The foreign aid sector is expanding each year, distributing hundreds of billions of USD per year to the least developed countries of the world. Meanwhile, extensive research has found that aid is not an efficient way to stimulate economic growth in the recipients. Neither is it an effective way to increase long-term sustainable development. While a major debate is going on regarding what actions can be taken to increase the efficiency of foreign aid, a parallel discussion is going on regarding whether the motives of the donor countries are complicit in making the aid inefficient. This thesis examines the contemporary discourse on motives behind foreign aid allocation and puts together an analytical framework for distinguishing between humanitarian, developmental and strategical motives. This framework is used to interpret the results of an empirical study covering two groups of donors; five donors that have previously been found to prioritize their own interests over those of the recipients, and five donors with a more altruistic profile within the literature on the topic. The results of this study corroborate those findings, while emphasizing the impact of colonial- and regional ties for both groups of donors.