Southeast Asia’s funding landscape is dominated with restricted, short-term grants, with flexible and multi-year funding still comparatively scarce, according to a new report published by Asia Community Foundation. Of those, almost three quarters (72 percent) reported ‘highly restricted’ funding with minimal flexibility. The report found that in practice, unrestricted funding in Southeast Asia ‘functions less as “no-strings-attached” philanthropy and more as flexible funding with guardrails.’ ‘Funders similarly shared that, in some cases, their provision of unrestricted funding actually improved operational insight and strengthened their grantee relationships.’ This creates a ‘capacity trap’, given smaller grantees require funding to build that type of infrastructure.