MediaDev Fundraising Guide
FUNDRAISING HELP DESK: Sign up for fundraising support and mentoring
  • MediaDev Fundraising Guide
  • Feedback & collaboration
  • NEW: Resources related to US funding suspension
  • THE GUIDE
    • 1. Preparation & planning
    • 2. Competitive advantages
    • 3. Donor engagement
    • 4. Identifying opportunities
    • 5. Types of application
    • 6. Application process
    • 7. Building partnerships
    • 8. Writing a proposal
    • 9. Common templates
      • Guide to completing logframes
      • European Commission
      • ++ EC Concept note
      • ++ EC - Full application
      • ++ EC Logical framework
      • FCDO (UK)
      • ++ FCDO Project Proposal Form
      • US Department of State
      • ++ Form of Application Submission
    • 10. Project staffing
    • 11. Budgeting
  • Annex
    • + Fundraising lexicon
      • Call for proposals & terms of reference
      • Applications & offers
      • Application forms
      • Contracts & agreements
      • Stakeholders
      • Budgets
    • + MediaDev funding experts
    • + MediaDev funding webinars
  • MediaDev funding
    • + MediaDev Funders
      • Government agencies
      • Foundations
      • UN agencies
      • Other international bodies
      • Other funders
      • Crowdsourcing platforms
    • + Funding opportunities
  • Crisis & emergencies
    • + Crisis/emergency funding
    • + Crisis/emergency resources
      • Logistical support
      • Physical Safety
      • Digital Support
      • Fact-checking
      • Mental health resources
      • Monitoring Crimes Against Journalists
      • Legal Support
      • Directory
    • Resources for Lebanon
    • Resources for Ukraine
      • + Fundraising and Crowdfunding for Media and Journalists in Ukraine
      • Displaced Journalists
    • Resources for Palestinian media
      • + Fundraising and Crowdfunding for Media and Journalists in Palestine
      • Displaced Journalists
    • Media in Exile
  • Other tools & resources
    • How-to guides on fundraising
      • AI in Fundraising
    • For journalism nonprofits
    • For nonprofits
    • Articles and videos
  • The GFMD Fundraising Guide in other languages
    • Guide sur la collecte de fonds pour le développement des médias
    • Guía de recaudación de fondos de MediaDev
    • Посібник з фандрейзингу MediaDev
    • Руководство по фандрейзингу MediaDev
    • دليل التمويل MediaDev
    • Ghidul de fundraising GFMD MediaDev
  • Other GFMD Resource Spaces
    • GFMD IMPACT
    • GFMD homepage
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Steering Committee
  • Contracting Authority
  • Consortium
  • Lead applicant/partner
  • Junior partner
  • Sub-grantee
  • Co-applicant
  • Co-beneficiaries
  • Associates
  • Affiliated entity
  • Sole applicant
  • Key Experts
  • Non-Key Experts

Was this helpful?

Export as PDF
  1. Annex
  2. + Fundraising lexicon

Stakeholders

This is a subsection of the fundraising lexicon developed as part of the GFMD MediaDev fundraising guide.

PreviousContracts & agreementsNextBudgets

Last updated 2 years ago

Was this helpful?

For the full (A-Z) go to

Steering Committee

Some donors – particularly the EU – ask for a Steering Committee to be established at the start of the project. The Committee’s role is to provide oversight as well as strategic advice to implementing organisations. Often it will include representatives from key in addition to the and partners.

Contracting Authority

The donor is often referred to as the Contracting Authority which is responsible for disbursing the funding and ensuring proper accountability over the project lifecycle.

Projects that are funded by multiple donors are still likely to have one main funder who requires adherence to a specific set of rules aimed at ensuring proper stewardship and accountability.

Consortium

A consortium consists of a and a number of , although the contract is usually signed between the lead partner and the only.

Donors encourage applications from consortia formed for the purposes of the contract.

In some cases, the other partners may be “jointly and severally liable” which means that responsibility for delivery is borne equally by the consortium members.

The value of a consortium-based approach is that it brings together organisations with complementary skills and experience, thereby ensuring that the key workstreams benefit from each member’s expertise and credibility in the given subject area.

Lead applicant/partner

Where more than one organisation is involved in a grant application, the bidding process requires that one member of the consortium is nominated as the “lead”.

Generally, it is the lead partner which coordinates the preparation of the proposal, drives the project design and, in the event of a successful bid, signs the contract with the donor.

Junior partner

Sub-grantee

Co-applicant

Co-beneficiaries

Associates

In principle, the advantage of including associates in a bid is that they demonstrate the applicants have strong links to local actors who have the potential to strengthen the credibility or broaden the outreach of an action.

However, the fact that such organisations are unable to receive project funding generally means that this status is of interest only to state-funded institutions or organisations benefiting from other grant programmes in the same thematic area.

The EU definition of associates is woolly. Associates are organisations or individuals who “play a real role in the action but may not receive funding from the grant, with the exception of per diem or travel costs”.

Affiliated entity

EU guidelines go into some detail about affiliated entities.

They may be entities controlled by the applicant (daughter companies); entities controlling the applicant (parent companies); entities under the same control as the applicant (sister companies); or members of the applicant’s network, federation or association (if the applicant has this status).

Sole applicant

Structural links can be established for the sole purpose of the implementation of the project.

The example usually given in guidelines for applicants is “an association formed by its members”.

Key Experts

Key personnel named in a bid are usually referred to as “Key Experts”.

As a rule, they have management roles as well as providing technical assistance for specific components of a project.

For EU bids, Key Experts need to be exclusive to the applicant; this is not always the case with other donors.

Non-Key Experts

The lead will, therefore, manage the contract, reporting on delivery against and making formal for contract amendments when/if necessary.

US donors often refer to organisations other than the as “sub-grantees” and US budget templates provide room for presenting distinct budget allocations for these organisations (with a separate or ).

In EU parlance, sub-grantees are third parties that receive financial support through designated sub-granting programmes (see “”).

EU grant programmes refer to organisations that are not the as co-applicants. They need to satisfy the governing the , although additional criteria may be added.

For the application process, this usually means that they need to mandate the to act on their behalf.

For the purposes of implementation, co-applicants generally sign a legally binding agreement with the lead partner that stipulates their role and budgetary allocation whilst also reflecting the contractual obligations between the lead partner and the .

In general, they do not have to meet the same as applicants or .

These are organisations that have a “structural link” with the or a although it is stipulated that this link should not be limited to the action or established for the purposes of the action.

Affiliated entities are permitted to declare associated with the implementation of the action.

A sole applicant or a sole beneficiary is a legal entity formed by several entities (a group of entities) which collectively comply with the .

The entities which make up a sole applicant are generally treated as for the purposes of the project and design.

Key Expert CVs are presented as part of a bid and are scored against prescribed criteria. In some cases, they can account for a significant percentage of the available points and it is, therefore, important for bidders to ensure that they meet the requirements of the as exactly as possible.

In addition to the , bidders are generally asked to demonstrate that they can deploy a range of other skills and expertise in the form of Non-Key Experts – individuals who work on the project on an ad hoc basis, for short periods of time.

While the overall number of working days for these experts may well be defined in the , there is no requirement for their CVs to be presented as a part of the bid.

However, it is common for applicants to provide short biographies of Non-Key Experts in the , thereby giving evaluators an insight into the range of consultants who can be called upon and the breadth of their experience.

lead partner
Contracting Authority
lead applicant
co-applicant
budget
affiliated entities
Key Experts
fundraising lexicon
+ Fundraising lexicon
Contracting Authority
consortium
lead partner
Contracting Authority
applications
lead partner
lead partner
lead applicants
co-applicants
margin
management overhead
Support to third parties
eligible costs
Terms of Reference
Terms of Reference
KPIs
eligibility criteria
eligibility criteria
eligibility criteria
beneficiary groups
junior partners
Technical Offer