Institutional fundraising

Third parties and government grants contributed € 12.6 million to War Child’s overall income, a growth of 23 percent from 2012. This growth largely resulted from the successfully expansion of War Child’s programme in Lebanon for children and young people affected by the Syria crisis, and our continuous active engagement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, in-country delegations of the European Union and a number of United Nations agencies.

In 2013, War Child was able to capitalise on the investment we made in previous years to build relationships with institutional donors in the countries where we work. The target set for new donor contracts in 2013 was reached two-fold (200 percent), while the success rate for proposals (number of approved compared to the number of rejected submissions in 2013) was 68 percent, while the success rate in value of proposals (value of approved compared to the value of rejected submissions in 2013) was 63 percent. A total of thirty-four project proposals were submitted to more than twenty institutional donors; twenty-six (including a number submitted in 2012) were approved in the 2013 calendar year.

This high success rate is largely due to investments over the last years in building relations in-country with institutional donors. Combining programming and fundraising expertise in the development of project proposals also contributed to 2013’s institutional fundraising success.

* These numbers do not reflect income in 2013, but rather the total contract value signed in 2013, which might be spread over a number of years. Income in 2013 can also come from contracts signed before 2013.

Dutch Postcode Lottery

In 2013, the Dutch Postcode Lottery continued its special relationship with War Child, contributing € 1,350,000 to War Child’s programmes. The Dutch Postcode Lottery also provided a grant of € 1,765,860 for the ‘You Lead’ project in 2013, implemented jointly by War Child and Right To Play in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Conn@ct.Now!

Implementation of the Conn@ct.Now! programme continued in 2013, on which € 4.2 million of the original € 21 million grant was spent, compared to over € 5.3 million in 2012. Conn@ct.Now is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands through the 2011-2015 MFS II funding scheme.

Lessons learnt

Compared to previous years, War Child was able to raise significantly more funding from foundations. This was due to increased investments in time and capacity in institutional fundraising, a focus on real opportunities, and better cooperation and planning between the different departments at the head office and the field. The increase in income is also due to War Child’s active response to the Syria crisis, which was a donor priority in 2013: almost all proposals for our Syria response programme were approved.

By ensuring good grant management, we have also been able to establish a good reputation with donors, which will help us raise additional institutional funding in the future. Our investments over the past years in our relationships with the Dutch Postcode Lottery as well as with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have resulted in an excellent partnerships in which all parties benefit and are working towards a common goal, and resulted in the efficient and effective implementation of War Child’s programming.

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