Title: Emerging international connections of philanthropy: exploring the global and local geography of UK registered charities working overseas
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Context Overseas aid is a prominent issue, and charities play a significant role in providing overseas aid. Donations from the public to charities working overseas have grown considerably over the last thirty years. There are now around 11,000 charities, registered with the Charity Commission, that work internationally. This includes many of the well-known larger charities, including Oxfam, Save the Children, and Christian Aid, but also a large number of smaller organisations - many of them quite recently formed, and many of them working in a small number of countries. Despite the number of these charities and their significant total income, we know very little about the overall pattern of where they work overseas, and very little about the overall pattern of which parts of the UK they have links with. Aim and research questions Therefore, the project aims to provide a detailed overview of the charitable connections between the UK and overseas. This will be the first project of its kind. It will have three main themes, each with a number of research questions: 1. Global patterns in charities' country of operation Where do UK registered charities work overseas? Note that the Government provides aid, called 'Official Development Assistance (ODA)', and that it recently reviewed which countries should receive ODA. Does the country pattern of charitable operation tend to reinforce the pattern of aid provided by government, with the same countries tending to benefit from both, or do different countries tend to benefit from the two sources? 2. Overseas charitable connections of places in the UK Are there parts of the UK that have particularly strong overseas charitable connections? And parts of the UK that have relatively few? Can strong links between particular places in the UK and particular overseas countries be identified? 3. Providing context on the overseas charitable sector Of the 11,000 charities working overseas, how many are involved in development and relief? What roles do they play - for example, how many provide grants for projects and how many provide services? What is the distribution of income in the sector - how many very large charities are there, and how many smaller ones? How has the sector changed over the last 20-30 years: to what extent has there been a growth in the number of voluntary organisations working overseas? The project will use publicly available data from the Charity Commission to answer these questions. Who will this research benefit, and how? The project will: - be useful for charities, by providing individual charities with the information needed to place their work within the context of patterns of wider charitable activity. - be useful for government, by providing a new understanding of the relative role of official and voluntary aid in different overseas countries. - be relevant for members of the public who have an interest in these organisations, particularly since donations for international development have increased markedly over the last 25-30 years. Longer-term, the project aims to provide a first solid piece of analysis in an area that is likely to become even more prominent - with aid high on the political and public agenda, and with international charities growing in size.


Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE