Supporting our partners beyond funding

Alongside our grant-making, we strive to be a purposeful, supportive grant maker. We prioritise working with our grantees to provide additional support if needed. This includes organisational-strengthening support, which strengthens the areas our grantees consider necessary to deliver their missions. In addition, our child safeguarding officer helps protect the children our grantees come in contact with. Our monitoring, evaluation, and learning specialist helps us better understand how we can improve our grant-making. Our communications team helps ensure transparency around our grant-making, supports connection and communications with our grantees, and elevates their great work. Read on to find out more about our work in 2025.

Organisational strengthening & effectiveness

The past year has presented significant challenges for civil society organisations, as the sector continues to grapple with the impact of external funding cuts. The significant reduction in overseas development assistance has created instability for many of our grantees, forcing organisations to prioritise crisis management and adapt rapidly to shifting circumstances. These disruptions have underscored the vulnerability of over-reliance on single funding sources and highlighted the urgent need for greater financial resilience within the sector.

In this context, we have remained steadfast in our commitment to supporting grantees, not only through core funding but also by continuing to invest in organisational strengthening. We recognise that building robust internal systems, leadership, and resource mobilisation capacity is essential for long-term stability. By providing tailored support alongside core grants, Oak helps grantees to weather external shocks, strengthen governance, and embed a culture of sustainability. We hope that this dual approach contributes to the overall stability and effectiveness of organisations, enabling them to continue delivering impact in their communities, despite a challenging funding environment.

A prime example of this commitment is the Emerge Programme, delivered in partnership with The Resource Alliance. This 16-month initiative supported a cohort of 20 Oak grantees from 14 African countries, with the aim of revising organisational purpose and creating income diversity through enhanced skills, strategy, and networks. The programme fostered a transformative shift: 94 per cent of participating organisations reviewed and agreed on their purpose, with 12 adopting new purpose statements.

In terms of resource mobilisation, 56 per cent finalised new or revised strategies, and 89 per cent are now actively pursuing diversified funding streams. All participating organisations reported full engagement from staff and boards in resource-mobilisation efforts, signalling a significant shift towards a culture of shared ownership of long-term sustainability.

The programme’s participatory design, tailored coaching, and peer learning components were particularly effective, enabling organisations to move from grant dependency to proactive, innovative approaches – including social enterprise models and collaborative fundraising. The legacy of Emerge lies not only in these numbers but in the strengthened resilience, leadership, and networks that will empower organisations to deliver meaningful change for years to come.

Despite the challenges of funding cuts and regional instability, Oak’s approach – combining core support with targeted organisational strengthening – continues to build a more sustainable, resilient, and impactful civil society sector.

Child safeguarding

Oak Foundation is committed to safeguarding the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and all people. We recognise that safeguarding is a shared responsibility and is a core part of our mission.

We uphold high standards and work with our grantees to strengthen their own child-safeguarding measures, supported by a growing network of experts. Our Child Safeguarding Policy aligns with international standards and reflects the experience of peer organisations and grantees. We have recently updated the policy to make it clearer, more accessible, and actionable.

Oak is committed to continuous learning and adaptation as new risks and best practices emerge, including those related to digital safety. Our annual child safeguarding training addresses risks and opportunities linked to new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, ensuring our processes remain relevant and effective. This training is delivered by our grantee, the Funder Safeguarding Collaborative.

In 2025, we supported research led by the Funder Safeguarding Collaborative to develop practice standards for safeguarding in grant making organisations. This initiative is part of our ongoing journey of learning, collaboration, and shared accountability. Underpinned by empirical research and shaped by funders and those impacted by funder policies, these standards aim to promote greater alignment and strengthen safeguarding requirements across the sector.

Monitoring, evaluation & learning

Oak Foundation is committed to making a meaningful difference through our grant-making, working closely with grantees to drive the change they envision. By gathering evidence of impact, identifying effective approaches, and embedding reflection into our work, we Communications ensure our actions lead to positive transformation and inform strategic decisions.

In 2025, programme staff continued to support grantees in collecting meaningful impact data, developing compelling stories, and creating safe spaces for learning and reflection. Our senior adviser for impact provided tailored support to grantees seeking to strengthen monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems, and advised programme officers on how best to assist. We also offered guidance to grantees commissioning external reviews and evaluations to assess programmes and strategies, ensuring fit-for-purpose solutions.

We have worked to improve reporting and tracking systems while reducing the reporting burden on staff and grantees. Together with other funders in the climate sphere, we piloted joint reporting, allowing grantees to submit one report to multiple funders.

We also tested oral reporting with selected grantees, demonstrating its effectiveness in reducing burden and enhancing the reporting experience under the right conditions. More broadly, our senior adviser for impact led efforts to streamline information and data flows across all stages of the grant-making process, setting clear expectations and asking more purposeful questions to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

At Oak Foundation, we believe in the transformative power of core funding, which represents a significant component of our grant-making. Building upon the work initiated in 2024 to consolidate and share the f indings of available evidence on the impact and effectiveness of core funding, in 2025 the senior adviser for impact presented the results of her review at various venues and contributed to a number of pieces in key outlets such as the Center for Effective Philanthropy and Alliance magazine.

Communications

At Oak Foundation, we believe good communication builds trust, ensures transparency, and amplifies voices that are too often unheard. It is our privilege to share the stories of people whose lives are positively impacted by the inspiring work of our grantees around the world.

Our communications team plays a central role in this effort. Through our twice-yearly newsletters, annual report, social media channels, and the stories page on our website, we aim to showcase the achievements of our grantees and highlight how their work is making the world fairer, safer, and more sustainable.

Oak values communications as a powerful tool for social change. We provide funding for communication initiatives within our programmes and support organisational-strengthening efforts to improve global and local communication capacity. If you are an Oak grantee and would like to explore these opportunities, please contact your programme officer.

We love hearing success stories from our grantees. Sharing these stories helps inspire others and demonstrates the impact of your work. Please reach out to our communications team if you have a story to share. We also welcome feedback – let us know how we can improve our communications to better serve you.