<p>I examine why states give aid multilaterally when they already have bilateral channels. Economically conservative individuals tend to advocate the role of free markets, while liberals advocating redistribution support their governments’ aid provisions. Despite such well-defined aid preferences, foreign aid is rarely a priority for donor states. Given that bilateral aid tends to be more strategically tied to national interests than unearmarked multilateral aid does, I purport that leaders of donor states will translate constituents’ aid preferences mostly by adjusting multilateral core aid. Thus, I argue that an increase in conservatism in a donor government’s economic ideology will decrease the level of multilateral core aid. This paper suggests that politicians who face multiple issues and have informational advantage may turn to multilateralism to rather nominally reflect constituents’ policy preferences.</p>