Innovative Financing

Overview

Traditionally, INGOs like Near East Foundation rely solely on grants from individual donors, foundations and governments to fund projects in the communities we serve. By finding new and innovative ways to finance our work, we can expand our programs and help even more people.  

NEF establishes partnerships with non-profit organizations, private sector stakeholders, and other actors to create untraditional approaches to finance and diversify funding.  

For example, NEF's Refugee Impact Bond (DIB), which provides financial and non-financial support for refugees' economic resilience in several communities across Jordan, is pre-financed by social impact investors who will receive a return on their investment when the project succeeds in reaching or exceeding its intended outcomes. NEF has collaborated with private sector and public sector stakeholders to develop the robust legal and financial frameworks and tools needed to manage this type of program, evaluate its impact, and ensure collective responsibility for its success. 

In addition, in recent years, NEF has worked closely with several institutional partners, peer organizations, specialist firms, and financial institutions to design, test and implement financial tools that are designed to accelerate sustainable and inclusive growth, support small and medium sized enterprises, and improve access to finance for the most marginalized entrepreneurs. 

NEF and its partners deliver direct client-facing support to develop impact strategy and the design of impact measurement and management processes and tools to enable effective data gathering and analysis that support the ability of an instrument to prove its intended impact. NEF and its partners then tap into our robust network of private and institutional funding partners who have been active supporters of several of our programs and other client projects.