International Grants for Non-Government Organizations Non-Governmental Organizations A non-governmental organization, more popularly known as an NGO, is an organization that delivers programs at a local, national, or international level. It operates independently of government even if the NGO approval is given by the host country where it delivers its projects and/or services. NGOs provide projects in various areas— health, education, food stability, environmental conservation, information, and calamity response, just to name a few. Famous NGOs whose advocacies have made them famous worldwide include The Wikimedia Foundation (information); Oxfam International (humanitarian work); and CARE International (poverty alleviation). However, there are hundreds of thousands of NGOs making a difference around the nation and all over the world. If you’re working for an NGO, then there’s a lot of good news when it comes to sourcing out funds. You can apply for funding not only from grantmakers in the United States but from foreign governments, foundations, and corporations as well. Compared to for-profit businesses whose funding sources are limited, NGOs are able to enjoy a wide variety of funding sources both in the national and international levels. Eligibility for International Grants Before you can apply for funding from both national and international funders, you have to make sure that you are eligible to apply for grants from them. This means that if you are an NGO based in the United States then you have to register as a nonprofit organization with the Internal Revenue Service. The 501(c)(3) status that it will give when you have complied with all the requirements is valid for all the 50 states. Furthermore, this means that your search for funding sources is limited only to grantmakers in the United States. You can pretty much forget international funders if you are operating solely within the country since the focus of these funding agencies is on giving their monies to NGOs with advocacies where they are located. Now if you are a non-governmental organization with programs in a specific country or countries then you can source out funds from international sources. To ensure that you have NGO status in the country where you are operating in, you
have to make sure that you register your organization with the proper authorities there. Follow the rules and regulations in the country where you have your programs so that you won’t run into any glitches when applying for grants. If you’re operating in multiple countries, you do have to follow the policies in each country where you have programs and seek approval letters from each of them. It’s very important that you keep your NGO approval letters in a safe place. It’s recommended that you make not only physical copies but electronic ones as well of your approval letters and other important documents so that you don’t have to worry if you lose any of them. Approval letters are extremely important since funding applications generally require that these be attached together with other documents about your organization.
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