is, funding tied to specific programmes that they run on behalf of governments or other major donors – they have far more difficulty raising unrestricted funding, which they can spend on either emergency relief work or on programmes which they feel are most core to their mission.  Most such funding comes from individual donors.

The methodologies for raising such funding exist –  in particular direct TV advertisements and on-street person-to-person – and once a new donor is secured the long-term relationship with that donor can be very fruitful in terms of both funding and other types of support.  But the campaigns to address these new audiences require investment upfront and some time to pay back before becoming cash positive.

In this mandate, we assisted a major humanitarian NGO to evaluate options for bringing in external investors (for example large foundations) to fund campaigns, on a debt basis.  A fund arising from this analysis is expected to be structured in 2015.