Fundraising efficiency

How much does it cost us to raise $100?

According to CharityWatch, a non-profit organization's fundraising is considered "highly efficient" if it spends less than $25 for each $100 donated. The average non-profit in America spends $37 to raise $100. At Asia's Hope, we spend only $.20 on fundraising per $100 raised. That's not two dollars, that's twenty cents.

This extraordinary cost-to-donation ratio is made possible by our whole-home sponsorship model that provides the majority of our operating funds from long-term funding partnerships rather than one-off donations, and by our shared cost strategy that sets aside 18% from every donation received to fund contingencies, administrative costs and projects that do not currently enjoy the support of long-term sponsorship. So whereas other organizations require an ever-growing, full-time fundraising or "development" staff, we have to date been able to spend the lion's share of our funds on personnel and projects that directly benefit the children in our care.

As Asia's Hope grows, we know that we won't be able to sustain such preposterously low cost-to-donation ratios. In fact, we're eager to increase our capacity to raise money from a larger body of individual donors. But we remain committed to stretching every dollar to its limits and maintaining a lean administrative and development budget that maximizes the value of every contribution.