Geographic Reach & Spending
Where does Canada’s international cooperation sector direct its resources? In 2023, most funding was directed toward Sub-Saharan Africa and other lower-income regions. Expenditure data also shows that organizations directed 86% of their spending toward programming rather than administration and fundraising.
Use the tabs below to explore funding by country, region, and income group, or view trends and top recipient countries over time. Click on a region to explore more detailed country-level data.
Note: This chart uses a power (square-root) scale on the Y axis to make smaller values visible alongside much larger ones. Differences between the top lines appear compressed relative to their actual values.
Geographic allocations are estimated using CRA charitable filings and Global Affairs Canada project data — see Methodology › The 50% geographic rule.
Spending breakdown
How are sector resources distributed across programs, administration, and fundraising? In 2023, 86% of sector expenditures were directed toward charitable programs and activities (charitable programs plus grants and gifts to other organizations). The chart shows the distribution of expenditures across major spending categories.
Percentages reflect total sector expenditures combined, not the average spending profile of individual organizations.
Spending patterns have remained relatively stable over time, with charitable programming consistently representing the largest share of expenditures. The legend label “Admin” refers to Administration. The “Other” category includes expenditure lines that do not fall within Charitable Programs, Administration, or Fundraising — primarily political activities, gifts to qualified donees, and other miscellaneous expenditures reported through CRA T3010 filings.
Spending patterns by organization type and size
Spending patterns vary across organization types and sizes. INGOs allocate the largest share of expenditures to programming, while faith-based organizations and Canadian NGOs show slightly different mixes of administrative and fundraising costs. Smaller organizations tend to report higher administrative shares because many operational costs, such as governance, accounting, and compliance, remain necessary regardless of organization size.