Key Concepts
In-depth explanations of the ideas behind grant, finance, organization, partnership and humanitarian work, by topic.
Program Design
Exit Strategy
Learn how to design and implement a project exit or handover strategy to improve the chance that results last and to support a smooth transition for local partners.
Problem analysis
Learn how to use problem trees and stakeholder analysis to identify root causes and turn them into project objectives and logframes.
Theory of change for grant applications
How to build a theory of change before you write, how to carry it through the proposal, and how to keep it separate from your logframe.
Tracking results: monitoring basics for grants and program staff
Learn how to select indicators, set targets, and build a practical monitoring plan to track program results and improve implementation.
Proposals and Fundraising
Grants Management and Compliance
Recovering Indirect Costs for Nonprofits
How to work out your indirect cost rate, what funders will and will not pay, and what to do when a cap falls below your real costs.
Stop-work orders and terminations for nonprofits
A practical guide for nonprofit staff on the first actions to take after a funder stops or terminates an award.
Finance and Budgeting
Full cost recovery
Learn how to calculate your true indirect cost rate and negotiate with funders to cover the real overheads of your organization.
Reserves: how much and how to build them
Learn how to calculate a target reserve level, build a funding plan, and create a policy to manage your organization's cash cushion.
Partnerships and Locally Led Work
Localization in humanitarian aid
Learn what localization means in practice, how it differs from standard partnerships, and how to shift power and funding to local and national responders.
Sharing indirect costs with local partners
Learn how to choose a sharing model, negotiate, and document the transfer of indirect cost recovery from an international NGO to local partners.
Organization: Governance, People and Operations
Downsizing responsibly
A practical guide for managers to reduce staff fairly and humanely while limiting legal risks and protecting program continuity.
Nonprofit board roles and responsibilities
What a nonprofit board owes the organization, what each officer does, and where governance ends and management begins.
Registering an NGO
How to choose a legal form, gather the documents one registrar asks for, and handle the separate steps that follow registration, from tax status to permits and foreign funding.
Staff security and duty of care
Learn how to meet your legal and ethical obligations to staff through practical risk management and crisis response steps.
US Nonprofit Tax Exemption and Registration
A practical guide to federal tax-exempt status, annual federal returns, and the state registration and annual reports that sit on top of them for US nonprofits.
Humanitarian Response
Accessing country-based pooled funds for local NGOs
How a local or national NGO gets from screening to a first disbursement from a country-based pooled fund, with the documents, risk rules and timelines to expect.
The Humanitarian Cluster System and the 2025 Reset
Learn how the cluster system is being simplified, what the 2025 reset changed, and how local NGOs can stay engaged in coordination.