Step-by-Step Guide to Fundraising for Humanitarian Aid

The 19^th of August is World Humanitarian Day.

Emergency relief and humanitarian aid sectors receive some of the largest grants every year from the government, foundation, corporate, and individual giving sources. In 2022, total funding from all sources for humanitarian relief totaled around $51.7 billion. While donors are often very generous in terms of grant size and grant terms, most of this funding goes directly to large INGOs, UNICEF, Red Cross, and Red Crescent Societies, etc.

Fortunately, fundraising for humanitarian aid does not have to be limited to only the largest of NGOs. There are strategies other NGOs can use to take a piece of this aid pie as well.

Step 1- Plan in advance

Both natural disasters and man-made emergencies can happen suddenly, but that does not mean there is no advanced warning. Research your area and communities. Is there a past history of earthquakes, flooding, famines, landslides, typhoons, etc.? What about political uprisings, civil war, or other outbreaks of violence? Even if these risks are quite small, it may be worthwhile to strategize how your organization would react if the unthinkable happened.

Once you know what you are preparing for, start looking for donors now. Most donors for the emergency response have pre-approved partners. This is so that once a humanitarian situation occurs, they can quickly send funds to known organizations. One of the reasons the largest organizations receive the bulk of emergency aid funding is because they have the capacity to accept large grants and also plan ahead for these eventualities. If you want to receive this type of aid, network now to find potential partners as a grantee or sub-grantee. There will be no time for networking once trouble is afoot.

Your organization should also have template grant proposals drafted to send quickly when a disaster occurs. Grant restrictions for humanitarian aid are typically looser than for your typical project proposal, but the application should still include planned results, an M&E plan, etc. And do not forget to include the budget for operational costs and long-term post-recovery efforts in your timeline!

Finally, your organization should also have a response plan. When a crisis hits, who will be in charge of contacting partners, updating the website, and coordinating on-the-ground efforts? Are there back-ups in place in case your office is hit? What safety or check-in measures do you need? Make sure your team is well-versed and ready to act quickly and effectively when problems arise.

Step 2 – Network and develop your community

Networking with partners, donors, beneficiaries, and stakeholders will always help you – and having a good and trustworthy network will make all the difference once disaster hits. You will be able to share knowledge, resources, and strategies and will be able to do much better work together. Often, specifically in disaster scenarios, donors only want to work with partners they already know. Having reached out and established a connection before will help you to be seen as a reliable partner now.

Also work on your social media communities, if you are using social media. Often, a lot of funding comes through crowdfunding campaigns and awareness among private people – and the easiest way to be able to reach many people is social media. The more engaged your audience is with your cause, the more likely they are to support you in case of a disaster. You can also use your communities for other kinds of support like connections and media coverage. It won’t work though if you only start networking after the event – you need strong communities beforehand.

Step 3- When disaster hits, work fast

It takes a lot of preparation to receive humanitarian aid because once disaster hits, organizations need to move FAST. Not only do they have to coordinate efforts to combat the disaster, but they also have to fundraise, update the media, etc. Nowadays, news stories can take just minutes to become breaking coverage half a world away. Make sure that you have someone who is responsible to coordinate with media and supporters to have a uniform messaging strategy.

Another reason large organizations can take in so much humanitarian funding is that while local NGOs are occupied with saving lives on the ground, INGOs with international staff can also immediately start fundraising. Within minutes of a disaster, they can update their website with specific pop-up ads requesting donations, update their social media pages, and send out pre-prepared proposals. Time is key here, not just for saving lives but also for getting money – large donations start pouring in within hours of a crisis when most smaller NGOs are not yet prepared. If it takes three days for your NGO to update your social networks, you will have already missed out on the vast majority of funding.

Step 4- Keep the media attention going

In a crisis, media attention is the best fundraising tool available. Unfortunately, the media cycle is short and donations drop quickly along with coverage. If you need money, and you will try to maintain the media’s focus for as long as possible. Here are just some ways to do so:

• Make contact with reporters and update them regularly. Pose your organization as a local expert, and make yourself available for interviews. Or even write your own coverage to share.
• Take lots of pictures and videos. It may feel callous to have your camera out while people around you are suffering, but in most cases, the long-term benefits of visuals can far outlast any immediate aid you can deliver with no funding or resources.
• Boost social media posts, newsletters, and other outreach methods. Ask people to follow you for the latest updates. This way, you can continue to speak directly to an interested audience long after the camera crews leave.

While you have the media’s attention, you can also use the time to share about other problems your community faces that you work on. This is a good time to educate the public, network, and raise awareness on other issues affecting your community.

Step 5- Keep working

Media attention and donations tend to drop fairly quickly after a crisis, even though full recovery efforts can take years. Some humanitarian situations have been ongoing for decades with only off-and-on news coverage. Hopefully, your organization will be able to receive enough no-strings-attached donations in the height of the crises which you can allocate for various other purposes later in time. But there are still other ways to get the funding you need later down the line.

• Add recovery efforts to your normal project and program budgets. Donors may be willing to spend more than they did before for these activities.
• Send out reminder campaigns to your following. New developments, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month anniversaries, and other milestones are good times to ask for additional funding.
• Most times, donors who give to you once are more likely to give to you again. Unfortunately, most donors in emergencies are one-time funders. You definitely should approach them for follow-up funding but know that success is fairly uncommon. Still, you should continue to update these donors on how the response is ongoing. Continue networking with them so you will be their first choice again if and when another crisis hits.

Step 6 – Develop a strategy to get back to “normal”

Thinking about getting back to business, as usual, is difficult in disaster situations – but it is important. Even if everything seems urgent right now, you need some kind of strategy to get back to normal at some point. The disaster will probably affect, how you continue your work, but you have to shift back into normal gear to also give your team some rest. Working in emergency situations is draining, and you really have to look out for your staff as well.

If you want to learn more about fundraising in humanitarian emergencies, please check out our course “How to raise funds in Humanitarian Emergencies”. In this course, you will learn in detail what steps you should take to prepare and which funds are available after a disaster.

This course consists of four modules that cover everything you need to know. The modules are:

• The Landscape of Humanitarian Funding
• Finding Funding for Emergencies
• Funds to Apply to
• Tips and Tricks to Prepare and Apply

As you can see, we cover everything from an introduction to the landscape of humanitarian funding to how to actually apply and even more importantly prepare – as there is seldom the time to properly write proposals, once the disaster has hit.

If you are working in an at-risk country, this course is super important for you to make sure you will be able to play an important role in reaction to a potential disaster. And an at-risk country can be any country, as the latest huge-scale disasters after hurricanes in the USA have shown. Furthermore, disasters are not always rapid – they can be slow on setting as well but require the same mechanisms to receive funding.

This course consists of:

• 4 videos in which experts share their insights
• More than 20 pages of supporting materials
• Cheat sheets for every module where you can see all the most important points on one page
• Quizzes at the end of each module (80% needed to pass)
• Homework assignments that will help you to apply the gained knowledge to your project

In the end, you will receive a certificate of completion and will know how to prepare for disaster.