Risk-sharing plan · about 30 minutes
Plan a fair risk-sharing conversation with your donor
Local organisations often carry most of the risk in a project with the least support to manage it. For each kind of risk, note what could go wrong, who carries it today, and what support would share it. You leave with a plan to discuss with your donor or intermediary. It runs entirely in your browser: nothing you type is uploaded, there is no account, and your answers are saved only on your device.
What you look at
The eight risk categories
- Safety. Accidents, illness or harm to staff and volunteers. Example: Staff travelling on dangerous roads to distribution sites.
- Security. Deliberate harm: violence, theft, threats, detention. Example: Theft of cash or goods during distribution.
- Operational. Things that stop the work being delivered: access, supply, staffing, weather. Example: Flooding cuts access to project areas for weeks.
- Ethical. Harm to the people you serve, including sexual exploitation and abuse. Example: A volunteer abuses their position with aid recipients.
- Reputational. Loss of trust from communities, authorities or funders. Example: Rumours that aid is distributed unfairly.
- Legal and compliance. Breaking laws, sanctions or grant conditions. Example: A supplier later found on a sanctions list.
- Fiduciary. Loss or misuse of funds: fraud, error, diversion, currency loss. Example: A staff member falsifies receipts.
- Information and data. Personal or sensitive information lost, leaked or misused. Example: A phone with beneficiary lists is stolen.
Categories from the Risk Sharing Framework (Risk Sharing Platform, 2023). Aidfolio is independent and not affiliated with the Risk Sharing Platform.
How it works
For each risk, you record
What could go wrong
The main risk, in your own words, with an example to start from.
How likely and how serious
Likelihood and impact from 1 to 3, giving a high, medium or low rating.
Who carries it, and what would help
Mostly you, mostly the donor or intermediary, shared, or no one yet, and the support you want to ask for.
Measures
Support you can ask for
- The donor or intermediary funds the cost of controls, such as training, systems and audits
- Overheads shared with us, at least 50:50
- Insurance and health cover accepted as budget lines
- Agree in advance how incidents will be handled, without automatic penalties
- Clear, proportionate procedures if something goes wrong
- A contingency or risk pool for losses outside our control
- Safer ways to transfer or hold funds
- Flexibility to move budget when conditions change
- One common reporting format
- The donor or intermediary shares legal or policy expertise, such as data protection
- A joint risk assessment before the project starts
- Emergency exceptions agreed in advance
Common questions
What is risk sharing?
Risk sharing means the donor, the intermediary and the local partner agree who carries each risk in a project and how the cost of managing it is shared, instead of passing risk down the chain to the organisation closest to the people being served.
What is the Risk Sharing Framework?
A framework published in 2023 by the Risk Sharing Platform, which is co-led by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ICRC and InterAction. It sets out eight risk categories and a step-by-step process partners can use to agree how to share risk. Aidfolio’s plan uses its eight categories.
How are risks rated?
For each risk you choose a likelihood and an impact from 1 to 3. Multiplied together, a score of 6 or more is high, 3 to 4 is medium, and 2 or less is low. The plan lists your highest risks first.
What do I get at the end?
A plan to discuss with your donor or intermediary: each risk in your own words, its rating, who carries it today, and the support you are asking for to share it. You can print it, save it as a PDF or copy it into an email.
Does it use our readiness check answers?
Yes, if you have done the readiness check on the same device: priority gaps linked to a risk are shown next to it, because support to close them is a fair ask.
Is it private?
It runs entirely in your browser: nothing you type is uploaded, there is no account, and your answers are saved only on your device.