Diversity of Organizations' Funding

This indicator assesses the number of civil society organizations (CSOs) that managed to diversify their sources of funding (while not decreasing the overall financial volume of their operations), an essential pre-condition for their long-term ability to represent the civil society’s priorities. The indicator is suitable for interventions that build the fundraising capacities of CSOs, that are dependent on a low number of funding sources.

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Use key informant interviews and reviews of relevant documentation (budgets, contracts, annual reports, etc.) to record all the financial sources of each of the target CSOs in a certain period – for example, the past 2 years (the period should reflect the duration of your fundraising capacity building support to the target CSOs). If possible, also record the amount secured from each of the sources. At the same time, record the overall financial volume of their operations in the course of the same reference period (e.g. the past 2 years).

2) Repeat the process at the end of your project.

3) Calculate the indicator’s value by counting the number of CSOs that 1) increased the number of existing funding sources by the minimum pre-defined number and 2) at the same time did not decrease the overall financial volume of their operations.

1) It is important that you assess both the number of donors as well as the overall financial volume – otherwise, you risk a situation where the indicator will be ‘met’ even if the CSOs gain more donors but only gain significantly smaller amounts of funding.  

2) Consider complementing this indicator with another indicator assessing the number of target CSOs that increased the financial volume of their operations – in this case, your M&E system will capture both the diversity as well as the volume of CSO funding.