Why a project needs a starting agreement
Many NGO projects start the day the grant agreement arrives. The proposal team moves on, the new project manager inherits a long document written for a donor, and finance, logistics and HR each read it differently. Six months later, people argue about what was promised.
A project charter prevents this. It is the internal agreement that says: this is the project, this is what is in and out, and this is who decides.
What is a project charter?
A project charter is a short, formal document that authorizes a project to start. It comes from general project management practice, and it fits humanitarian and development work well because grant-funded projects have fixed budgets, fixed timelines and many stakeholders.
It is different from the documents around it:
| Document | Written for | Main purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal | The donor | Win funding |
| Grant agreement | Donor and NGO | Legal terms of the funding |
| Logframe or results framework | Donor and team | Results chain and indicators |
| Project charter | The internal team | Agree scope, roles and authority to start |
What should a charter include?
Keep each section to a few lines:
- Project name and code. The same code finance and logistics will use.
- Purpose. Why the project exists, in two or three sentences.
- Objectives. The main results, linked to the logframe.
- Scope. What is included, and what is explicitly not included: locations, target groups, activities.
- Key deliverables and milestones. The few dates that matter most, including donor reports.
- Budget and funding source. Total amount, donor, and any co-funding.
- Roles and authority. Project manager, sponsor, and who approves changes to scope, budget and timeline.
- Main risks and assumptions. The top five, with an owner each.
- Stakeholders. Partners, authorities and community groups who must be involved.
- Approval. Names, roles and dates of sign-off.
When should you write it?
Write the charter in the first two to four weeks after signing the grant. This is the inception period, when the team reads the agreement closely, checks the budget and plans the first activities. Our article on the first 30 days of a new grant lists the other tasks for that period.
Who should be involved?
- The project manager drafts it.
- The proposal writer explains what was promised and why.
- Finance checks the budget lines and reporting dates.
- Logistics checks procurement plans and lead times.
- MEAL checks indicators and data collection plans.
- The sponsor approves it.
A one-hour review meeting with these people is often the most useful hour of the whole inception phase.
Common mistakes
- Copying the proposal. A charter that repeats 30 pages of proposal text will not be read. Summarize, and refer to the proposal for detail.
- No out-of-scope list. Most scope arguments are about what was not promised. Write those items down.
- Vague authority. “Management will decide” is not an answer. Name the role that approves a budget change, a location change and a timeline change.
- Signed and filed. If nobody opens the charter after week four, it was paperwork, not an agreement.
- Missing support functions. If finance and logistics did not review it, the charter may promise a procurement timeline that cannot happen.
How to use the charter after the start
A charter is not a file to sign and forget:
- Use it to onboard new team members.
- Check change requests against the scope section.
- Review it at midterm, and update it if the donor approves a major change.
- Compare it with what happened at closure, as part of the after action review.
Pair it with a RACI matrix so each task has one accountable person.
Where EMPOBase fits
The Programs module in EMPOBase includes project planning tools such as the Project Charter, RACI, Organogram, Stakeholders, a Closure Checklist and an After Action Review, linked to the project record. The project’s indicators sit in MEAL, and its budget in Finance, under the same project. See the module list on the platform page.