We collaborate because the change that is needed cannot be achieved by any single organisation acting alone.

We are working to enable a humanitarian system that is diverse, decentralised, and collaborative.

We do this by working in 4 main areas:

• Since April 2014, the Start Fund has raised £30m from DFID, Irish Aid and the Dutch Government
• Through the Start Fund learning framework, we have developed a good understanding of what works and what doesn’t in rapid humanitarian response
  • 66 hours from alert to award
  • 44% of crises are conflict related
  • 15% of crises are climate related
• The Start Fund addresses a specific need (small, off-the-radar emergencies) but we need to create additional funding mechanisms to complement it, namely to address a different type and scale of crisis

The Start Loan Facility will leverage the framework and processes of the Start Fund to:

• Assess business case for loan requests from member NGOs in rapid timeframe
• Utilise tried and tested decision-making frameworks to allocate and deploy capital effectively
• Ensure member NGOs maintain their agency through a peer review process

The Start Network will overlay credit checks on the borrowing member NGOs.

• A revolving credit facility that is made available to any Start Network Member
• Facilities available for early response and early intervention

Credit risk is controlled through: credit limits, peer review mechanism, explicit identification of donor and source of repayment (with large buffer), track record.

We are speaking to some foundations with a view to them providing a first-loss guarantee – we’ve had indicative interest, but nothing is yet formally agreed.

We’ve already had interest from some foundations and a HNWI interested in lending money to this facility.

The Start Fund has reached over 3m people in crisis faster than any other rapid response fund in the sector, enabling lives to be saved, suffering alleviated and dignity protected. Receiving rapid funds in a crisis can help stabilise a situation, preventing or slowing deterioration. We expect the Start Loan Facility to achieve all of these impacts, but for different crises.

We also expect further systemic impacts:

• When NGO members can rely on the availability of funds at short notice, they can build additional capacity to take advantage of this.
• As we explore the capabilities and limits of the loan facility, and continue to develop alternative financing mechanisms for our member NGOs, we expect there to be further uses of credit in the system. Creating this facility will help to expand the understanding of credit and facilitate further innovation by staff directly involved in all aspects of the humanitarian process.

This structure enables a high degree of flexibility, in a way that a traditional fund structure does not:

• If a social investor will only fund emergencies in Africa, that isn’t a problem
• If a social investor does not wish to finance specific NGOs, that isn’t a problem, either.
• Similarly, if an NGO does not wish to accept finance deriving from a particular investor, that too is possible.

Looking to the future, as other types of credit facility become useful, they will slot easily into this structure.

We would like you to pledge money to one or both facilities.

• Undrawn money is held by the investor.
• Investors maintain the absolute right to cease lending at any time.
• Each drawdown will be for a maximum of nine months.

The Start Network has engaged a range of advisors to ensure the success of this project.

• 大成 Dentons for regulatory advice.
• Debevoise & Plimpton for legal drafting.
• i for change for corporate finance.

Any questions? Please contact Russ Bubley
russ@i-for-change.co.uk