What CAFOD spends its money on

How much does CAFOD spend on administration and generating funds?

At CAFOD, we are able to keep fundraising costs between 10 and 15 percent of our income, which is low compared to other agencies.

CAFOD spends 85 to 90 pence out of every £1 donated directly on our programmes to reduce global poverty and injustice.

What does CAFOD spend money on?

CAFOD spends the money on long-term development projects and programmes, emergency responses to disasters, campaigning, public education and policy work, and administering the charity’s work.

Does the money reach the people for whom it is intended?

CAFOD channels money through partner organisations that are committed to managing their funds efficiently and openly, and to making sure that funds are spent well and for the purpose for which they were intended.

Monitoring and evaluating this work is as important to CAFOD and its partners as raising funds and implementing projects in the first place.

How does CAFOD decide which project or programme to fund?

CAFOD’s programmes prioritise areas of work such as food, health care, HIV and AIDS, water, livelihood, education, and social and economic rights. Depending on which country it is, some of these priorities will be more urgent than others.

CAFOD develops priorities in dialogue with existing partners and on the basis of an analysis of the needs in each country and the ways CAFOD could most effectively help.

When CAFOD takes on a new project or programme and partner, an assessment is made with the partner covering the following points:

• do the project’s aims and objectives fit with CAFOD’s own?
• are they, along with the project’s activities and proposed results, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and have a deadline?
• Will the project encourage participation of those it helps, and promote equality between men and women?
• Does the partner have enough staff, skills and resources etc to achieve what it has set out to do?

If the answer to each of these is yes, and the relevant CAFOD committee approves the proposal, funding may be given.

Why does CAFOD spend up ten per cent of its funds on education, campaigning and public policy work?

CAFOD believes not only in alleviating the immediate effects of poverty, but in dealing with the root causes of poverty.

This means influencing those with the power to change things through well-reasoned and researched argument, and through public pressure.

To this end, CAFOD believes that money spent on campaigning, education and policy work is as vital as that spent on providing water, healthcare, and livelihoods in poor communities – in fact, one of CAFOD’s charitable objectives is education.

Does CAFOD only fund Catholic organisations?

No. CAFOD funds organisations that are Church-based or led by Catholics, and organisations that are secular or community-based.

CAFOD also works in partnership with organisations linked to Buddhist and Islamic faith.

All CAFOD's partners and programmes help people regardless of their religion, creed, or race.

Why doesn’t CAFOD work with poor people in the UK?

CAFOD’s mandate is to work overseas, not in the UK.

There is another official Catholic agency called “Caritas – Social Action”, which brings together all the diocesan and national Catholic agencies working in the field of social welfare and responding to poverty in the UK.

Along with CAFOD, Caritas – Social Action is also part of the Caritas International Federation.

How many people work for CAFOD?

As part of a global network, CAFOD employs more than 300 people in England & Wales, as well as offices in Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Sierre Leone, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

We also have staff directly supporting partners in Burma, Chile, DRC, East Timor, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Rwanda.

see also

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