Partnering with Hempel Foundation
Guidance for new and existing partners
Working in partnership
The Hempel Foundation strives to make a difference by empowering children to learn, and sustaining biodiversity.
We do so within the ambitions and principles of the Sustainable Development Goals and in partnership with leading development organisations and technical experts.
We aspire to be a capable and leading development partner that explores innovative partnerships and alliances. It is our ambition to be a preferred foundation partner for collaboration within our thematic focus areas of education and biodiversity.
All our partnerships are guided by our Education Strategy or Biodiversity Strategy.
How to partner with the Hempel Foundation
The Hempel Foundation identifies new partners based on sector analyses in target geographies defined by our Education and Biodiversity Strategies.
We do not accept unsolicited proposals. The organisations we work with range from global INGOs to large or medium size NGOs based in our priority regions and countries. We work with organisations that have high ethical standards and have the potential and capacity for delivering at a larger scale.
Partnering process
We work in partnerships based on mutual trust, flexibility and a common commitment towards delivering high quality projects.
We proactively identify partners and engage ourselves in project design as well as monitoring of implementation and evaluation to ensure high quality in all parts of the project cycle.
The Hempel Foundation Board is the decision-making body responsible for approval of new partnership projects. The Hempel Foundation secretariat ensures partnership projects’ alignment with the Foundation’s strategic frameworks and adequate technical expertise and operational capacity of partners.
Approval of new partnership projects is based on submission of a concept note, which meets the Foundation’s criteria.
Due diligence and partner screening
In parallel with the preparation of the concept note, we carry out a comprehensive due diligence and screening to make sure partner organisations meet the Hempel Foundation standards.
Depending on the type of partner, the due diligence procedure will include:
- Review of registration documents and annual reports.
- Review of accounts to screen for financial or operational misconduct.
- Review of references to existing partners submitted by prospect partner; and Vetting against the UN Sanctions List.
- And in some cases a full partner review by international recognized consultant with in-country presence.
Partnership Agreement
The contractual foundation of the partnership project is the Partnership Agreement.
The Partnership Agreement defines the purpose and background of the partnership and sets out conditions including approval of the donation, criteria for payment of the donation, and general obligations of the Partner and the Hempel Foundation. Contractual obligations related to the Situation Analysis, the Start-up Workshop and the Project Description is found here, as well as criteria for project governance including the establishment of a Project Steering Committee.
The Partnership Agreement outlines criteria for financial management of the donation and includes the annex “Hempel Foundation Budgeting and Eligibility of Cost Standard”. It includes key requirements for budgeting including the Hempel Foundation maximum indirect cost rate of 15%.
It also sets principles for partnership communication and outlines the criteria for the Communications Plan.
Per December 2021, the Partnership Agreement includes two mandatory annexes
- The Hempel Foundation Safeguarding Standard
- The Hempel Foundation Budgeting and Eligibility of Cost Standard