Guidance for Project Development

All organisations, institutions and churches are in principle eligible to apply for funds from NMS. However, the applicant must be registered and be allowed to work in the country and must adhere to values that NMS stand for. Please refer to the website for further information on who we are.

The support can be in terms of personnel, advisors/missionaries or financial. Regular NMS funded projects cannot receive government funding. All support is raised by the members and other supporters of NMS.

Before you prepare an application, NMS recommends that you contact us to get feedback on the likelihood of receiving support for the project and input on any changes that will increase the chances of the project being approved.

General Guidelines

In general NMS supports projects that seek to:

• Share our faith in Jesus
• Eliminate poverty
• Fight injustice
• Develop trustworthy leaders within our partner churches.

All projects must be in line with NMS strategies, principles and policies.

The annual budget for these projects usually range from 20,000 to 500,000 NOK and they are usually approved for 3 years a time. The final approval is given by the national board of NMS in December the year NMS receive the application.

A project must have a clear goal, be time-bound and have a phase out plan. Normally NMS does not give operational support to partners or institutions, but some exceptions are done from time to time.

NMS funded projects do not cover salary support to CEO’s or to church leaders, exceptions are if the project is run by the church leader.

For more information about the application process and how to elaborate a good application, see the Application Templates.

Assessment of Applications

These are some of the points that NMS will be using when consider an application, in addition to the general points mentioned above. In addition, the application will be assessed against approved strategies and plans in NMS and opinions from specialist staff and missionaries in the field.

1. Does the project have a goal derived from international, national or own strategies and policies?
2. Does the application contain a realistic situational analysis?
3. To what degree does the application comply with the partner’s own strategies?
4. To what degree does the project comply with national strategies?
5. Is there clarification of the target group/participants?
6. Is the partner’s administration and management of the project described?
7. Is there an explanation of the method and strategy – how the project will be carried out to achieve the results?
8. Are the outcomes specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) and do the outcome indicators give a good indication of the level of outcome achievement?
9. Are the outputs SMART and do the output indicators give a good indication of the level of output achievement?
10. Are the activities properly described?
11. Is there a logical connection between outcome, outputs and activities in the results framework?
12. If relevant, are earlier results and lessons learned presented, and what experiences provide a basis for a new strategy?
13. Are results and lessons learned conveyed to the project’s stakeholders to duplicate and learn?
14. Is there a strategy for sustainability – what happens when the project is complete?
15. Does the document include a risk analysis and a conflict analysis? If it is a gender focused project, a gender analysis needs to be included.
16. Is there a plan for monitoring and evaluation of the project?
17. Are the cross-cutting issues addressed and properly assessed? How will the partner/project ensure the following aspects in the project:
    1. Gender equality
    2. Protection of the creation
    3. Conflict sensitivity
18. Does the application include a budget per year with explanations?
19. Is the budget cost-efficient? Preferably 20 % to administration and 80 % activities. NMS will also look at the staffing, is the percentage of salary support logic to the budgetary size of the project?
20. Has the partner covered a share of the expenses? Normally, at least 10% of the project costs should be covered locally.  This can be in the form of materials, human resources or finances. If the local share is in the form of volunteer work or materials, an explanation must be included in the budget and the project must report on this annually.
21. Does the applicant have enough capacity to implement and account for the project?