Future-proofing the funding model for War Child
An institutional fundraising market assessment and diversification strategy, delivered in partnership with HMK Consultancy
THE CONTEXT
War Child, a global NGO supporting children affected by conflict, needed a clear point of view on growth opportunities within its institutional donor portfolio. In partnership with HMK Consultancy, we shaped a data-driven strategy underpinned by insight generation, donor mapping and donor analysis.
THE CHALLENGE
The institutional funding landscape is contracting, with a potential ~40% drop in institutional funding over three years, against a wider backdrop of falling official development assistance. War Child needed to understand the scale of the exposure and a credible path to a more diversified, resilient funding.
WHAT WE DID
We delivered a global institutional fundraising market assessment and diversification strategy. That meant analysing the shifting humanitarian funding landscape, assessing War Child's current position and exposure, and scoring donor markets to identify where realistic growth lies — then framing the strategic shifts required to get there.
STRATEGIC APPROACH
We framed the core challenge cleanly — how does an organisation rebalance its funding model proactively, before the contraction forces it to? — and answered it with a phased diversification logic: blend institutional, philanthropic, corporate and blended-finance income to reduce concentration risk; reposition from grant-seeker toward strategic partner; and build the upstream partnership and positioning capacity needed to win multi-year funding.
OUTPUTS & DELIVERABLES
A market assessment scoring 30+ donor markets on bilateral, multilateral and ODA trends and stability.
A prioritised view of where to focus (e.g. markets where trusts & foundations are growing, such as the USA, UK and Germany).
A strategic framework for funding diversification, repositioning and partnership-building, with an illustrative phased pathway to close the funding gap.
THE RESULT
A clear, evidence-based diagnosis of the ~40% institutional exposure and a phased route to address it.
A market-prioritisation framework grounded in a fast-growing trusts-and-foundations landscape (projected to reach ~$228bn globally by 2029).