How can an organization apply for a grant from the Medical Aid Committee?
The Medical Aid Committee does not accept unsolicited grant inquiries or applications.
Does the Medical Aid Committee respond only during humanitarian emergencies?
No. The Medical Aid Committee has two mandates:
By bridging the gap between crisis and development, our programs aim to ensure that recovery after a humanitarian emergency is sustainable. This means that we may respond to an emergency but our commitment to a community continues after the media spotlight has moved on and the emergency itself wanes.
Learn about the post-crisis gap >
How does the Medical Aid Committee choose which grantees it works with and which types of health programs to fund in each country?
We look at several criteria before funding a program:
We expect our grantees to conduct systematic needs assessments and listening sessions in the country to determine the actual needs as identified by local communities, authorities and health experts. All projects must adhere to our mandate and core interests: primary health, environmental health, psychosocial health and community health education programs. We do not support organizations that create parallel structures to those of local authorities nor those that duplicate existing NGO-led programs. Before a new grant is approved, our Board members must give review it within the context of our grant making policy and give their formal approval to a proposed program. Our board maintains full discretion over grant funding.
Check out our current programs >
Does the Medical Aid Committee only intervene in foreign countries?
For now, we focus solely on health interventions abroad.
I hear more and more about quality and efficiency in the field of humanitarian aid. How does the Medical Aid Committee address this issue?
We always work with NGOs that are committed to improving the quality and efficiency of our programs. Our organization has put in place several measures to guarantee the quality of all programs we support:
When We Work : The Post-Crisis Gap
We support humanitarian programs that take place within post-crisis settings when most of the “first-response” NGOs have left and the local authorities are not able to provide adequate health care. This means that your dollars will have a larger relative impact on a community living in what is effectively a health vacuum.
How We Work : Sustainability
We have an explicit focus on strengthening local capacities and collaborating with local authorities to ensure that our partner communities have access to sustainable health care in the long term.
How We Share Our Work : Transparency
We are committed to strong and transparent governance as well as careful quantitative evaluation of all the programs we support to improve their efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.
Our Structure : Efficiency
The small size and diversity of MAC and its grantee organizations ensures that programs are flexible and able to respond quickly to changing humanitarian contexts.
The Value of Your Dollar : Leverage
Our private support to programs is often matched by support from large institutional donors, thereby leveraging every dollar that you donate and multiplying its impact for the communities with which we work.
You can track the progress our programs online and in our e-newsletters. Thanks to each donation from an individual, foundation or company, we are able to support sustainable health care for more people around the world.
I am interested in making a donation to a humanitarian organization. Why should I support the Medical Aid Committee?
The Medical Aid Committee is a unique organization filling unmet, often forgotten needs around the world. Because of our focus on sustainability, your investment in sustainable health will continue to give long after the dollars have been spent.
Invest in sustainable health – Make a donation today!
I am currently in school and am thinking about working in the humanitarian sector. Can I intern with your organization?
This depends on your interest. In the field, the answer to this question is often no. We emphasize the hiring of local employees but the few expatriates that are hired must have prior professional experience in humanitarian work. In post-crisis contexts, we need staff that can work immediately and the fast pace makes it very difficult to train an intern in the field. Nevertheless, on occasion, we will hire and send certain first-time candidates to the field for particular positions but the candidate must already have had significant professional experience.
In the Boston area, we welcome qualified interns and research partners for our quantitative studies measuring program health outcomes. Additionally, our partner organization welcomes interns in a variety of positions at the headquarters in Paris. It is possible that an intern will have an opportunity to volunteer in the field after interning in Paris but they must have demonstrated the necessary skills needed for an available position.
Learn more about working with us >
