Flexible funding
Flexible funding
This page offers up-to-date information on unearmarked and softly earmarked contributions, including donor details.
Looking for information about flexible funding in 2024?
Explore how we used flexible funding resources — both softly earmarked and unearmarked — to respond to needs of forcibly displaced and stateless people around the world in our dedicated page.
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Why does UNHCR ask for flexible funding?
UNHCR’s mission is supported by dozens of States, hundreds of companies, and millions of individual donors. What they share is compassion, generosity, and a desire to improve the lives of people who have been forced to flee or who are stateless. Many donors are motivated by a particular cause, something that touched them and spurred them to contribute, and they ask UNHCR to put their funds to good use in relation to that cause. In this way, many of the funds that UNHCR receives are “earmarked”, or dedicated to a particular country or a specific project. This is a vital lifeline for millions of people who are in need.
But instead of earmarking their support to an emergency or operation or theme, many donors contribute “flexible funding” to UNHCR and its mandate as a whole: this is funding as an expression of trust in the Office; as an expression of solidarity with the people the Office serves; and funding which is reflective of good humanitarian donorship and other international principles and commitments. It allows UNHCR critical flexibility in how it responds to needs, and where. This report shows how that happens, offering operational and thematic examples of how flexible funding made a difference.
The value of flexible funding: mandate, emergencies and global reach
As a humanitarian agency mandated to provide protection and assistance to forcibly displaced and stateless populations, UNHCR’s impact is dependent on its ability to respond swiftly and flexibly. If UNHCR has to wait until resources are raised to respond, precious time and opportunities to make a difference and save lives would be lost. As a rights-based agency, UNHCR’s ability to protect those most affected is core - and is deeply linked to its informed understanding of those who are most vulnerable and most at risk. Flexible funding enables needs-based programming and direction of resources based on a holistic assessment of the intersections of needs, vulnerabilities and risks, both present and future. This is because flexible funding supports all programmatic areas, and allows for strategic and proactive planning and response.
Read more about how UNHCR has used its flexible funding in the first quarter of 2025, allocating it to emergencies, to sustaining operations, and embedding agility into its response.
The funding information displayed on the dashboards below is updated every two weeks, while the indicative flexible and unearmarked funding allocations are updated monthly.
Indicative flexible funding allocations | 2025 (USD)
Indicative unearmarked funding allocations | 2025 (USD)
Level of earmarking
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Earmarking chart
Earmarking chart
Trend
Trend
Contribution table
Contribution table
Previous Flexible Funding Reports
The Flexible Funding Reports contain an overview, financial tables, and case studies of how and where flexible funding made a difference. You can find the previous years' versions of the reports in the dropdown below.
Please note that from 2022 onwards, the report is fully accessible online, and no full PDF version is produced; nevertheless you can find case studies available as PDFs.