Refugee-led organisations (RLOs) are focal points of grassroots change – and in crises are often their communities’ first and last line of defense. More broadly, supporting RLOs is a strategy that aligns with a global power shift, the humanitarian and development sector’s decolonisation and localisation efforts, and changing the narrative of refugees from one of dependency and helplessness to one of capability and power. Because your money is going directly to the frontline responders they are able to use your money more efficiently, effectively and their interventions tend to be much more sustainable.
By supporting an RLO directly your money gets to the frontline of a crisis quickly and means that less is absorbed along the way by the overheads and costs of an international organisation. This means nearly all of your money is used to support refugee communities.
Cohere is an organisation headquartered in Kenya and primarily registered in the UK. We have been working with refugee communities since 2008. We spearheaded the initial development of Reframe and are the legal owners of the web platform itself. For more information, click here
Reframe is a web app that enables RLOs to showcase their work in a way that builds trust and confidence among international donors and other potential partners, and facilitates the giving of donations to these RLOs directly through the site. A lot of actors in the global North are keen to support RLOs all over the world, but they have no way of discovering RLOs to partner with, no way of building trust in RLOs’ work, and no way of funding them directly. Reframe aims to change that.
Support Partners are established organisations in specific regions with wide RLO networks, and are often RLOs themselves. Cohere aims to distribute power in the Reframe network, so Support Partners play a key role in transferring funds to RLOs in their regions, or verifying new RLOs signups. All Support Partners have a legal partnership with Cohere. These Support Partners may also take a small percentage of any donations they process, to make their services to Reframe sustainable.
Pooled Funds are groupings of RLOs working towards a common goal. They can be thematic, location-based, or in response to crises. Examples include our Sudan Emergency Pooled Fund, or our Education Pooled Fund. Pooled Funds usually have at least 3 RLOs. This enables rapid disbursement of funds to ready-made networks of RLOs geared towards a common goal. RLOs within each Pooled Fund then report on their progress towards the fund’s common goal: this progress will be displayed on the Pooled Fund page. Explore our active Pooled Funds here
Any RLO can join Reframe, as long as they can provide evidence that their organization has active membership and is undertaking activities for the benefit of their community. From there, RLOs are selected for funding eligibility or for Pooled Funds membership after passing a due diligence process led by our Support Partners, or in some cases by Cohere itself. Most of our Support Partners are RLOs themselves.
Find the page of an RLO, or a Pooled Fund, and click the
Cohere is currently ensuring 100% of all donations are going to RLOs by fundraising separately for our costs (e.g. bank fees, transfer fees, admin costs, web hosting etc). This may change in the future.
There is no donation limit – although if you wish to give a significant amount (£5000+) we urge you to contact Cohere to create a bespoke arrangement.
Yes! Reframe is for RLOs everywhere. RLOs can sign up to Reframe here.
Right now, Donate buttons are only available to RLOs who have agreements / memoranda of understanding with Cohere or other Support Partners. However, organisations in the Reframe network will often open new Pooled Funds to which any RLO can apply to join. Anyone can suggest a Pooled Fund (see below).
Right now, Cohere are still in charge of Pooled Fund creation. We’d love to hear from you if you have an idea for a new Pooled Fund – especially if you are a group or network of RLOs and particularly if you are responding to a specific emergency or crisis. Please contact info.reframe@wearecohere.org
No. Joining Reframe is completely free.