The decision regarding the hierarchical distribution of resources is crucial for many organizations that want to allocate such resources efficiently. At the upper level of the hierarchy, a decision-maker may have an objective and a set of feasible solutions partially determined by the lower level. Nevertheless, the upper level can influence but not control the decision-maker at the lower level. Moreover, the objectives of the upper and lower levels are conflicting. Hence, the hierarchical distribution of resources can be formulated as a bi-level programming model. This paper reformulates the hierarchical allocation of resources. The Hooke-Jeeves (HJ) algorithm and the hybrid scatter search–Nelder-Mead (SSNM) method are proposed to solve the newly formulated problem. The problem is also analyzed from a multi-objective perspective to equally prioritize the upper and lower levels while subjecting each to an interdependent set of constraints; a multi-objective scatter search algorithm (MSSA) was developed for that purpose. Tailor-made instances were also designed for the implementation of the developed algorithms. The findings demonstrated that the HJ algorithm provides the best solution according to the upper-level objective function. However, it does not guarantee the best result for the lower level. In comparison, MSSA has a set of best possible solutions for both objectives. The hybrid SSNM method could not match the results provided by the former methods.