The grant cycle and donors

1Who funds humanitarian action?

• Public institutional donors: the European Commission (ECHO for humanitarian aid) and governments' development cooperation agencies (for example the FCDO in the United Kingdom, Global Affairs Canada, German or Swiss cooperation).
• United Nations agencies that sub-contract to partner NGOs (UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP…).
• Pooled funds: the country-based pooled funds managed by OCHA (CBPFs), open to national NGOs, and the CERF at global level (reserved for UN agencies).
• Foundations and the private sector: more flexible, often smaller.

Each donor has its own geographical and sectoral priorities, formats and rules. Reading the donor's annual strategy (for example ECHO's Humanitarian Implementation Plan for a country) is the first step.

2The grant cycle

1. Horizon scanning and identification: calls for proposals, dialogue with the donor, cluster meetings.
2. Design: concept note, then full proposal and budget.
3. Negotiation and contract: donor questions, revisions, signature of the grant agreement.
4. Start-up: internal kick-off meeting where the contract is reviewed line by line.
5. Implementation and monitoring: activities, budget monitoring, interim reports.
6. Close-out: final narrative and financial report, audit, archiving.

3Capacity assessment (due diligence)

Before providing funding, especially to a national NGO, the donor or partner agency assesses the organisation's capacity. Prepare a file in advance with: statutes and legal registration, organisational chart and board, financial statements and latest audit reports, procedures manual (finance, procurement, human resources), protection policies (PSEA, child safeguarding, anti-fraud and anti-corruption), references from past projects.

Localisation: in 2016, under the Grand Bargain, major donors and agencies committed to channelling at least 25% of humanitarian funding to local and national actors as directly as possible. A strong capacity file is the key to benefiting from this.