unrestricted funding in practice

Unrestricted funding allows us to be flexible in tackling the biggest problems facing children and future generations – from war to poverty to climate change – not just responding to their immediate effects. 

• Children are facing a global hunger crisis – a result of skyrocketing food prices, the impact of food supplies of the war in Ukraine, and the climate emergency. It 
  means today, 1 in 4 children around the world don’t have enough to eat. 45 million children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition. With the support of 
  unrestricted funding, we’re addressing this global crisis. In 2024 the Save the Children movement reached 41.2 million children our health, nutrition and education programmes.
   
• In Guatemala, we’re providing farmers in the notorious ‘dry corridor’ with drought resistant seeds and eco-friendly agricultural training. With improved harvests, some farmers now supply local schools with nutritious food, so children get a healthy school dinner. It’s created a virtuous circle. More children are coming to school, they’re learning more, and fewer children are malnourished. 

Unrestricted funding allows us to maximise our impact through delivering outcomes that are more effective, more systemic and more sustainable. Flexible funding allows us to develop projects that address root causes and are catalysts for lasting change.

• Our 7-year Suchana project in Bangladesh tackled the root causes of hunger in some of the country’s poorest regions, reaching around 1.4 million people. We helped families use new agricultural techniques so they could grow and sell more food. People were able to have healthier, more varied diets. Malnutrition rates among young children benefiting from the programme fell by 60%.
   
• We’ve delivered free school meals to nearly 250,000 children in drought-hit regions of Ethiopia. As a result, attendance has risen from 69% to more than 90% in the primary schools receiving the meals. Now regional governments in Ethiopia are running their own version of the programme – creating lasting change for children.

Unrestricted funding allows us to invest in local community organisations and projects. Our local and national partners are best placed to identify and respond to problems communities face.

• In Syria, we’ve provided grants to local organisations to build their capacity and become more sustainable. For example, a community organisation called Violet used their grant to grow their income by building their own fundraising platform and raising over $450,000 in unrestricted funds.
   
• In emergencies, supporting local and national actors is critical. They are key in rapidly delivering lifesaving assistance, access communities others cannot reach, 
  and are able to support long-term recovery. In Ukraine, 40% of our funding directly supports 30 local organisations responding to the needs of children and families in the war – from support for families to renovate bomb-damaged homes, to cash transfers, to art and health clubs for children, and 15 digital learning centres in Kyiv region. 
   
• Our Humanitarian Leadership Academy helps build humanitarian skills and capacity in countries affected by war and disasters. We offer 500 free courses to 
  around 700,000 learners a year, three-quarters of whom are based in disaster affected countries.

Unrestricted funding allows us to respond as soon as disaster strikes or conflict escalates, providing lifesaving support for children and communities, wherever they are, independent of media coverage or public support. Needs and priorities change, and unrestricted funding allows us to react and respond quickly, appropriately and cost-effectively.

• We respond fast when disaster strikes – like the earthquakes in Myanmar, Türkiye and Syria. And we stay there for the long-term, helping families rebuild their lives. 
   
• Our teams and our local partner organisations support children around the world living in war zones – from Ukraine to Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Unrestricted funding allows us to address hidden crises, responding to conflict outbreaks and escalation, climate-related disasters, soaring food prices, the global hunger crisis and other complex crisis that don’t make the headlines. And invest in anticipatory action so we’re not only responding to crises but stopping them in the first place. 

• The situation in Sudan rarely makes the headlines. But as the country spirals towards famine, it’s been described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. 12 million children are at risk of malnutrition. In 2024 alone, Save the Children reached more 3 million people in Sudan, including 1.7 million children, 
  providing food, water, medical supplies and education.
   
• In Malawi, cyclones, floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense. It’s led to a rise in deadly diseases. Working with partner organisations, we’ve set up an early warning system that will benefit 1.7 million people – 22% of southern Malawi’s population. This pioneering project will predict outbreaks and surges of climate-sensitive diseases like malaria, cholera and diarrhoea, enabling health centres and medical staff to be better able to respond and save children’s lives.

Unrestricted funding allows us to innovate and adapt, exploring new solutions in partnership with local communities:

• In 2023 we started to use drones to deliver blood for women giving birth at Rwanda’s largest refugee camp. Since the introduction of drones, referrals to 
  Kirehe Hospital have halved and births at the camp’s medical centre have doubled.
   
• In Cambodia, we’re helping children and families living on and around the largest lake in Southeast Asia by developing cheap and simple systems to treat domestic waste and sewage, preventing disease and reducing water pollution that threatens to destroy the livelihoods of fishing families.
   
•  In Indonesia we’re supporting young people to identify problems in their community and develop solutions – like a project designed and implemented by 
  three teenagers that uses solar power to bring running water to their community for the first time and has transformed everyday lives in their community. 
   
• Kumwe (meaning ‘together’ in Kinyarwanda) Hub is a social impact hub run from Save the Children’s Rwanda office. It provides grants, low-interest loans, 
  investments, and business and technical support to businesses that benefit children and families. For example, Kumwe Hub has supported a health clinic set up by an experienced nurse – a ‘nursepreneur’ – that serves 50,000 people; a digital centre in a refugee camp, where parents can look for and apply for jobs; and a children’s daycare centre in a refugee camp, so that children get good-quality care while their parents can work and earn an income. Kumwe Hub also supports a number of small businesses that supply and sell nutritious food to schools and shops, and a business that provides equipment for children with disabilities. 

Unrestricted funding allows us to further our advocacy work to change systems, services, laws – and the futures of millions of children. We’re able to spot issues in advance and move quickly as we have deep roots with the communities and can then put these issues in front of decision makers, partnering with young people to ensure their voices are heard and that they are seen as rightsholders, experts on childhood and leaders of tomorrow. 

• We support children to share their views, experiences and perspectives with decision-makers – in their communities, in children’s parliaments, with national governments, and at global conferences. Like 15-year-old Vepaia from the cyclone-ravaged island nation of Vanuatu on the South Pacific. She has taken her campaign for climate justice all the way to The Hague in the Netherlands where she addressed the International Court of Justice.
   
• In Sierra Leone we supported young people to speak out about child marriage, part of a campaign that successfully led to the introduction of a law that makes child marriage here illegal. 
   
• In the UK, we’re working with families living in poverty to push the government to scrap the two-child limit on child benefit.
   
• We celebrated a campaign win in March 2024 when the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that families on Universal Credit will receive upfront 
  support with childcare costs - removing a major barrier to working for parents on benefits. As a result of this campaign, 4.2 million children living in poverty in the UK will now receive additional support.
   
• In 2023 we amplified children’s demands to decision-makers through COP28 simulations in 14 countries, and supported nine people from Africa to attend 
  COP28, as part of our Generation Hope campaign – our global campaign calling for urgent action on the climate crisis and inequality to create a safe, healthy, and happy future for children.

Unrestricted funding allows us to grow our resources so we can sustain and increase our impact on children’s lives. Investing in fundraising and in our brand allows us to be sustainable, strategic and to raise the flexible funding we need to achieve lasting change in children’s lives.

• For every £1 we invest in fundraising, we spend £7 on our charitable activities.
   
• Through growing our supporter base, we build the public profile of our cause and amplify our influence with decision-makers in advocating for children. For example, through sustained lobbying, we successfully influenced the UK government to expand free school meals to half a million more children from September 2026 – a move that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty. 
   
• Our Innovation Hive is collaborating with global partners to grow and champion ‘child lens investing’, which was named one of Time magazine’s 2024 Innovations of the Year. By shifting the approach of impact investors to proactively consider child rights and wellbeing when making their investments, we open up the possibility to mobilise billions more in investment for children. 

Unrestricted funding allows us to build a stronger Save the Children by funding training, leadership, infrastructure and staff costs – so we can work efficiently, effectively to make the most impact in children’s lives. Investing in our organisation is a key to making the most of the precious funds we raise and to making long-term, sustainable impact on children’s lives.
 

• Our leaders and policy experts represent our cause at key global events like the COP, the United Nations General Assembly and the World Health Assembly. For example, at the World Health Assembly in 2024 we helped draft four key resolutions – on climate change, maternal and newborn health, mental health support in emergencies, and social participation in healthcare.
   
• Our new customer relationship management system enables us to have more personalised and efficient interactions with our supporters and to enhance our impact. Through building closer relationships and engagement with our supporters, we can grow our supporter base, increase loyalty, grow our income and enhance our influence with decision-makers.

Unrestricted funding allows us to have a collective impact and develop collaborative partnerships. No single organisation can do what we want to achieve alone. Save the Children is at our best when we work as a connector, bringing different stakeholders together and working with local partners to create unique and effective solutions to achieve collective impact. Our strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders – from donors and local communities to politicians, think-tanks and other NGOs – enable effective collaboration and partnership-building.
 

• Save the Children has formed a national Baby Bank Alliance – to support and advocate for the UK’s baby banks, so that every child in the UK has the supplies and clothing that they need to thrive. 200 baby banks have joined up as members of the alliance across the UK, providing a lifeline for families.
   
• In the Philippines, we strategically partner with and support the Child Rights Coalition Asia, made up of 16 local child rights organisations, to promote child rights 
  governance, child protection, and child participation.