Farm Radio International
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
B+
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
High
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
76%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 76 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Farm Radio International:
Farm Radio International is a 5-star charity with High demonstrated impact. The charity is financially transparent and has a B+ results reporting grade, which is above average. For every dollar donated, 76 cents are available to go to the cause, which is within Ci’s reasonable range.
A Charity Intelligence 2025 Top 100 Rated Charity
Founded in 1979, Farm Radio International (FRI) works with local radio stations to share information with farmers across 12 African countries. Its programs aim to help farmers learn better ways to grow food, adapt to climate change, and support themselves. Small-scale farmers in Africa produce most of the continent’s food but often live in poverty, facing food insecurity, climate challenges, and limited access to reliable information.
Farm Radio International runs three main programs: Radio Projects, Radio Network Services, and Radio Innovations. In the fiscal year ending March 2025 (F2025), FRI reported spending $9.1m on programs. The charity provides some breakdown of program expenses in its audited financial statements, but Ci was unable to determine a breakdown based on the programs discussed in Farm Radio's annual report.
Radio Projects - FRI partners with local radio stations to design interactive programs covering farming practices, gender equality, nutrition, health, and climate change adaptation. In F2025, FRI delivered 31 radio projects in 68 languages. It partnered with 226 local radio stations, reaching 36 million listeners.
Radio Network Services - Provides training and resource packages to broadcasters to improve the quality of their programs. These resources include guides, scripts, and interviews. In F2025, it served 1,485 network members, with 10,257 individual broadcasters accessing its resources. It created 99 new radio resources during the year.
Radio Innovations - Develops tools using mobile phones, SMS, and interactive radio, to help farmers share feedback and get information that better fits their needs. In F2025, RFI answered 3,106 questions from listeners, conducted 1,316 polls, and had 57,067 people interact with radio programs through call-ins, text messages, and surveys.
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Results and Impact
Farm Radio Innovations reports that of its listeners, 17 million improved their farming, health, or nutrition practices, and 19 million learned something new in F2025. Nine million of those who learned something new identified as women.
FRI surveyed its partner broadcasters in F2025 and found that 81% felt the Radio Network Services program increased their confidence in addressing social issues through their programs.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not completely represent Farm Radio International's results and impact.
Charity Intelligence has given FRI a High impact rating based on demonstrated impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: High
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Finances
Farm Radio International's audited financial statements follow activity-based costing, a best practice. Expenses are clearly defined across program, administrative, and fundraising categories.
In F2025, FRI received $3.7m in Canadian donations, a 41% increase from $2.6m in F2024, and $4.6m in international donations, a 43% increase from $3.2m in F2024. Canadian donations represented 32% of total revenue, and international donations represented 40%. It also received $3.1m of government funding, a 39% decrease from $5.1m in F2024.
FRI spent $9.1m on its programs in F2025 ($4.4m incurred in Africa and $4.6m in Canada). This was 80% of its total revenue. FRI recorded a surplus of $894k in F2025.
Fundraising costs were $603k (17% of donations) and administrative costs were $825k (7% of revenues) for a combined overhead spending of 24%. This means that for every dollar received, 76 cents are available to go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range.
Farm Radio International holds $2.6m in reserve funds (cash and investments). These reserves can cover 29%, or just over three months, of annual program costs. This indicates that FRI has a need for funding.
This charity report is an update that has been sent for review to Farm Radio International. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on May 29, 2026, by Ava Anderson.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending March
|
2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative costs as % of revenues | 7.2% | 6.8% | 9.4% |
| Fundraising costs as % of donations | 16.5% | 22.3% | 23.9% |
| Total overhead spending | 23.7% | 29.1% | 33.3% |
| Program cost coverage (%) | 28.9% | 21.5% | 11.3% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donations | 3,660 | 2,594 | 2,380 |
| International donations | 4,574 | 3,197 | 3,264 |
| Government funding | 3,097 | 5,057 | 3,648 |
| Other income | 82 | 329 | (248) |
| Total revenues | 11,413 | 11,177 | 9,045 |
| Program costs - International | 4,445 | 4,374 | 4,143 |
| Program costs - Canada | 4,646 | 4,433 | 4,814 |
| Administrative costs | 825 | 759 | 852 |
| Fundraising costs | 603 | 578 | 568 |
| Total spending | 10,520 | 10,144 | 10,377 |
| Cash flow from operations | 894 | 1,032 | (1,332) |
| Capital spending | 0 | 8 | 20 |
| Funding reserves | 2,629 | 1,891 | 1,010 |
Note: Deferred government revenue: FRI uses deferred accounting. To show donors information on a consistent basis, Ci adjusted for these deferred government revenues. This affected revenue by $118k in F2025, $481k in F2024, and ($624k) in F2023. Deferred Canadian donations: Ci adjusted for deferred Canadian donations. This affected revenue by ($532k) in F2025 and $532k in F2024. Deferred international donations: Ci adjusted for deferred international donations. This affected revenues by $1.1m in F2025, ($71k) in F2024, and ($1.2m) in F2023. Deferred other contributions: Ci adjusted for deferred other contributions. This affected revenues by ($61k) in F2025, ($181k) in F2024, and $193k in F2023. Change in project receivables: Ci adjusted for change in project receivables. This affected revenue by $160k in F2025, $233k in F2024, and $481k in F2023.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
1 |
$120k - $160k |
4 |
$80k - $120k |
5 |
$40k - $80k |
0 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2025
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Farm Radio International aims to improve the knowledge of small scale farmers and rural people across sub-Saharan Africa using communication tools like interactive radio and mobile phones. We believe that when knowledge flows, and the voices of individuals are amplified and listened to, communities flourish.
Our goal is to both ensure people have access to information and to equip broadcasters across the continent with the tools to get listeners that information in new and innovative ways. Through this, we aim to help people grow more and healthier food, adapt to climate change, improve gender equality, access better healthcare and ensure those in humanitarian situations can access immediate information about their situations, but also contribute to conversations about how to best serve them.
Our current and past annual reports detailing our impact and audited financial statements are available at: https://farmradio.org/about/#
You can learn more about our work in the following videos:
This video provides an introduction to Farm Radio International’s work using interactive radio as a tool for international development (2 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This video showcases a story from Cote d’Ivoire about how interactive radio has made an impact in the lives of local cocoa farmers (3 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This video demonstrates how farmers use our radio innovations (interactive radio + mobile phones) (3 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This podcast recording features Charity Intelligence's Managing Director, Kate Bahen, interview with Farm Radio International. Find a run-through of our results, impact and the phenomenal economic potential for our programs. (12 minutes): https://farmradio.org/q-and-a-
For more about Farm Radio International, visit farmradio.org or to hear more about our work on a regular basis, you can subscribe to our mailing list.
We are so grateful for the recognition given to us by Charity Intelligence. It is only made possible thanks to the support and trust of our donors, funders and partners. In working together, we can help millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa access the information they need to improve their lives.
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Charity Email: info@farmradio.org
Toll Free Tel: 1-888-773-7717
Tel: 613-761-3650