Standard 10: Laying the foundations for effective donor engagement and accountability.

• Primary responsible: Project manager/chief of party (PM/CoP)
  • The PM/CoP leads the process of developing a project-specific plan to engage with the project donor beyond required reports and other deliverables.

• Others involved: CRS and partner project team; country representative (CR) and senior management team (SMT); country program and/or regional business development (BD) staff; IDEA staff; country program communications staff; and Marketing and Communications (MarComm) where applicable.
  • The project team works with the PM/CoP to develop the initial plan;
  • The CR, SMT, BD, and IDEA staff provide guidance on how any agency-level institutional engagement plan should inform the project-specific plan and integrate the project-specific plan into higher levels of donor engagement planning;
  • Communications staff (if part of country program staff) provide ideas and review the plan;
  • MarComm staff (e.g. Regional Information Officers) provide advice on external communications strategies and branding considerations, as feasible and applicable.

Donor engagement plans are for discretionary-funded projects, too: Staff working on discretionary-funded projects may also develop plans to leverage CRS’ investments in the project by engaging institutional donors around key issues of mutual interest, and effective approaches to address these issues.

• For development projects: In the first quarter (with ongoing updates)
• For emergency projects: Within the first month

Start thinking about donor engagement activities when developing the project early start-up plan. Integrate finalization of the formal project donor engagement plan into the start-up workshop and/or the detailed implementation plan (DIP) development workshop.

This key action builds on any initial discussion about the donor and donor interests during the handover between proposal and project start-up team members as well as project team orientation to donor requirements.

Follow these steps to create a strong project donor engagement plan:

1. The PM/CoP convenes the project team as well as the SMT and CP business development and communications staff (if these positions exist) to create a project-specific donor engagement plan, using the five steps outlined in the Creating a Project Donor Engagement Plan guidance:

• Gather information about the current donorCheck the donor’s Institution Record in Gateway for existing information and resources and information on any IDEA point person , particularly around their strategy and specific project priorities and requirements.
• Analyze your audiences (both current and prospective donors) and engagement objectives.
• Consider your engagement key messages.
• Consider your engagement options.
• Create a donor engagement plan.

Project donor engagement plan “bare minimum”: Sometimes a project is small and/or narrowly focused on an issue that may not be of wider interest. Sometimes CRS already has a strong, existing relationship with a donor. In these cases, it may not be necessary to develop a full donor engagement plan for the project. At a minimum, however, the PM/CoP, CR, and relevant BD staff should have a strategic conversation at the start of the project to discuss how to leverage the project’s implementation process, outputs and results to create more opportunities to talk with both the current donor and prospective donors (as feasible given the project focus).

2. The PM/CoP shares the draft donor engagement plan with relevant CP staff, partners and regional and IDEA staff, and incorporates feedback.

• Depending on when the plan is drafted, review it during the project start-up workshop.
• Be sure to share the donor engagement plan with key program staff who join the project later, as part of their onboarding to the project and their role.

Different levels of donor engagement: The project-specific donor engagement plan should roll up into country, region and HQ level plans for the donor, if relevant. As such, country program senior management, business development and donor engagement staff, not only the PM/CoP, are involved in developing and implementing the plan. Coordinate project messaging at these different levels. Donor engagement plans are particularly important for multi-country projects where coordinating communication can be more challenging and essential for effective donor relationship management.

3. The PM/CoP inputs donor engagement plan actions into the detailed implementation plan (DIP).

• If the DIP is to be shared with the donor or other stakeholders outside the project team, be sure the version of the DIP prepared for external distribution incorporates the appropriate level of detail regarding donor engagement activities (e.g., high-level actions).
• Upload the plan to the Gateway award record.

4. The PM/CoP ensures that the project team reviews project donor engagement actions incorporated in the DIP as part of regular project review and planning (see Standard 11, key action 3). The PM/CoP also ensures an annual review of the wider donor engagement plan.

Know your donor… As you develop, implement and update your donor engagement plan, reflect on the relationship with the donor and what you know of their interests and preferences for communication. A strong donor relationship can strengthen mutual learning from the project, aid project management and create opportunities for future collaboration around shared interests and concerns.