Aid Abroad: Foreign-Agent and Funding Laws for NGOs

An East African NGO that expands abroad may assume that foreign-funding rules are mainly a problem for organisations receiving money in East Africa. In several jurisdictions the opposite is true. A Kenyan, Ugandan or Rwandan organisation can become the “foreign” actor the moment it funds a local partner, opens an office, supports advocacy or transfers money into another country. The legal models are not identical. Georgia, El Salvador, India and China regulate foreign influence and foreign-funded civil society in very different ways. Treating them as one global “foreign-agent law” would be inaccurate and operationally dangerous.

Start with the model, not the label

Before entering a country, identify what the local law is actually regulating. One model requires registration because an organisation acts for or is funded by a foreign principal. Another taxes foreign receipts. Another requires prior government approval for foreign grants. Another controls the bank account into which foreign contribution must be received. Another regulates the foreign NGO itself and requires a representative office or a filed temporary activity. The compliance question is therefore not “Does this country have a foreign-agent law?” but “Which legal trigger applies to our proposed role, money and activity?”

Georgia now combines agent registration with grant controls

Georgia’s Parliament adopted a Foreign Agents Registration Act in April 2025. Parliament’s official summary states that it defines an “agent of a foreign principal,” creates registration procedures, requires public availability of related documents and annual financial declarations, and provides monitoring and criminal liability for evading registration or other obligations. Georgia also developed a separate foreign-grants control system. Amendments adopted in 2025 required government approval for covered foreign grants, and the framework was broadened again in March 2026. Parliament’s 2026 materials state that covered foreign grants can include money or in-kind resources connected to influencing Georgian policy or society and can include transfers by a foreign legal entity to its Georgian branch or representative office. Prior government consent can therefore be a funding question even where the organisation’s legal presence is already established.

Georgia shows why old grant templates can become unsafe

A grant agreement written before a legislative change may promise automatic quarterly transfers or unrestricted subgranting. If the host country later requires government consent, the donor cannot treat its own payment schedule as the higher law. An NGO working in Georgia should check the current grant-approval rules before each new award, material amendment or transfer to a covered recipient. It should also determine whether the local recipient has registration or declaration duties under the foreign-agent regime. The 2026 changes demonstrate that this is an area where monitoring cannot stop after country entry.

El Salvador uses a registry and a tax model

El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approved the Law of Foreign Agents in May 2025, and the implementing regulation was published in June 2025. The system created the Registro de Agentes Extranjeros, or RAEX, under the Ministry of Governance and Territorial Development. The Assembly’s official explanation states that covered foreign agents must register, foreign-funded transactions are subject to a 30 percent tax unless an exclusion applies, resources must be channelled through legally authorised financial actors, and RAEX may supervise activities and require reports. This is not the same architecture as Georgia’s prior-approval regime. The financial consequence can arise through taxation and registration rather than an identical approval mechanism.

The El Salvador question begins before the transfer

An East African NGO intending to fund a Salvadoran partner should establish whether the partner is a covered agent, whether the proposed funding qualifies for an exclusion, how the 30 percent levy will affect the programme budget, and what information must be supplied to RAEX. A donor promise to deliver USD 100,000 for activities does not answer whether the recipient will have USD 100,000 available to spend. Budgeting, tax treatment and reporting need to be resolved before the grant amount is fixed.

India regulates foreign contribution through FCRA

India’s Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, as substantially amended in 2020 and administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, uses a different model. Organisations require FCRA registration or prior permission to receive covered foreign contribution. The 2020 amendment requires foreign contribution to be received through a designated FCRA account at the State Bank of India, New Delhi Main Branch. The same amendment prohibits a person that has received foreign contribution under FCRA from transferring that foreign contribution to another person, and reduced the administrative-expense ceiling from 50 percent to 20 percent. The Ministry of Home Affairs’ 2026 annual report continues to describe those rules as central parts of the current compliance regime.

India can therefore disrupt ordinary subgranting

For an East African NGO accustomed to receiving a donor grant and then passing part of it to a local organisation, India requires special caution. The 2020 section 7 prohibition on transfer means the NGO cannot assume that a conventional onward-grant model is permitted merely because the local partner is also charitable. The structure may need direct contracting, separate prior permission or another lawful arrangement. The organisation should also check whether its planned activity falls into a category restricted from receiving foreign contribution, including political or news-related categories addressed by FCRA.

China regulates the overseas NGO’s presence and activity

China’s Law on Administration of Activities of Overseas Non-Governmental Organizations in the Mainland takes yet another route. The Ministry of Public Security’s current service platform continues to publish the law and implementation guidance. Article 9 requires an overseas NGO carrying out activities in mainland China either to register a representative office or, for temporary activities, to file through a qualified Chinese partner. An overseas NGO that has neither route may not directly or covertly carry out activities or finance another organisation or individual to do so on its behalf.

China also controls the funding channel

The Chinese framework links operational permission to money management. The law provides that a registered representative office uses the bank account filed with the registration authority, while a temporary activity uses the Chinese partner’s account with separate accounting and earmarking. Overseas NGOs may not solicit donations in mainland China. Representative offices must follow annual activity-planning and reporting requirements, and tax and employment rules also apply. This is therefore not simply a transparency label placed on foreign funding. It is a regulated operating model for the foreign NGO itself.

Advocacy risk must be assessed separately

Foreign-funding laws can have consequences for advocacy even when they do not use the word “advocacy.” Georgia’s 2026 grant definition expressly reaches some resources connected with influencing government, institutions or segments of society and with political or public interests of foreign governments or parties. India’s FCRA contains restrictions affecting political categories and certain news or current-affairs actors. China’s overseas NGO law restricts political activities and financing of political activities. An East African organisation working on governance, elections, rights, media or public-policy campaigns should therefore review the activity rules as carefully as the money rules.

The country-entry checklist should be built around six questions

Before signing a foreign partnership, management should identify who must register; whether the foreign NGO, local partner or both need approval; whether the organisation must describe or label its relationship to a foreign principal; which bank account must receive funds; whether the receipt is taxed or capped; what reports, financial declarations or annual activity plans are required; and whether onward funding or advocacy is restricted. Those questions should be answered from the current statute, regulation and regulator guidance, not from a neighbouring country’s experience.

Keep the foreign-funding file separate from ordinary donor due diligence

The compliance file should contain the current local law, registration or approval evidence, bank-account instructions, tax analysis, reporting calendar, board approval of the funding structure and any written advice on advocacy or onward funding. It should also record the legal position at the date of each major transfer because these regimes can change quickly. A country-entry memo prepared two years earlier is not enough where legislation has been repeatedly amended.

Compare the Trigger, Not the Label

Georgia, El Salvador, India and China illustrate four different regulatory instincts: registration and disclosure of foreign agency, prior control of foreign grants, taxation and registry supervision, foreign-contribution licensing and banking controls, and direct regulation of overseas NGO operations. The details matter more than the label. An East African NGO working abroad should therefore resist global templates that say simply “comply with all foreign-agent laws.” It should identify the exact trigger, money route, registration duty, reporting burden and activity restriction in the country where it plans to work.

Source note. Principal materials considered include the Parliament of Georgia’s official materials on the Foreign Agents Registration Act adopted in April 2025 and amendments to the Law on Grants adopted in 2025 and 2026; El Salvador Legislative Assembly materials on Decree 308, the 2025 Law of Foreign Agents, and the June 2025 implementing regulation published in the Official Gazette; India’s Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, the 2020 amendment, current Ministry of Home Affairs FCRA materials and its 2026 annual report; and the People’s Republic of China Ministry of Public Security overseas-NGO service platform and the Overseas NGO Law. These systems are compared, not treated as equivalent.

Suggested citation: 

Ronald Serwanga, “Aid Abroad: Foreign-Agent and Funding Laws for NGOs” East Africa Legal Insight (5 September 2026).