More than two-thirds of NPOs struggle to access funders: Report

More than two-thirds of non-profit organisations struggle to access funders for their respective causes, while 61 per cent of them receive less than a quarter of their funding in an unrestricted manner, according to a report. Accelerate India Philanthropy (AIP), a network of philanthropists, surveyed 65 non-profit organisations of different sizes working across different sectors to understand their scaling roadmap and the key drivers and barriers that they face in the process. The survey showed that 74 per cent of the non-profits consider “scaling their impact” extremely important. Despite this, most non-profits struggle to survive, let alone grow or scale their impact. According to estimates, there are more than three million non-profits in India and more than two-thirds of them operate at suboptimal levels with an annual budget of less than Rs 1 crore. Within this, philanthropic grants from high-net-worth individuals and ultra-high-net-worth individuals make up less than 20 per cent of total grants for the majority of non-profit organisations. The AIP report identified four systemic problems that these organisations face in scaling their impact and the role that philanthropists can play in helping them overcome these challenges. “First, more than 2/3rd of NPOs struggle to access funders for their respective causes. The complexity of the giving landscape in India with a number of different causes each requiring attention, results in philanthropists tending to limit their choice of sectors and partner organisations to their immediate life experiences and recommendations from their network,” it said. This makes it possible for a particular set of well-connected, large non-profit organisations (NPOs) working in particular sectors to have better access to philanthropic funders. To mitigate this, philanthropists should be open to new ideas and opportunities across different sectors, the report stated. “This increases the likelihood of different