About this directory

Why this directory exists

Every year, millions of people want to give something back — but many never do, or give far less than they'd like to, simply because the world of NGOs and social-impact organisations is hard to navigate. If you care about clean water, or education, or climate action, how do you find the right organisation? How do you know your donation will reach the people and projects it's meant for, rather than disappearing into overhead? This directory exists to close that gap: one place where anyone can see, in plain language, what an organisation actually does, which causes and UN Sustainable Development Goals it works toward, what it's currently raising money for, and how it has spent what it's raised in past years — all sourced directly from organisations' own public disclosures.

NGOs and civil-society organisations are not a nice-to-have on the margins of how the world gets better. They are often the only actors able to reach where governments and large companies can't, and they are a core part of what holds communities together when bigger systems fall short. That matters more, not less, as 2030 approaches — the deadline the world set for itself to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Progress is currently behind where it needs to be. Closing that gap will take more resources reaching the ground faster, which starts with more people trusting where their money goes, and giving accordingly.

Methodology

Every organisation listed here is added and reviewed manually. Facts shown — causes, SDG alignment, fundraising status, use of funds, financial history, and report links — are sourced directly from each organisation's own website and publicly available reports at the time the listing was created or last updated. We do not audit, verify, or independently investigate the figures an organisation publishes; we surface what the organisation itself discloses, in a consistent format, so it's easier to compare organisations side by side.

Financial figures are shown in the currency each organisation reports in — we don't convert to a single currency, since doing so would require live exchange-rate assumptions we'd rather not introduce.

Listings are added or updated by an administrator, either individually or via bulk import. New listings are reviewed before being published.

Glossary

Headquarters: The country (and city, where known) where the organisation is legally incorporated or based — not necessarily where it runs its programmes.
Project locations: The countries and/or cities where the organisation is currently running programmes or projects. This can differ from its headquarters.
Causes: A fixed list of plain-language themes (e.g. Housing & Homelessness, Health & Medical Care, Gender Equality) describing what an organisation actually does. Every organisation listed is tagged with causes, regardless of whether it also references the SDGs — causes are our own curatorial categorisation, chosen to be immediately understandable without needing to know what a given SDG number means. Each cause is colour-coded into one of three groups so you can tell at a glance what kind of work an organisation does: Environment (green), Social (terracotta), or Governance (slate blue).
SDGs: The UN Sustainable Development Goals (17 global goals adopted in 2015). We only show SDG tags where the organisation itself clearly states, on its own website or in its own reports, which specific goals it aligns with — we do not infer or assign SDGs based on our own reading of an organisation's mission. This is not an official UN designation, partnership, or endorsement. Many organisations doing excellent, clearly-described work simply don't reference the SDGs at all; the absence of SDG tags says nothing about the quality or seriousness of their work — see Causes above for how we categorise them instead. We include the SDGs because their target date, 2030, is now fast approaching — focusing giving on these goals is one of the most concrete ways to help close the gap between where the world is and where the 2030 Agenda aims to be.
Active projects: Specific, named initiatives the organisation is currently raising funds for, each with its own stated use of funds and a direct donate link.
Open / undesignated donations: Donations not earmarked for a specific project — the organisation decides how these funds are allocated, as described in its own words on its profile page.
Spent on programs vs. other costs: "Spent on programs" is the portion of funds raised that went directly to programmatic/beneficiary work, as reported by the organisation. "Other costs" covers everything else (e.g. administration, fundraising), broken out by category where the organisation discloses that breakdown.
Publishes annual reports: Indicates whether the organisation makes an annual impact or sustainability report publicly available, with a link where one has been provided.

Disclaimers

This is an independent informational directory. It does not process, hold, or solicit donations — every "Donate" or "Learn more" button sends you to the organisation's own website, outside our control.
Listing an organisation here is not an endorsement, rating, or certification of its legitimacy, financial health, or impact. Always do your own research before donating.
Information may become outdated between reviews. If something looks wrong or out of date, please let us know.
Use of UN SDG numbers, names, and references is for categorisation purposes only and does not imply any affiliation with, partnership with, or endorsement by the United Nations.
External links lead to third-party websites we do not control and are not responsible for.

About the author

This directory was created and is maintained by Giulia Bruni Roccia. Giulia is currently Head of Corporate Sustainability at Quintet Private Bank in Luxembourg, where she sets group-wide sustainability strategy. Before moving into sustainability, she spent close to a decade at Deloitte, working across EU institutions, banking regulation, and post-merger integration — including leading a two-year, three-bank integration project. Her academic background is in international affairs and security studies. She has remained an active voice in climate and sustainable-finance discussions, including as a youth participant at COP27.

She built this directory in a personal capacity, driven by the belief that donors deserve clearer, more trustworthy information about where their money goes.