Themes & Trends: Who is Funding What and Why?

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2. Funding the International Youth Sector

In general the following kinds of organizations are active in supporting the international youth sector:

  • public institutions;
  • quasi-governmental organizations (for example, national development aid agencies);
  • foundations;
  • corporate funders;
  • individual philanthropists.

These are largely coherent with the kinds of organizations funding the civic or third sector more generally at all levels (from international to local). Such is hardly surprising considering that the majority of functional youth initiatives seeking funding come from different kinds of nongovernmental youth organizations, most of which have the status of NGO.

What does seem to differ is the extent of funding provided by each kind of funder. In the broader NGO sector, corporate funding and individual philanthropy have become increasingly important, especially at the national level. Some countries have a long-established culture of individual philanthropy. Other countries are seeing a growing acceptance of the concept of corporate social responsibility. In contrast, at the international and even at the regional levels, the majority of funding for the youth sector still comes from public institutions or from quasi-governmental organizations (such as those engaged in development aid). The issue here is not the number of organizations engaged but rather the scale and scope of funding. Many more independent foundations and corporate funders are engaged in the youth sector than are public institutions, but the amount of investment by public institutions, especially in operational programs, remains larger. This may no longer be true at the national level in certain countries. Note also that NGO and philanthropic culture can differ considerably from country to country. This is certainly true within one aspect of the funding landscape: youth enterprise development. Within that area, we find a marked involvement of corporate funders, although often these act in partnership with independent NGOs or public institutions (in the form of public-private partnerships).