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The pleasures and perils of donor consortia
01.12.1996
With the growth of large, successful NGOs, specializing in financial services to microenterprise, funding requirements for programmes have often exceeded the capacity of single donors.Donor consortia have been formed to make it easier for NGOs to deal with several donors at once. They agree common procedures for reporting, monitoring and auditing the NGO's plan of work, and they pool the resources necessary for carrying out this plan in its entirety. In theory this means that the funding for a number of years is assured, and the administrative demands upon the NGO are reduced. This article suggests that this may not always be the case: donors can be late in disbursing funds, and monitoring and reports may become more and more elaborate and onerous for the NGO. This is especially true if the NGO does not feel on equal terms with the donor consortium and is reluctant to stand up to the donors' demands.