How We Built a $2+ Million Bridge Fund When Washington Froze Aid
Our Foreign Aid Bridge Fund Impact Report is here – with a playbook for future emergencies
Dear Unlock Aid community,
When the U.S. government froze foreign aid earlier this year, thousands of frontline organizations around the world suddenly found themselves cut off from the resources they needed to deliver life-saving work. There was no roadmap. No fallback plan.
In response, and in collaboration with a number of outstanding partners, we launched the Foreign Aid Bridge Fund.
Today, as we publish our Foreign Aid Bridge Fund Impact Report, we want to pause and recognize what this community accomplished together.
Within one month of the U.S. foreign aid freeze, the Foreign Aid Bridge Fund made its first grant recommendations. Ultimately, 43 organizations across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean received unrestricted grants, averaging around $50,000, to keep urgent work going. In total, we raised just over $2 million dollars from 350+ donors. With no overhead costs and all partners waiving fees, 100% of raised funds went directly to recipients.
A Community Response to Crisis
At Unlock Aid, we often talk about "the doers,” the people and organizations on the front lines who don't wait for perfect conditions. Instead, they move. They adapt. They know that in crisis, action matters more than perfection. The Foreign Aid Bridge Fund was created in that spirit, with extraordinary partners like Panorama Global, Every.org, Smarter Good, and an Investment Committee that made it possible.
When we were preparing to launch, we were asked: "How much have you raised already?" The answer at the time was zero. But we knew someone had to try. So we launched anyway, trusting that if we moved, others would too.
Today we’re proud to release our Foreign Aid Bridge Fund Impact Report, which explains both how we rapidly stood up the Fund and showcases many of the outstanding organizations the Fund supported.
Click here to download the full report.
What We Learned Along the Way
Beyond the dollars raised, this Fund taught us important lessons about responding to crisis:
Speed over perfection. In moments of crisis, moving fast gives others permission to act. It cuts through “analysis paralysis,” though it also means making difficult choices and knowing that action leads to learning, even when you don't get everything right at first.
Diversify decision makers. We built an Investment Committee of diverse, community-connected experts who could bridge the gap between donors wanting to know their funds would be put to good use and frontline organizations needing flexible funding. Even with clear criteria, we recognized that "good judgment" is inherently biased, which is why we prioritized recruiting an Investment Committee from a variety of sectors, expertise, and lived experiences.
Fund the future, not just the crisis. Rather than trying to fill every gap, we invested in frontline organizations with sustainable business models – groups that would outlast the immediate emergency. When you put frontline organizations at the center, you're building resilience, not dependency.
A playbook for others. We've included guidance in the report on how to set up a similar fund in the event of future emergencies, from creating intake processes to disbursing money. It's a model that others can adapt.
Click here to download the full report
A Better Way Forward
The Foreign Aid Bridge Fund was always meant to be a bridge, not a permanent solution. But it showed what's possible when we put trust in the people doing the work, cut out bureaucracy, and act in alignment with our values.
To every donor, partner, and volunteer who took the leap with us: thank you. We hope this Fund serves not just as a success story, but as a starting point for giving in times of crisis and a signal of how we can do things differently, together, next time.
Read the full Foreign Aid Bridge Fund Impact Report to see what we built together.
To Progress,
Unlock Aid
P.S. If you’d like to get involved with Unlock Aid, including to learn more about our work to shape the future of U.S. international assistance, or to find out how we’re supporting social entrepreneurs as they adapt to work more directly with national and local governments in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, please get in touch! Contact us at hello [at] unlockaid.org, respond to this email, or subscribe to our newsletter.
Excellent achievements in a short space of time. I identify with lessons learnt; . As a development industry practitioner from the recipient hemisphere, I alaways advocated fast and streamlined fund/grants delivery processes, accompanied by effective and up-to-date analyses and plans to mitigate and prevent management and contextual risks. I believe that any analysis of the future of AID should consider these lessons. Well done!
This is extraordinary, and a great example of what more agile, community-centered funding can look like. Especially in a moment when so many frontline organizations are navigating uncertainty, this kind of leadership is both timely and deeply needed!
Huge kudos to the Unlock Aid team and partners for showing what’s possible when trust, speed, and solidarity come first. Thank you for putting this out into the world, and for sharing the playbook so others can follow.