After 38 years of working on the global response to HIV, United Kingdom-based nonprofit Avert closed in 2024 after transitioning its work to three separate organizations in Africa. “We do not see our decision as a sign of failure,” the organization stated in a report about its ending, which specified that Avert was still “in relatively good financial health.”
Since the loss of the U.S. Agency for International Development funding in January, the global development landscape has shifted dramatically. Organizations around the world are being forced to end programs, shutter offices, or close operations entirely. A Humanitarian Action survey published in April this year found 81 NGOs had already closed down at least one office. Save the Children announced in February that it would close five country offices as a result of funding cuts, which it described as “an outright failure of responsibility of those in power and a moral failure of us all.”
But some civil society practitioners specializing in endings argue that such endings can be positive if handled correctly. Devex spoke to three about how NGOs facing closure can wind down operations in the least harmful way, both for beneficiaries and staff — and why more organizations should think about their endings even at their beginning.