ABSTRACT This paper systematically reviews the empirical literature on development non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), drawing both on quantitative and qualitative analyses, and constructs a set of basic facts about these organizations. These facts concern the size of the development NGO sector and its evolution, the funding of NGOs, the allocation of NGO aid and projects across beneficiary countries, the relationship of NGOs with beneficiaries, and the phenomenon of globalization of development NGOs.