GoodIdxThe Goodness Index
Oxfam

Oxfam

International humanitarian relief, anti-poverty advocacy, development programming, and inequality-focused civil-society action

United Kingdom / Kenya / NetherlandsFounded 1942Humanitarian Relief, Anti-Poverty Advocacy, Development, and Global Civil Society
79
GOOD

of 100 · improving trend · Visibly decent and improving

Standing

79/100

Raw Score

67/85

Confidence

78%

Evidence

Strong

About

Oxfam is a globally influential humanitarian and anti-poverty confederation with a strong social-care mission and large-scale delivery record, but its integrity score is constrained by serious safeguarding failures exposed through the Haiti scandal and subsequent regulatory findings.

The observable record is mixed-positive. Oxfam shows sustained social-care alignment through humanitarian relief, anti-poverty programs, advocacy, partner work, and public accountability materials. The UK Charity Commission safeguarding findings materially lower integrity; later follow-up and integrity reporting support cautious improvement.

Five Pillars

Pillar scores (0–100%)

Core Worldview80%(20/25)
Contribution to Others87%(26/30)
Personal Discipline80%(8/10)
Reliability40%(2/5)
Stability Under Pressure73%(11/15)

Strong mission and social-care evidence, substantial humanitarian reach, and visible post-scandal reform, offset by serious regulator-confirmed safeguarding governance failures.

Goodness over time

Starts at 100 at birth, natural decay after accountability age, timeline events adjust the trajectory.

17 Criteria Scores

Individual item scores (0–5) with evidence notes

Reliability

Keeps promises agreements contracts commitments and clear communication2/5

Regulator-confirmed safeguarding mismanagement materially weakens integrity despite later transparency and reform.

Personal Discipline

Prays consistently3/5

Institutional equivalent: visible moral discipline exists in policies and reports, but historic protection failures show uneven discipline under risk.

Gives obligatory charity5/5

Mobilizes resources for humanitarian and anti-poverty work at global scale.

Core Worldview

Belief in god4/5

Institutional equivalent: explicit moral worldview centered on justice, equality, human dignity, and accountable systems.

Belief in unseen order4/5

Durable belief that structural causes of poverty and injustice can be changed through accountable public action.

Belief in revealed guidance4/5

Secular NGO, but principles are translated into formal objectives, codes, and accountability language.

Belief in prophets as examples4/5

Institutional equivalent: highlights service, courage, rights defense, and protection of vulnerable people as normative examples.

Belief in accountability last day4/5

Formal accountability language is strong, though reduced by past safeguarding failure.

Contribution to Others

Helps relatives4/5

Supports affiliates, partners, staff, volunteers, and participants through a confederation model.

Helps the poor or stuck5/5

Poverty relief, crisis response, water and sanitation, and inequality reduction are central and repeatedly evidenced.

Helps people who ask directly4/5

Emergency and development programs respond to direct community needs, though access varies by context and funding.

Helps free people from constraint4/5

Advocacy targets structural constraints including gender injustice, civic-space restrictions, climate harm, and poverty systems.

Helps orphans or unsupported young people4/5

Child-adjacent protection work appears across humanitarian and gender programming; safeguarding history prevents a higher score.

Helps travelers strangers or cut off people5/5

Repeated service to displaced, crisis-affected, refugee, and cut-off communities.

Stability Under Pressure

Patient during personal hardship4/5

Persisted through reputational crisis and maintained relief work while undertaking reforms.

Patient during financial difficulty3/5

Large funding base and reporting discipline are strengths, but deficits and donor-trust sensitivity create pressure.

Patient during conflict pressure fear or battlefield moments4/5

Works in conflict, crisis, and restricted civic-space contexts with partners and rights defenders.

Timeline

Key events and documented turning points

1942

Oxford Committee for Famine Relief founded

Founded in Britain to campaign for food relief for starving civilians in occupied Greece during the Second World War.

Established a durable humanitarian identity rooted in emergency relief and public advocacy.

high
1995

Oxfam International formed as a confederation

Independent NGOs formed Stichting Oxfam International to combine efforts against poverty and injustice.

Expanded Oxfam into a coordinated international confederation.

high
2019

Charity Commission issues official warning after Haiti safeguarding failures

The UK Charity Commission concluded that Oxfam GB safeguarding governance and culture repeatedly fell below expected standards.

Oxfam was formally sanctioned and required to continue systemic safeguarding reform.

severe
2021

Regulator follow-up finds serious reform effort with remaining work

The Charity Commission reported that Oxfam GB committed to 100 actions and recommendations, with most fully completed or substantially advanced.

Provided credible evidence of corrective effort, though not a clean erasure of the earlier failure.

high
2024

Oxfam reports broad reach and continuing integrity work

Oxfam reported work in 81 countries and continued investment in integrity and safeguarding systems.

Confirmed large global reach and continuing public accountability obligations.

high

Evidence Quality

8

Strong

2

Medium

0

Weak

Overall: strong

Institutional profile based on public evidence; this assessment measures observable conduct and does not judge hidden intention.