Application Criteria

Geographic focus
StartFund will no longer consider projects in countries world wide, but will instead focus on projects in India, Tanzania, Belgium and The Netherlands. Additionally, in the first two countries StartFund will only take on projects that are located within a 3-hour drive from the international airports of Delhi and Chennai (India) and Dar es Salaam and Arusha (Tanzania).

Project criteria
There will be stricter criteria applied to project topics then before. An integral approach, sustainability and empowerment are still the main prerequisites for our support. However, there will be additional conditions for how they manifest themselves in a project. More specifically, StartFund will only co-sponsor projects in which these qualifications are expressed through leverage of the local economy. Through the selected projects, StartFund aims to:

• increase sustainable production
• make production more effective
• improve service processes

This does not only leave the local participants with a bigger share, but also enables the continuous contribution towards a community’s educational facilities, healthcare services and their natural environment. More information on our method can be found under Our Approach.

Ways of partnering
StartFund will be more actively involved with the local partner’s project design and execution than before. There will be increased communication with those executing and participating in the project. By carefully monitoring the progress StartFund aspires to achieve a larger and longer-term impact than before. In this way StartFund will be able to apply the learned lessons to following projects. More importantly, collecting the lessons learned will enable StartFund to facilitate the application of these lessons in projects executed by other organizations or individuals. StartFund intents to stimulate an environment which is transparent in documenting and which communicates failures as well as successes. Learning from mistakes is an invaluable process, and showing a willingness to face disappointments implies integrity and a true commitment with heart and soul.

Timescale
StartFund will participate in fewer projects than before. There will be a structured involvement over a maximum time period of three years in any particular project. After this period StartFund completely withdraws its financial support and involvement on all other levels. By this time StartFund and the local partner aim to have cooperatively anchored a system with a functioning management that no longer requires StartFund’s involvement, but is empowered to carry out their activities with local support. If successful, StartFund might consider supporting a project elsewhere or encourage others to do so by publishing the learned lessons from the project on StartFund’s website.

Funding and application
It will no longer be possible to apply for funding directly. Instead, organizations and individuals will be invited by StartFund to partner. However, there will be a set of strict guidelines for possible partners. By answering a series of questions, StartFund scores whether the applicant is going to be considered an invitee for future projects. These questions will be published on our website early 2012.

Financially, StartFund still only grants a percentage of the local partner’s total –three year- budget. The invitee has to find other co-funders for the other part of the budget. We strongly encourage the invitee to raise funds from prosperous fellow countrymen and local companies or foundations, to stimulate involvement, commitment, awareness and compassion from within.