How Does Sightsavers Use Donations?

Sightsavers states that 92% of donations, including donated supplies, go to its vital charity work, while 8% helps grow awareness and funding. That is the headline figure to use if you want to know how your money is split. The rest of this page explains what that charity work includes, where it happens, and what you can check before giving.

The 92/8 split

Sightsavers publishes a simple breakdown on its website:

The 92% figure includes donated supplies, so it is not purely cash. If you want the full accounting detail rather than the headline number, Sightsavers points readers to its annual reports and a page explaining how it spends money.

What the charity work actually pays for

Sightsavers describes its mission as preventing avoidable blindness, fighting disease, and ensuring everyone can earn, learn and thrive. Its stated work includes:

• Training health workers
• Providing eye operations
• Supporting people with disabilities
• Improving women's health
• Campaigning for disability rights and inclusion

The organisation says it works in more than 30 countries in Africa and Asia, and that this has been its focus over the past 75 years.

Where the money goes geographically and by programme

The site gives country-level and programme-level examples rather than a full budget table:

• Countries: more than 30 across Africa and Asia.
• Disease work: Sightsavers describes a leadership role in trachoma elimination efforts, and offers an explainer on trachoma, a disease it says affects millions.
• Eye health: it publishes patient and staff accounts of eye health programmes transforming communities, plus a virtual tour of a rural surgery camp operating theatre.
• Disability inclusion: it profiles disability inclusion champions and stories such as Ruth, who has a visual impairment and now runs several small businesses.

These are illustrations of programme types, not a percentage breakdown by category. If you need that level of detail, the annual reports are the place to look.

Ways your donation can be given

Sightsavers lists several routes for support, which matters because the 92/8 split applies to donations generally, not to one specific channel:

• One-off or regular donations, including through a TV appeal
• Corporate partnerships
• Leaving a gift in your will (a legacy gift)

The site does not publish pricing, minimum amounts, or payment platform details in the material available here, so check the donation page directly for current options.

What to check before you give

• The 92/8 split is a stated figure, not an audited extract on this page. For verification, read the annual reports.
• "Donations including donated supplies" means the 92% is not a pure cash ratio. If you want cash-only figures, look for them in the accounts.
• Programme examples are selective. The stories and profiles show what Sightsavers does, not how much each activity receives.
• Campaigning is part of the work. If you prefer your donation to fund only direct service delivery, note that disability rights campaigning is included in what Sightsavers describes as its mission.

Bottom line

If your question is "how much of my donation reaches the work?", Sightsavers' own answer is 92%, with 8% for awareness and fundraising. If your question is "what does that work consist of?", the answer is eye care, disease elimination such as trachoma, disability inclusion, and women's health across more than 30 countries in Africa and Asia. For anything more granular, the annual reports are the source to open.