The International Education Funders Group (IEFG) is an affinity network of foundations and donor-advised funds that support basic education in low- and middle-income countries. Our interests cover early childhood through to tertiary education, as well as non-formal education, youth and skills, and adult education. Much of our work aims to support the education targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals and Education 2030.
We are a peer-led, member-driven group, focused primarily on co-learning, information exchange and networking, trying to collectively strengthen our members’ work and knowledge of the field. The IEFG does not seek to directly influence education policy agendas and spaces. Its purpose is to help private funders have a stronger voice and impact in education by improving their strategic analyses and thinking, informing and assisting their grantmaking, and providing opportunities for collective learning and action.
The emergence of the IEFG follows on several foundations’ efforts since 2008 to informally convene foundations and donor-advised funds engaged in education grantmaking in the developing world. The group has grown organically from 14 members in 2010 to around 100 grantmakers today (foundations, donor-advised funds, corporate giving programs, and charities).
Members of the International Education Funders Group (IEFG) are grantmakers that aim to promote Basic Education in low- and middle-income countries. Membership is for organisations that fulfil the IEFG Membership Criteria.
Being a member-led group, our Secretariat is purposely small and light-touch, and we adhere to the principle of form following function. The Secretariat is guided by a Steering Committee of 9-16 IEFG members, balanced to reflect the diversity of geographies, scale, and funding types within the wider membership.
The IEFG Steering Committee asks that each member financially contributes to the network. In keeping with previous years, members choose the amount given, with a recommended amount based upon the annual grantmaking budget of the organisation. As of 1 July 2020, IEFG is hosted by Global Dialogue, registered as a charity (1122052) and a limited company (05775827) in England and Wales.
Key Activities
- Monthly newsletters to keep up on the field – collated by the Secretariat and by member recommendations. (this is one of the most valued aspects of the group for both active and quiet members).
- Annual member meetings focused on key issues in the field, as determined and as planned by the membership. We also hold ad-hoc member meet-ups, as requested, to both learn and network.
- Convening space to tap into the international education agendas: we host the Global Partnership for Education – Private Foundation Constituency; as well as provide opportunities for foundations to interact and feed into the UN’s 2030 SDG4 Education Steering Committee, the Global Education Monitoring Report, and bilateral and multilateral actors in the education space.
- Formal and informal regional meet-ups around global education and/or philanthropy events.
Levels of Collaboration
The group has agreed to work on the three levels of collaboration (members participate as much or as little as is useful to them):
- Sharing information
- Learning collectively
- Developing informal alliances
Key Themes
The IEFG has a number of thematic working and affinity groups with new ones emerging regularly in response to global needs and development. These ebb and flow depending on member input:
- Community-Centred Grantmaking
- Systems Change
- Evidence, Evaluation and Learning Outcomes Measurement
- Influencing the Global Development and Education Agendas
- Early Childhood Education
- Secondary Education
- Girls’ / Gender Education
- Funders of early stage support (i.e. smaller grants, often small/family foundations)
- Education in Emergencies
- Teacher Training and Professional Development
- Human Rights and Social Justice Approaches
- Technical and Vocational Education and Skills Training (TVET)
- Tertiary Education
Geographies
The IEFG has recently begun to organise subgroups centred on where we work and fund. Our current geographic subgroups are:
- Middle East focussed Foundations
- Africa focussed Foundations
- Asia focussed Foundations
- Latin America focussed Foundations
- UK-based Foundations (Foundations with offices in the UK)
