Image by USAID/Cambodia HARVEST/Fintrac Inc.
  • Report
  • 27 April 2020

DI's Progress report 2019: Chapter 6

Our finances

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Open and Transparent

Transparency is one of DI’s core values, and we endeavour to ensure our financial information is open and transparent.

We report our project activities to the IATI Standard, and in 2019 we retained our top five-star rating from Transparify, who look at the financial transparency of major think tanks.

You can find detailed information about who funds us and how we spend our money on our finances page.

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Income in 2018 and 2019

A range of organisations fund us, primarily private philanthropic foundations, governments and multilateral organisations that are committed to global development and ending poverty.

In 2019 we diversified our funding base with five new donors contributing to DI projects increasing our income from 2018 to 2019 by just under £1 million. Additionally, the value of funding increased by the continuing weakness of the pound buoying the value of non-sterling donations.

2019 income – £5.9 million

1 = United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction; 2 = Canadian International Development Agency; 3 = Sightsavers; 4 = DII ; 5 = European Commission; 6 = Irish Aid; 7 = European Commission funding via Agropolis International; 8 = Other income; 9 = SDG Kenya Forum; 10 = Food and Agriculture Organisation
1 = United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction; 2 = Canadian International Development Agency; 3 = Sightsavers; 4 = DII ; 5 = European Commission; 6 = Irish Aid; 7 = European Commission funding via Agropolis International; 8 = Other income; 9 = SDG Kenya Forum; 10 = Food and Agriculture Organisation

2018 income – £4.9 million

1 = Swedish International Development Agency; 2 = German Society for International Cooperation; 3 = Eleanor Crook Foundation; 4 = New Venture Fund; 5 = Other income; 6 = The Asia Foundation; 7 = Danish International Development Agency; 8 = Interest
1 = Swedish International Development Agency; 2 = German Society for International Cooperation; 3 = Eleanor Crook Foundation; 4 = New Venture Fund; 5 = Other income; 6 = The Asia Foundation; 7 = Danish International Development Agency; 8 = Interest
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Expenditure in 2018 and 2019

In 2019, as in previous years, our highest expenditure was on staff costs and professional services. There was an increase in the use of contractors and freelancers again, mainly driven by DI hosting the SDG Kenya Forum in the DI Kenya office and paying the salaries of staff working on their projects. Consultants are an important resource for DI to facilitate agile working, allowing us to be responsive to quick turnaround opportunities.

DI also invested substantially more this year in IT and infrastructure, including moving our servers to cloud-based platforms, and updating hardware equipment for staff in our offices. In 2019 DI also put in place an extensive learning and development programme for staff which accounted for some expenditure. The value of our work lies in our knowledge, skills and expertise, and so this is where we invest most heavily.

Note: You can download the data on our funding and expenditure from our website at devinit.org/who-we-are/our-finances

2019 expenditure – £5.8 million

1 = Irrecoverable VAT; 2 = Foreign exchange – gains/(losses); 3 = Other
1 = Irrecoverable VAT; 2 = Foreign exchange – gains/(losses); 3 = Other

2018 expenditure – £4.7 million

1 = Other; 2 = Foreign exchange – gains/(losses); 3 = Irrecoverable VAT
1 = Other; 2 = Foreign exchange – gains/(losses); 3 = Irrecoverable VAT