The numbers are in — and according to a new Devex report, the 50 largest U.S.-based international NGOs reported a combined $27.5 billion income in their latest tax filings. That figure — which predates recent cuts to USAID — reflects a 3.3% decline in real terms from the previous year.
The winners? Direct Relief, Americares, and World Vision USA. The group with the steepest drop? World Central Kitchen, a celebrity-founded food nonprofit that earlier this year was at the center of a Devex investigation around safety, security, and company culture.
Also in this edition: A look at the world’s multilateral development banks, a deep dive into the Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative, and a change in approach at the World Bank’s GAFSP.
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Among the 50 largest U.S. INGOs, some organizations posted striking swings in their latest tax filings, according to a new Devex analysis.
We’re offering a free preview of the report, which looks at those INGOs in detail, produced for our Pro members. It’s published as part of Devex Pro Week, our annual week that looks at the key issues facing our members, which kicks off today.
This year, the focus is very much on how different parts of the sector will be impacted by changes in the funding landscape, and one of the key topics is the future of INGOs.
The report draws mostly on data from 2023, and so its figures predate the impact of the USAID cuts, but it still shows a 3.3% drop in total income.
Edesia — a nonprofit focused on producing ready-to-use therapeutic foods — emerged as the fastest financial climber, more than doubling its revenue year-on-year. World Central Kitchen saw its income fall by more than half, going from $587.4 million to $248.7 million in a single year.
WCK has seen its income yo-yo sharply from year to year. In the previous edition of this report, it was the top riser in percentage terms.
The figures also highlight the level of vulnerability to aid cuts. In the most recent year, 18 of the top 50 nonprofits got at least half of their total latest income from government grants — and while some of that is likely to have come from other countries, the vast majority is still likely to have come from the U.S. government.
Overall, however, it shows that the sector may be less affected than some feared. While it shows that cuts could be catastrophic for some, others may be minimally affected.
Read the teaser: Who are the largest INGOs in the US — and where do they get funding?
And download: The full report (Pro)
+ For those interested in more information on this topic, I’ll be hosting an event for our Pro members on Friday, Aug. 29, at noon ET, looking at the future of the INGO sector — part of our Pro Week lineup of exclusive events. Join me to hear all about what’s next for development nonprofits.
We publish tenders, grants, and other funding announcements on our Funding Platform. Here are those viewed the most in the past 10 days.
The Asian Development Bank has approved a financing package to unlock transformative economic development and poverty reduction in Pakistan.
The European Union has disbursed €4 billion to enhance macrofinancial stability, strengthen public administration, and drive critical long-term reforms in Ukraine.
The Inter-American Development Bank is inviting consulting companies to develop a strategic marketing program to target micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise clients in Barbados.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency has released 335 million Japanese yen ($2.2 million) to strengthen mine clearance and related activity in South Sudan.
The World Bank has released a tender to study gender equality, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive health and rights in Bolivia.
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Of course, INGOs aren’t the only big players in the development world — and as bilateral funding declines, multilateral development banks are becoming ever more important.
In another new Pro report, also published as part of Pro Week, Devex took stock of the biggest MDBs — from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to regional players such as the African Development Bank, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, or CAF, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development — and compared their assets and lending trends over the past five years.
The analysis showed shifting priorities, fluctuating approval levels, and the growing weight MDBs carry in financing development — and alongside the report’s official release, we’re sharing a few of the top-line figures.
ADB, for example, committed $22.1 billion last year — a slight dip from its numbers in 2023. AfDB, for another, saw figures less than half that amount: In 2024, AfDB committed $10 billion in loans, guarantees, and equities. But no MDB had larger commitments than the World Bank, which committed a total of $117.5 billion through its different institutions in 2024.
Read the teaser: A deep dive into the world's biggest MDBs
Download the full report: Big banks, bigger missions — a deep dive into the world’s biggest MDBs (Pro)
Nearly a decade ago, the Ford Foundation created the BUILD initiative: A 12-year, $2 billion fund that provides flexible, long-term support for organizations across the world.
The initiative represents a shift away from the project-based giving so common in the development world — and in a recent Devex Pro Funding conversation, Victoria Dunning, the initiative’s director, shared why that model is more relevant than ever before.
She also spoke about what types of organizations are a fit for BUILD grants: those with clear mission alignment with the foundation’s strategies; a track record of impact and transparency; and those with strong leadership, governance, and compliance systems.
“BUILD has this extra special focus on resilience,” Dunning said. “BUILD grantees decide what and how they will invest in their resilience over the five-year grant term.”
The grants are an added boost for current Ford Foundation grant partners, who are the only ones eligible for the support. But across the foundation itself, the model has taken hold: Even among the institution’s non-BUILD grants, the share of flexible, multiyear funding across Ford’s grant portfolio has risen from 37% to nearly 80% in less than a decade.
Read: What Ford’s $2B trust-based initiative can teach fundraisers today (Pro)
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Increasingly, development finance institutions are understanding that it’s not enough to lend money. The organizations they partner with also need support to ensure they can use the money well — whether that’s building staff skills or strengthening back-office functions. This kind of support is known as technical assistance, or TA.
Finnfund, Finland’s DFI, is rolling out a dedicated technical assistance funding stream for the first time — expected to total around €15 million ($17.5 million) in the coming years.
That funding will provide numerous new opportunities for consultants, who can apply to join a framework of organizations eligible to provide support to Finnfund’s investees.
Until now, Finnfund hasn’t had a dedicated portfolio for technical assistance funding, but it’s received new backing from the European Union, which is giving Finnfund the cash to pay for it.
“This is the first time we get [technical assistance], and we of course love it more than we love eating ice cream,” Juho Uusihakala, Finnfund’s senior development impact adviser, tells my colleague Raquel Alcega. “It’s sort of like something we always dreamt of having.”
Read: Technical assistance at Finnfund — what consultants need to know (Pro)
The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program — a World Bank-hosted fund that since 2010 has mobilized $2 billion to improve food security, nutrition, and agriculture systems — is recalibrating. With aid budgets on the decline, GAFSP will be positioning itself as a more targeted, catalytic tool, and preparing for a smaller replenishment cycle in 2026.
“I don’t anticipate it being massively ambitious,” Natasha Hayward, program manager for GAFSP, tells my colleague Ayenat Mersie. “But even with this more boutique level of financing, we think we can put that to very impactful use.”
Historically, the program has been buoyed by the United States. As GAFSP’s largest donor, the U.S. government gave the program $818 million over the last 14 years — something that is largely expected to change, given the hollowing out of USAID this year. Now, Hayward says GAFSP’s steering committee is nearly finished with its work charting the organization’s future, with a meeting this December expected to formalize it.
Read: Amid funding crunch, GAFSP rethinks role in global food security
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