There are three different ways you can support the vital work of the DEC with a grant or major gift

1. Support a live appeal for current disasters

The DEC launches emergency appeals in response to the world’s worst humanitarian crises that meet our launch criteria. Your donation supports a coordinated response across 15 of the UK's leading aid charities and their local partners, maximising the impact of your gift. Read more on how your support can help when disaster strikes. 

2. Donate to our Emergency Fund for the next appeal

The Emergency Fund is always open to accept donations. Your donation to this fund goes straight to the next appeal we launch and helps our member charities to respond as quickly as possible. This provides an effective mechanism by which you can pre-plan your support for some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Read more on how your donation will help get aid to those who need it, fast.

3. Strengthen our impact through strategic core funding

Strategic core funding is what allows us to be ready before disaster strikes – to launch fast, to coordinate effectively, and to make every pound raised go further in support of better humanitarian outcomes across the sector. As a key strategic partner, the impact of your support stretches far beyond any single emergency. Read more on what your contribution could mean for the critical work of the DEC. 

As a philanthropic partner of the DEC, you can expect:  

• A dedicated point of contact to discuss your giving priorities and help maximise the impact of your philanthropy
• To receive as much advance notice as possible when the DEC appeal criteria are met and an appeal is imminent
• To be sent a Case for Support on appeal launch with detailed information on the disaster and the DEC response to inform your decision-making process
• In-depth reports and updates demonstrating the difference your support is making
• Invitations to exclusive events, informative online briefings featuring speakers from across the DEC membership and sector insights
• Recognition opportunities tailored to your preferences

Support a live appeal for current disasters

When a disaster strikes, we closely monitor and assess whether it meets our set of criteria for launching an appeal. If it does, we mobilise rapidly. We convene our member charities to co-ordinate, and our rapid response network of broadcasters, media and corporate partners to raise the alarm to the UK public.  

By pooling our resources and working as one, donations to our appeals support a coordinated response across 15 of the UK's leading aid charities and their local partners. We improve collaboration between member charities and monitor the operational environment so that DEC funds can be directed most effectively for the disaster affected communities. We use a ‘flexible funding’ approach, ensuring the right support is being provided at the right time.

Throughout an appeal, we are always monitoring, learning and reporting back on how your funds are being used. Our unique membership model enables us to maintain robust processes to ensure transparency and accountability to both yourselves as donors and affected communities. 

We currently have two appeals that are open for donations: the Venezuela Earthquake Appeal, and the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal.  

Donate to our Emergency Fund for the next appeal

Donations to the Emergency Fund are allocated to the next DEC appeal launched to respond to a crisis overseas. Having funds in reserve allows us to get more money where it is needed as quickly as possible at launch.  

The DEC accepts donations to the Emergency Fund throughout the year, whether or not an appeal has been launched. This is a vital source of funding that provides a headstart whatever the crisis may be when the time comes. We will provide a full account of how money from the Fund has been spent as part of our overall appeal funds in our programme reports.  

The DEC closely monitors regions vulnerable to large-scale disasters such as typhoons, cyclones and earthquakes, using our three criteria to assess when to launch a national DEC appeal. The immediate response to any major disaster is likely to include provision of life-saving food, clean water, medicine and shelter. We cannot predict what the next DEC appeal will be for, but your support to the Emergency Fund will allow our member charities to provide aid where it is needed as quickly as possible.  

Strengthen our impact through strategic core funding

Our core work is needed year-round to ensure we can function effectively to prepare, assess, launch, evaluate, learn from and report back on humanitarian crises we have launched DEC appeals for.    

By investing in our core work, you will help us maximise the funds raised by our appeals and ensure donations are spent as effectively as possible. Without this funding, the rapid, life-saving response the public expects from us simply wouldn’t be possible.

As a trusted convenor of 15 of the UK’s leading aid charities, we are a particularly effective mechanism for supporting collaboration, sharing expertise and learning, and influencing best practice in the wider humanitarian sector.  

The DEC and our members regularly conduct reviews and evaluations, as well as other thematic research pieces in areas including climate and environment, duty of care, localisation and safeguarding. You can find out more about the key subjects in our research and learning agenda here.  

We invite our close community of strategic core funders to informative online briefings from our Programmes & Accountability team, share key insights from our Research & Learning Agenda and report back on the impact of vital donations on our strategic work.