Your questions answered

We are proud that nearly 50 local, UN and international organisations support Zamzam Foundation projects and work closely with ZZF in Somalia as a trusted partner. Together with is partners, ZZF in Somalia supported over 2.6 million people across Somalia in 2024. We sincerely hope that individual donors and families in the UK will increasingly get behind Zamzam Foundation UK as a means to support the transformational work that ZZF is doing across Somalia. We hope our UK donors will come to understand and appreciate Zamzam’s unique contribution to the country’s development as our established partners do:

• We are Somalia’s leading national aid and development charity
• Established and run by Somalis for Somalis
• Offices and projects in all areas of Somalia
• Track record of delivering aid in hard-to-reach areas
• Trusted by local communities to work alongside them
• Integrated approach to emergency relief, livelihoods, clean water, healthcare, education and women’s empowerment
• Building a brighter future through schools, livelihood grants and peacebuilding projects
• Extensive Ramadan and qurbani programmes reaching 1 million people.

The key points of income and expenditure are summarised on pages 14-15 of Zamzam Foundation’s 2024 annual report. Generous supporters and funders across the world gave Zamzam Foundation more than £17.6 million in 2024 towards its vital aid and development programmes and its operating costs.

The biggest source of funds was institutional donors and partners, and in 2024 the top five donors were: King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, Alnajat Charity, International Rescue Committee, World Vision, and the Islamic Development Bank.

If you give to ZZF through ZZF UK you are supporting an organisation that spent nearly $16.1 million on directly supporting people in need across Somalia in 2024 – 92% of total spending.

The most significant areas of programme spending were water, sanitation and hygiene (25.6%); seasonal programmes (20.9%); emergency response and livelihoods (15.2%); and health and nutrition (15%). Spending on project support and administrative costs amounted to only 8%.

ZZF UK has its own bank account in the UK which is where your donation will initially land if you give through our ZZF UK website. From there we transfer funds electronically to Zamzam Foundation in Somalia. Somalia is a largely cashless society, so almost all of ZZF’s spending there is through further electronic transfers – whether that be for the primary purpose of procuring aid, for payment of staff salaries, or even for the transfer of emergency ‘cash’ assistance to individuals – which can usually be done via secure transfers to their mobile phones.

Around  one pound in every 12 of Zamzam Foundations global income (8% of the total) is spent on project support and administrative costs in Somalia, Türkiye and the UK.

In our case one component of the 8% Zamzam Foundation spends is general administrative and management-related overheads such as the cost of IT systems, the work of finance and HR teams, and work in public communications – all of which are areas that indirectly contribute to keeping the organisation’s aid and development programmes running in an integrated, efficient and effective way, to the benefit of those we serve.

Unusually compared to other charities, the 8% also includes some spending on aid delivery. Material aid items Zamzam provides – such as food packs, shelter materials, new wells and boreholes, medicines and vaccines – are accounted for under programme spending in the areas they relate to such as emergencies, water and health. But support or ‘indirect’ costs for that aid delivery, such as the salaries of health and education teams and fuel for trucks delivering emergency water supplies to camps for displaced people, are accounted for under the 8% for project support and administrative costs.

Overall we sincerely believe we are delivering aid in a cost-effective and efficient way. We believe in being as transparent as possible about our support costs, and in future annual reports we plan to break down our project support and administrative costs further. This will enable donors to have a better understanding of the precise split between ‘traditional’ administrative overheads and the support of programme delivery in the communities we serve.

We have long-established financial systems and processes in place to ensure that aid reaches those who need it most. We operate anti-corruption and anti-fraud policies, as well as a policy to counter the risk of terror financing. Minimising the use of cash in Somalia helps reduce the risk of fraud and aid diversion, ensuring that your donation reaches those it is intended for. Zamzam’s long-established presence across Somalia and the level of trust it has built up with local communities means it is well equipped to reach people in conflict zones and in remote, hard-to-reach areas. ZZF and ZZF UK adhere to the humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence, which means we do not accept undue interference from anyone – including government and armed opposition groups – in our assessment of needs, our selection of beneficiaries, and our distribution of aid.