AIDN’s Better Giving Framework is a key resource for funders that shares what we believe, and what our network has helped us to understand, are the key principles that underpin “better” giving and investing in today’s international development sector. The second Guiding Principle of our Better Giving Framework is: “Trust-based philanthropy”. Read below to learn more about and access detailed resources on Guiding Principle #2.

Despite the enormity and urgency of the issues facing our world in 2025, AIDN has seen that trust remains a significant obstacle to a sustained flow of giving from Australians to overseas causes. AIDN regularly encounters the same questions including ‘How do I know if my money will get there? How do I know if my money will be spent prudently? Who can I trust?’ In our experience, this lack of trust is often fueled by the physical gap between Australians and overseas markets, in addition to knowledge gaps surrounding the local political, economic, or social dynamics of overseas organisations.

To assuage these concerns, AIDN regularly highlights numerous resources to evaluate the effectiveness of charities, such as the Australian Charity and Not-for-Profit Commission’s charity register, and AIDN’s own “Case for Global Giving”. We’ve further provided tips on how to start your funding journey by networking with other Australian funders and how to build trust with NGOs and local leaders – including through site visits, research or simply reaching out to community leaders.

However, what many people may not realise is that trust in philanthropy goes well beyond the trust required for the funder to make the first, initial grant. Instead, AIDN goes further and actively encourages “trust-based philanthropy” – which means shifting power imbalances and trusting local leaders to form, lead and manage their own appropriate solutions to the issues they face.

Underpinned by Guiding Principle #1 (“those closest to the issues have the best solutions”), an important way to demonstrate trust-based philanthropy is through unrestricted grants or a shift away from project-based grant making (in proposals, actual grants, and reporting). Unrestricted or non-project based grants are grants with less red tape or reporting requirements for the program implementors, and give more flexibility in how the grant is spent. A regular concern flagged by international development organisations is that they are often required to deal with numerous, discrete forms of reporting from multiple funders at once, and yet there is often an aversion from funders to fund the mechanisms to capture this impact.

In 2023, the Center for Effective Philanthropy explored the impact of large, unrestricted grants on nonprofits over five years. In a context where the idea of unrestricted grants still feel ‘risky’, they found that unrestricted ‘funds created space for leaders to lead, built morale within the organisation and allowed for re-granting or other forms of collaboration’.

Trust-based philanthropy can also mean trusting organisations to know what type of funding best suits their organisation – whether it be unrestricted grants, impact investment or another form of funding. Trust-based philanthropy allows organisations to be creative, agile and to respond to the complex issues they are striving to challenge, and scale where appropriate.

That said, it should also be noted that this trust does not emerge overnight nor is it only one way. Instead, mutual trust is often built over time, through experimenting with successive grant cycles, or can be built by networking or capitalising on the resources of other funders. For example, funders sharing their own due diligence processes, their experiences or learning more about organisations’ previous work to obtain accreditations, such as DFAT’s accreditation process. Face to face interaction and visiting programs is also at the heart of trust-based philanthropy.

For more resources on trust-based philanthropy: