Start Fund

Filling a gap in the humanitarian sector

The Start Fund provides rapid financing to underfunded small to medium scale crises, spikes in chronic humanitarian crises, and to act in anticipation of impending crises, filling a critical gap in humanitarian financing.

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About the Fund

The first multi-donor pooled fund managed exclusively by NGOs

The Start Fund is collectively owned and managed by Start Network’s members, and supported by the governments of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Jersey and the IKEA Foundation. 

Projects are chosen by local committees, made up of staff from Start Network members and their partners, within 72 hours of an alert. This makes the Start Fund the fastest, collectively-owned, early response mechanism in the world.

 

Focusing on three types of humanitarian need

 

 

Underfunded small to medium scale crises

Spikes in chronic humanitarian emergencies

Forecast and early action for impending crises

The Start Fund timeline

Filling the Gap

Performance

Figures about the Start Fund since its inception in April 2014.
Read more in the Start Network annual report.

People reached

22,583,610

People reached

Crisis alerts raised

492

Crisis alerts raised

Crises responded to

327

Crises responded to

Average hours between alert and response (excluding anticipatory responses)

66

Average hours between alert and response (excluding anticipatory responses)

Responses in # countries

68

Responses in # countries

Pounds disbursed

77,023,294

Pounds disbursed

Latest news

News Article

Start Network Launches Grants To Accelerate Anticipation and Locally-Led Action

Start Network has launched three new grants that will enable members to access funds in order to accelerate locally led anticipatory action and community-led approaches to monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning. 

08Feb22

Resource

Start Network Quarterly Learning Brief - Q4 (English)

This quarterly learning brief (QLB) summarises some of Start Network’s key learning from the last quarter (Q4) of 2021. It completes the learning shared across the year and provided in Q1, Q2 and Q3.

21Jan22

News Article

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Becomes First US Donor to Innovative Humanitarian Relief Fund

The Start Fund has been awarded US $2.5 million from its first US-based donor, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. The $2.5 million grant will enable the Start Fund to continue providing its lifesaving support, in addition to exploring adaptations that enable greater access to the Start Fund.

21Oct21

Resource

The Start Fund: Value and Uniqueness in a Shifting Humanitarian Funding Environment

The Start Fund is the first multi-donor pooled humanitarian funding mechanism, managed exclusively by international and national non-governmental organisations (INGOs/NNGOs). As its membership has expanded, the frequency of alerts has risen, tools and systems have improved, governance has been restructured, and evidence and learning pro-cesses have been strengthened. In its sixth year of operation, by August 2020 the Start Fund had awarded over £71m and demand was seen to be at an all-time high. Past independent evaluations of the Start Fund and its performance have concluded that it is a successful and unique funding mechanism that has added significant value to, and has great potential to reform, the humanitarian financing system.

15Oct21