Two years ago, more than two dozen philanthropic foundations committed to prioritizing local leadership across their development efforts. But today, only one of those foundations has published data on their progress, according to a new analysis by Publish What You Fund.
“We need a little bit more humility, and more people to come forward and say: this might not be perfect, but this is how we figured it out,” said Gary Forster, the chief executive officer of PWYF. “What we seem to be facing right now is very little insight into all of that.”
PWYF, a nonprofit organization focused on aid transparency, has long called for donors to increase the transparency of their data. In their latest report, PWYF found the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was the only organization to do so in a publicly accessible way, with the foundation stating its funding toward locally led organizations rose from 15% in 2019 to 35% in 2024.