How a request is handled

What intake captures

The form asks for your Society and a description of the problem in your own words. Then enough context to triage it: timing, who inside the Society will lead the work, whether a partner is already funding related activity, and whether IFRC or ICRC are engaged.

It does not ask you to choose a service. The structured helpers on the form are optional and exist to speed triage, not to gate it. A request with only a description is a complete request.

Intake is read by the triage team at the Centre and by the specialist covering your region. Nobody outside the Centre sees it unless you consent to it being shared with the relevant IFRC regional office.

Triage criteria

Every request is assessed against the same criteria: eligibility, vulnerability and NSIF status, demand, strategic relevance, risk, and the Centre's capacity in the period. Vulnerability here means the risk carried by the people the Society serves if its finances fail, judged on the country context and the Society's own exposure, not on the size of its budget. NSIF is the IFRC National Society Investment Fund; its priority countries are listed on who can request.

How priority is set

Prioritised Societies, being the 17 NSIF countries and lower-income countries, are served first. Then come requests where the risk of not acting is highest and where the Society has the internal capacity to sustain the change. A request that cannot be scheduled this cycle is held rather than closed, and you are told which cycle it is held for.

Coordination

Before delivery is scheduled the Centre checks with IFRC regional structures, ICRC and in-country Movement partners. Where another actor is already engaged on the same problem, the Centre coordinates rather than duplicates, which sometimes means the Centre does not take the work.

Before any delivery begins

Two things come first. A pre-engagement assessment covering security, fiduciary, operational and reputational risk, and validation that the Society's leadership is committed to the work. Then an engagement letter setting out scope, timeline, finances, governance and reporting, signed by all parties.

No adviser travels before that letter is signed.