Thank you, AIDN community!

In August in Melbourne, AIDN officially launched our first Impact Report: “The Glue That Binds: Insights from Seven Years of Strengthening Australian International Giving and Investing“.

It was a fantastic evening, full of conversation, connection and insights from the report. Thank you to AIDN’s Chair, Simon Lewis, and AIDN’s Research Manager, Dr. Hannah McNicol, for sharing their reflections and findings.

 

🌏 Employing a contribution lens, the report includes encouraging findings:

– Clear growth in AIDN’s activities, from Philanthropod to The Beat, Insight Tours and Open Ground. Together, these activities have helped to strengthen the glue that underpins the Australian international development and giving sector.

– 82% of survey respondents said AIDN encourages more giving, while 93% said AIDN encourages better giving.

– A conservative estimation of AUD $9.9 to $14.5 million in international giving catalysed with AIDN’s support.

🌏 The report also examines wider trends in Australian international philanthropy, finding:

– International giving remains a relatively small share of the overall sector, at around 1% of total ACNC revenue, or approximately 10% of total philanthropic giving, according to JBWere estimates.

– The number of AFR Top 50 philanthropists with an international component to their giving has increased from 7 to 11 since 2018.

🌏 However, the report also highlights structural challenges. International aid is identified as the cause area most at risk as both Australian generosity and the overall number of Australian donors declines, even as those who continue to give are giving more. Australian Government ODA remains a very small share of federal spending, at around 0.65%.

👉 But these challenges create opportunities for AIDN.

👉 Given AIDN’s unique and neutral position within the sector, there is a role for AIDN to continue to strengthen international giving among HNWIs, support the growth of tech and diaspora giving, engage the international impact investing community, and invest in policy advocacy to make structured giving easier.

👉 AIDN also has the opportunity to help steward the additional philanthropic capital that could become available to international causes following the 2026’s giving fund reforms.

Read the full report here now.

Thank you to the AIDN team including Emily Umbers, Amy Cubit, Julie Rosenberg, Mark Cubit, Linda Fox, Sarah Ramantanis and James Fox.