Founded in 1961, Cuso International (Cuso) aims to reduce poverty and inequality around the world. Cuso works in 20 countries across four continents, including Africa, Asia, North and Central America, and South America.

Cuso reports on three main program areas: Empowering Women and Girls, Improving Opportunities for Youth, and Harnessing the Power of Volunteers. The charity does not provide a spending breakdown for its programs.

Cuso International’s Empowering Women and Girls programs aim to reduce gender inequality and improve health outcomes for women. In F2020, Cuso’s Midwives Save Lives project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo trained 350 midwives in emergency care. In total, Cuso reports that its midwife training projects have helped more than 1.5 million women in Benin, the DRC, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. Cuso also helped to train 300 women farmers in Benin in F2020. In Myanmar, Cuso provided social services and safehouses to 72 women during the year.

Cuso’s Improving Opportunities for Youth projects aim to create jobs and provide training for new businesses. In Nigeria, Cuso’s YouLead project trained 342 people in entrepreneurship and 309 people in technical skills in F2020. Cuso’s T-LED project in Tanzania provides training for small- and medium-sized businesses. In F2020, 504 companies received training in marketing, business management, graphic design, or finance through T-LED.

Through its Harnessing the Power of Volunteers program, Cuso sends volunteers to assist its local partners around the world. Cuso International’s volunteer placements last an average of six to twelve months. In F2020, Cuso states that its volunteers worked with 178 local partners to help implement their projects. It estimates that these local projects reached a total of 750,579 people during the year.

Cuso International received $6.0m in donations in F2020. It also received $21.9m in government funding from Global Affairs Canada, representing 58% of revenues, and $9.9m in volunteer services, representing 26% of revenues.

Administrative costs are 6% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 26% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 31%. For every dollar donated, 69 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Cuso has $8.5m in funding reserves, which could cover 36% or nearly four months of annual program costs.

Charity Intelligence has sent this update to Cuso International for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 21, 2021 by Eric Zhao.