Capacity Building Fund

The IFRC's Capacity Building Fund (CBF) provides small, time-bound grants to Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, enabling them to increase the scale and quality of their services and programme delivery within their communities.

About the fund

The IFRC's Capacity Building Fund (CBF) was initially set up in 2000 to support National Societies with their ongoing development. In 2021, we changed the fund to increase our support to National Societies' emerging development needs, in line with the seven transformations in our Strategy 2030.

The new CBF is open to all National Societies, at any time, and is designed to support seven specific development priorities:

Integrity, transparency and accountability
Financial sustainability
Volunteering development
Systems development and digital transformation
Branch development
Youth engagement and development
Protection, gender and inclusion

The amount of an allocated grant per application is limited, but there is no cap on the number of applications a National Society can make. This allows for a results-based and phased approach to their development. And we have designed our systems in a way that can allow for quick processing of applications, decisions about grants and release of funds.

Watch: How National Societies are using CBF funding

How is the fund resourced and managed?

The CBF is made up of substantial allocations from the IFRC's unrestricted reserves as seed funding, which we hope to top up with additional donations from our partners as National Societies begin to demonstrate results.

The fund is overseen by the IFRC's Under Secretary General for National Society Development and Operations Coordination. We have also established a CBF office to support the fund's administration and a dedicated committee to review proposals.

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