Promoting Financial Sustainability Through Diversified Funding and Partnerships

The Tension

The majority of Financing in the IFRC network of National Societies comes from Government sources to deliver services and programs. National Societies have concerns that this hinders the independence of their effort and doesn’t allow for investment in strengthening their institutions, there are also concerns that these sources are stagnating. The costs of humanitarian work are increasing and the UN estimates that 2.5 trillion per year is needed to reach the SDGs. There is a poor prognosis for growth in funding from our traditional sources of financing such as Government. This along with a significant increase in the number of actors searching for funding means that new strategies will be required to ensure the financial sustainability of National Societies.

Some Issues identified in the S2030 consultations

• To improve our funding requires a high level of trust in our organisation by the public and donors
• The relevance of our services and programs and the causes we are trying to address in our communities are also key factors
• There is a need for investment in helping National Societies strengthen their approaches to domestic fundraising
• There are a range of alternative financing mechanisms that have very high potential but that the IFRC network is not currently experimenting with or need further development such as impact investment, Bonds, commercial opportunities, private sector partnerships and Islamic financing. New financing models will likely require new partnerships and new ways of working
• The current Resource Mobilisation frameworks and strategies may not be fit for future and may need revising.

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