Private Foundations’ Giving for Development in 2013-2015 (original) (raw)

Ongoing efforts to better reflect private philanthropic giving in OECD-DAC statistics on development finance EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This working paper highlights the main results of the 2016-17 OECD data Survey on Global Private Philanthropy for Development and describes how this exercise relates to-and aims to complement-the existing regular data collection on development finance by the Development Cooperation Directorate (DCD). The data survey aimed at better understanding who the main philanthropic actors active in development are. By aligning its scope and reporting format with ODA standards, the survey ensured that data collected from private philanthropic foundations were comparable, also with other development finance flows. Moreover, it also aimed to explore the extent to which such data were readily available in foundations' internal systems. The survey gathered project-level data from 143 foundations all over the world. In general, the results and coverage of the survey were considered to be very good and showed that collecting comparable data from private philanthropic foundations was feasible. The survey results reveal that private foundations gave USD 23.9 billion for development from 2013 to 2015. While the main beneficiary region was Africa (28%), a large share of the foundations' activities had a multi-regional or unallocated scope. 53% of foundations' total giving was provided for health and population policies/programmes & reproductive health. 97% of the funds were channelled to/through implementing partners (the remaining 3% related to operational foundations' activities and scholarships/fellowships). So far, only four philanthropic foundations report on a regular basis to the OECD according to the ODA standards: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)-since 2009-and the United Postcode Lotteries (UPL, including the Dutch Postcode Lottery, Swedish Postcode Lottery and People's Postcode Lottery)-since 2017. The survey results suggest that more foundations could be in a position to start sharing their data with the OECD. In 2018, the OECD-DCD will pursue its statistical engagement with the largest philanthropic foundations, building on the BMGF and UPL's experiences.