Where the money goes on GlobalGiving, by cause

Education is the largest named cause among the 315 GlobalGiving campaigns FundTracker tracks: 99 campaigns, 31% of the list. The money tells a different story. One catch-all group, which our database labels "general", holds 110 campaigns and 67% of every dollar raised: $36.8 million of $54.8 million. Four campaigns run under GlobalGiving's own name sit in that group and account for $25.2 million of it, about 68%. Take the group out and the picture of what donors are actually funding changes.

How we counted

FundTracker sorts each GlobalGiving campaign into one of seven categories, and a campaign sits in only one. "General" is the group for campaigns that did not fit one of the other six, so it mixes very different projects. Amounts are in US dollars, as reported by GlobalGiving at the time of our last data refresh. "Raised" is the cumulative amount shown for each campaign, not money raised this month.

• General: 110 campaigns, $36.8M raised, 67.2% of all money raised, 89.8% of goal raised.

• Education: 99 campaigns, $8.7M raised, 15.9% of all money raised, 63.4% of goal raised.

• Healthcare: 56 campaigns, $5.4M raised, 9.9% of all money raised, 55.9% of goal raised.

• Environment: 32 campaigns, $2.6M raised, 4.7% of all money raised, 62.4% of goal raised.

• Food: 11 campaigns, $0.9M raised, 1.6% of all money raised, 47.6% of goal raised.

• Emergency: 5 campaigns, $0.3M raised, 0.6% of all money raised, 55.0% of goal raised.

• Water: 2 campaigns, $0.06M raised, 0.1% of all money raised, 56.7% of goal raised.

Campaign counts: three causes make up most of the named list

Education (99), healthcare (56) and environment (32) account for 187 campaigns, 59% of everything tracked. Food, emergency and water together have just 18 campaigns, under 6% of the list. If you are browsing GlobalGiving for a cause in that second group, you are choosing from a short list: five emergency campaigns and two on water.

Money raised: education and healthcare lead the named causes

Only $17.9 million of the $54.8 million sits outside "general". Within that $17.9 million, education raised $8.7 million and healthcare $5.4 million, together about 79% of the money raised by the six named causes. Environment raised $2.6 million, food $0.9 million, emergency $0.3 million and water $57,000.

The average education campaign has raised about $88,000, the average healthcare campaign about $97,000 and the average environment campaign about $80,000. These are simple averages, so a few large campaigns move them. The next article shows how uneven the underlying amounts are.

How close each cause is to its goal

The last column of the table divides the total raised by the total funding goal in each category. Because it adds up whole categories, large campaigns weigh more than small ones.

• General is closest to its goal at 89.8%, which is why it pulls the overall figure for all 315 campaigns up to 77.1%.

• Education (63.4%) and environment (62.4%) sit near the middle.

• Healthcare (55.9%), emergency (55.0%) and water (56.7%) are close to each other, a little above half.

• Food is lowest at 47.6%, across 11 campaigns.

Leave out "general" and the other six causes together have raised $17.9 million against $30.1 million in goals, or 59.7%.

Emergency and water have 5 and 2 campaigns, so their percentages would move a lot if a single campaign changed. Read those two as examples, not as a trend.

What these numbers do not show

• They are a snapshot of the campaigns in our database on October 25, 2026. Projects that have already finished may not be in the data, so this says nothing about how all GlobalGiving projects end up.

• They are not a ranking of causes. A cause with a low funded share may simply have newer campaigns, larger goals, or a different fundraising pace. Our data does not show which.

• "General" is a mixed group. It is the biggest single bucket, so treat the cause totals above as a view of the named causes, with one large unsorted group beside them.

• Funding is not quality. A campaign that has raised more is not a better one. Check the organization, its reports and its own website before giving.

Using this when you give

A lower funded percentage tells you only how much of the goal is still open, which can be a useful starting point when you compare campaigns in the same cause. On FundTracker you can sort campaigns by funding progress on the Trending and Most funded pages, and see how each campaign's funding score is worked out in our scoring guide.