The US Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugee and

Migration (PRM) recently issued the guidelines for NGOs

seeking grant support from it...Besides guiding applicant
organizations, these guidelines also serve as an excellent resource
for developing effective proposals for submitting them to other
donor agencies...

www.fundsforngos.org
 www.fundsforngos.org

The Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration

(PRM) at the United States Department of State has
recently issued general guidelines, referred to as ‘FY
2010 General NGO Guidelines for Overseas Assistance,’
for NGOs applying and responding to various funding
announcements to be released in the year 2010. The
purpose of these guidelines is to provide information
for NGOs on regional and/or issue-specific aspects of
different funding solicitations made available through
the Bureau.
 www.fundsforngos.org

The new funding guidelines issued on 19 October 2009

provide deep insight on the preparations that NGOs
need to make while apply for grants at the PRM. The
guidelines cover various components of the funding
announcement from taking into consideration the
local policies to security analysis to sustainable local
partnerships to adhering towards proposal formats
and to justification of proposed budgets. But along
with serving as guidance for preparing to seek funding
from PRM, these guidelines also provide sufficient
information on preparing an effective grant proposal
for seeking funds from other agencies as well.
 www.fundsforngos.org

Here, we are providing an unofficial interpretation of

the guidelines, summarizing the important elements
of the entire process so that NGO subscribers at
FundsforNGOs.org are aware about them while
responding to the solicitations issued by PRM:
 www.fundsforngos.org

As part of the Bureau’s policy priorities, NGOs applying for

funding should ensure that their proposals indicate a
strong partnership basis for the proposed projects.
Partnerships with local governments of countries where
projects have to be implemented and also with other
bilateral and multilaterals such as the UN agencies can give
lot of weight to the project while considering granting
financial support for it. Besides, keeping in view of the
PRM’s own mission and objectives, the proposal should
ensure that at least 50% of the beneficiaries are refugees.
Besides, NGOs should also put in practice a Code of
Conduct that protects beneficiaries from sexual
exploitation and abuse.
 www.fundsforngos.org

NGOs should demonstrate that they would apply Minimum

Humanitarian Standards while implementing projects. Minimum
Humanitarian Standards in emergency projects like disaster responses
can be according to the Sphere Handbook. But for other types of
projects, these Standards have to be according to the relevant
internationally accepted principles and practices. For example, if the
project is about providing water facilities to the community, NGOs
should input procedures in their proposals that test the quality of the
water to be provided. Similarly, for projects that fund a refugee
program, NGOs should not propose infrastructure for which material is
not available in the local market. In health and education projects,
PRM strongly discourages standalone interventions that do not
collaborate with governmental agencies and UN organizations at the
local level and instead lead to the creation of parallel systems. All
proposed projects should be in line with the national policies and
working collaborations have to be established with relevant local
authorities and the UN agencies and other multilaterals and bilaterals.
 MORE AT:

What do NGOs ‘need’ to apply for the Funding

Support from the US Government’s Bureau of
Population, Refugee and Migration?