IOSN has been launched by UNDP. It is being incubated by UNDP's Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) in Kuala Lumpur. APDIP will work towards building a consortium of sponsors/social investors for IOSN. This includes bilateral and multilateral sponsor, foundations, as well as corporate sponsors.

The IOSN portal is partially funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.