Draft 0.1, 29 September 2026. Visible to administrators only, for review before publication.

Module 6: Financing recovery, Global Grants, partners, and how RAGCED works with DNA-RAG

Reading time about 30 minutes, workshop 60 to 90 minutes. For club and district Rotarians, district Rotary Foundation committees, and the local leaders who will carry a recovery project.

What you will be able to do

• Tell which Rotary Foundation mechanism fits which phase after a disaster, and why emergency money is not recovery money.
• Walk a recovery project through a Global Grant, from the first idea to the final report.
• Explain what the host club, the international club, the district and the partners each bring.
• Build the community needs assessment and the sustainability plan that a Global Grant requires.
• Know when to call DNA-RAG, when to call RAGCED, and how the two hand over to each other.

Why it matters

The Rotary Foundation has entrusted RAGCED with two mandates: train communities before a disaster, and relaunch the economy of affected regions after it. The second mandate costs money, over years, and the money a club can raise on its own rarely covers it. Recovery projects that last are funded through the Foundation, co-funded by clubs and districts, and backed by partners outside Rotary. A club that knows these channels before the disaster can move from relief to recovery without losing a year. RAGCED does not work on immediate relief: other organizations do. For the first days and weeks, see the Disaster Field Guide (https://disasterfieldguide.org/). This module starts where relief ends.

Government, private sector and community groups at a long-term recovery committees conference (Ponce, Puerto Rico, 2 February 2009). Photo: FEMA / Ashley Andujar, public domain

1. The right money for the right phase

The Rotary Foundation offers several mechanisms, and they are not interchangeable. Each one has its own purpose, its own applicant and its own rules. The golden rule: emergency funds pay for the emergency, the Global Grant pays for recovery.

Mechanism	Phase	Who applies
District disaster fund	Emergency	District
Disaster Response Grant	Emergency only	District
Rotary Disaster Response Fund	Major disasters	Decided by the Foundation
District Grant	Small, short activities	District
Global Grant	Long-term recovery	Host and international partners

A few points to keep in mind:

• Disaster Response Grants fund immediate needs: water, food, temporary shelter, hygiene, transport. They do not fund permanent reconstruction or the relaunch of a local economy. Using the wrong form, an emergency grant for a long project or the reverse, is a common reason for delay.
• The Rotary Disaster Response Fund is activated by the Foundation for large disasters. A club does not apply for it; it benefits if the Foundation decides so.
• District Grants "fund small-scale, short-term activities", in the words of a Rotary brochure. They can pay for a first step: a needs assessment, a small pilot, a training session.
• Global Grants "support large international activities within Rotary's areas of focus with sustainable, measurable outcomes". Community economic development is one of those areas of focus. This is the main tool for a recovery project.
• District Designated Funds (DDF), the share of the Rotary Foundation giving that comes back to the district, can co-fund a Global Grant and attract a match from the Foundation's World Fund.

Every amount, ceiling, matching ratio, deadline and administrative limit changes over time. Check the current Terms and Conditions of The Rotary Foundation on my.rotary.org, and ask your district Rotary Foundation committee chair (DRFC) before you build a budget. Do not rely on figures from a book, a slide deck or a colleague's memory, including this module.

2. A recovery Global Grant, from idea to closure

The Global Grant takes time. It usually spans several successive club presidencies. That is why preparation should start while emergency funds are still being spent, not after.

Step 1. Recognize the switch. The emergency is over when rescues have ended, vital needs are covered, access is restored and civilian authorities are back in control. Recovery needs are different from emergency needs: not tarps and water, but income, markets, tools, skills.

Step 2. Assess the needs with the community. Global Grants must include a community needs assessment. It is not a formality. Talk to the people who will benefit, map what other organizations already do, and collect baseline data before anything starts: incomes, businesses open, jobs, access to credit. Assessments made during the emergency can feed this work, but they do not replace it.

Step 3. Design the project. Define one clear problem, the activities that solve it, and how you will measure progress. From what a Foundation staff member in charge of economic development grants has told Rotary clubs, three questions come first: has the club spoken with the community and selected the beneficiaries, does the project include training, and is there a system to measure progress? Money comes after.

Step 4. Find the partners and sign the commitments. An international partner club, local partners (a microfinance institution, an NGO, a cooperative, the local authority), and written agreements that say who does what.

Step 5. Apply with the district. The application goes through the Grant Center on my.rotary.org, with the district. Both districts must be qualified by the Foundation. Stewardship reports on past grants must be up to date: one late report can block a whole district.

Step 6. Review and approval. The Foundation asks questions. Answer them fully and quickly.

Step 7. Implement and document. The host club supervises in the field. Every expense has a receipt. Indicators are measured as planned.

Step 8. Report and close. Progress reports and a final report go to the Foundation. Check their timing in the current Terms and Conditions. Then the project is closed, and the club keeps following it (see Module 7).

3. Who does what: host club, international club, district

A Global Grant needs a host club and an international club. Both matter, and the Foundation checks that the international partner is a real partner, not a signature.

The host club, where the project takes place:

• identifies the needs and leads the community needs assessment;
• writes the field part of the application: the area, the people, the local economy;
• finds and qualifies local partners;
• supervises implementation on site, checks that beneficiaries receive what was planned;
• keeps the records and prepares field reports.

The international club, in another country:

• contributes to funding and to implementation;
• brings expertise its members have;
• co-signs the application and shares responsibility for stewardship;
• visits, asks questions, and helps keep the project on track over several years.

The district holds the qualification, signs the application through the DRFC and the district governor, can allocate DDF, and receives and disburses the funds.

A recovery project also needs continuity. Club presidents change every year. Name one project lead who stays for the whole life of the grant.

4. The two requirements that decide everything

The needs assessment

The needs assessment is where most weak applications fail. It answers: who was affected, how their livelihoods worked before the disaster, what was lost, what people want to rebuild, and who else is already helping. It is done with the community, not about it. A project designed without talking to the people concerned can be blocked by them, and the Foundation will ask whether you have spoken to them.

Sustainability

The Global Grant application asks how the project will continue after the grant ends. Rotary defines sustainability as "the ability to operate a project or program on its own without support from Rotary". Answer four questions in the design, not at the end:

1. Who keeps operating the activity: a cooperative, a microfinance institution, a training center, the municipality?
2. Who pays the running costs once the grant is spent?
3. Who maintains and replaces equipment? Equipment bought locally can be repaired locally.
4. Who keeps measuring results and adjusting?

A pattern that works well after a disaster: training plus local financing plus a lasting local operator. Module 7 goes deeper.

5. Partners outside Rotary

Rotary calls them cooperating organizations: "any reputable organization or academic institution that provides expertise, infrastructure, advocacy, training, education, or other support for a humanitarian initiative". Choose them by function, not by name.

• United Nations agencies. In large disasters, humanitarian coordination is organized in clusters led by UN agencies, including one for early recovery. Your club will rarely sign with them, but attending the relevant coordination meetings avoids duplication and shows where your project fits. Some agencies, such as FAO for agriculture, run field programs that local partners can join.
• Development banks. They fund governments and large programs. For a club they are mainly sources of data and frameworks, not direct partners.
• Microfinance institutions (MFIs). If grant funds are used as loan capital, Rotary strongly encourages contracting with a microfinance institution as the permanent lending infrastructure, rather than having Rotarians lend directly. Vet the institution before signing: governance, accounts, real interest rates, who regulates it. Start with lenders already working in the community.
• NGOs and cooperatives. They often run the activities day to day. Ask for their track record, their accounts, and whether they are really willing to work with you.

Put every partnership in writing: purpose, commitments of each side, budget, reporting, duration. Ask the partner to track the grant separately in its own accounts: it makes your stewardship reports possible.

6. RAGCED and DNA-RAG: passing the baton

Rotary Action Groups are independent, Rotary-affiliated groups of members with expertise in one field. They advise, connect and train. They do not command clubs, do not submit grants on your behalf, and do not replace the local club.

• DNA-RAG, the Rotary Action Group for disaster assistance, is the first contact when a disaster exceeds a club and its district. It coordinates the Rotary response, prevents duplication, connects clubs with partner districts for grants, and supports long-term recovery projects.
• RAGCED, the Rotary Action Group for Community Economic Development, brings the economic expertise: livelihoods, microfinance, vocational training, cooperatives, local markets. Rotary International describes it as connecting clubs and districts with microfinance institutions to help people start income-generating activities.

The handover proposed in this programme follows the phases:

Phase	Lead	Main tool
Emergency	DNA-RAG	Emergency funds
Transition	Both groups	Needs assessment
Economic recovery	RAGCED	Global Grant
Normal times	RAGCED	Development projects

The overlap is deliberate. During the transition, DNA-RAG knows the ground, the districts and the partners already in place; RAGCED helps turn recovery needs into an economic project. What carries the project from one phase to the next is not either group: it is the local club, which was there before and will still be there after. Contact both groups early, and tell each what the other is doing.

Go further

• Guillaume Bourgogne, Rotary Club Guide, Autonomous Disaster Response: The Operational Framework: Chapter 19, The Rotary Foundation: 7 funding mechanisms; Chapter 20, The RAGs: global expertise at your fingertips; Chapter 21, Partners outside Rotary; Chapter 23, From response to recovery.
• Guillaume Bourgogne, Community Economic Development guide for Rotary clubs (forthcoming): The Rotary Foundation and CED Global Grants; RAGCED as an expertise partner; Other Rotary Action Groups; Partners outside Rotary; Coordinating in the field.
• The Rotary Foundation, Terms and Conditions for District Grants and Global Grants, and the Grant Center, on my.rotary.org.
• Rotary International, Economic and Community Development Project Strategies.
• Disaster Field Guide: https://disasterfieldguide.org/
• DNA-RAG: dna-rag.com. RAGCED: ragced.org.

After running this module in your club, please send your feedback (a pre-filled email), or fill in the feedback sheet in the workshop sheets and send a photo of it. It helps RAGCED improve the programme.

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