You can always depend on the Liliane Foundation! The heading can be interpreted in many ways. Does it feel good or does it cause anxiety? Well, it depends…

In economics and sociology, the dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force (people aged 65 plus, and the ones aged minus 15) and those typically in the labor force (the rest). In our survey* to measure the results of fundraising efforts among our Asian and African SPOs, there was a question on the consistence of the total annual turnover of the organization. Three parts were optional: 1. Foreign resources; 2. National resources; and 3. LF’s share. The three percentages were set next to each other and the outcomes were very surprising. So please read more!

In 2018, three SPOs had an LF’s share well below the 25%; (only) three had an LF percentage of more 75%. And here comes the success story: in 2017 this percentage was 50 as an average/mean for all SPOs, in 2018 this percentage was 45. On the average all African and Asian SPOs decreased their LF dependency ratio with 5% that year! This means diversification of income is a fact and institutional funding helped to lower the LF dependency ratio.

Hence, of the 143 approached donors by the 25 SPOs (107 were one-and-first timers; 20 were approached twice) 37 resulted in a donor contract (a winning proposal). So, 143 efforts (by e.g. submitted proposals) resulted in 37 donor grants (contracts), a success rate of 1: 3,86 (roughly one in four), which is quite high compared to the success rate of an average European NGO (usually more than 1:5).

Another diversification-of-income-indicator was the number of PADOR registrations for the European Commission (PADOR= Potential Applicant Data On-Line Registration). In this database, potential applicants are screened by the EU commission and therefore taken seriously as potential partners. In 2017 of these 25 SPOs 3 were PADOR registered, today this number is: 17!

Three clear signs SPOs are successfully heading towards diversification of income and a healthy financial resources base.

*) all results in detail are displayed in the IF analysis 2017-2018, available upon request. hvdam@lilianefonds.nl