THE CHANGE FUND

Overview

The Change Fund is an innovative finance solution that aims to localise aid responses and ensure that local organisations can access funds to respond to emergencies quickly, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.

The Change Fund grants are designed to provide quick allocation of funding to frontline local organisations in the Global South who are directly responding to worsening humanitarian conditions in their communities. This mechanism aims to promote local leadership, build resilience, and support sustainable solutions to humanitarian challenges in the communities where they occur.

For the Change Fund Brief, click here

The Change Fund Windows

  1. Emergency Response Window: is a flexible, rapid-response funding mechanism designed to provide immediate, direct support to NEAR member organisations responding to humanitarian crises. Grounded in the principles of local leadership and trust-based grantmaking, this window enables frontline organisations to respond swiftly to emerging disasters without the delays often associated with traditional humanitarian funding mechanisms.

  2. Displacement Window: is a funding mechanism designed to support refugee-led and locally led organisations in addressing the unique challenges of displacement. As displacement crises continue to grow in scale and complexity—driven by protracted conflicts, climate change, and political instability—millions remain uprooted, often without access to adequate resources, decision-making power, or sustainable solutions. Traditional aid responses have struggled to meet these evolving needs, frequently bypassing local actors who possess deep contextual knowledge and are best positioned to provide effective and adaptive responses.

  3. Bridge Funding Window: NEAR has launched the Bridge Funding Window within the Change Fund to respond to the freeze of all U.S. Foreign Aid Funding. Specifically focused on support for impacted NEAR members who are small to medium sized organisations whose teams are operating in some of the most difficult places around the world.  

Watch this video from Save Somali Women and Children, one of the Change Fund’s first round grantees.

To hear more from Change Fund grantees, go to our video gallery here

Follow our journey.