Organizations that give out small grants normally give those grants to organizations rather than individuals. These donors want several things, most importantly they want to fund ideas that achieve a worthy goal. Second, they want to have guarantees that the funds are spent in accordance with the law as well as within their own requirements. Third, they want to be able to oversee the grant as simply and comprehensively as possible.

However the idea for an important initiative comes from an individual or group of people. These people are not organized along the second and third donor requirement. With some management, the law, strict stipulations, accounting, training, and some English language an organization can be set up to administer these grants. But often it is a somewhat unnatural act. Those who want to pursue an important initiative want to peruse that rather than administrative responsibilities, particularly when it is a very small grant and they are new to the process.

At the same time, many things that are worth doing require very modest funding. But the structure of donors is often such that there are bands that require different approval procedures. For example, if a donor says that it will give grants of up to 50,000 Euros, applicants will often send in proposals near that amount. Since applicants must be registered legal entities with bank accounts, they will naturally pay for a great deal of administration from within a grant. So it is logical for applicants to ask for what is available in order to keep for as long as possible that administrative infrastructure. By not being required to build and keep that administrative infrastructure, initiators are free to seek only the funds they need for the activity they will undertake.

We will begin in Georgia offering donors a way to fund activities that better fits the needs of both the donor and the initiator.  The funds will go from the donor to Orbeliani which will have all the legal responsibility for implementation and compliance.  Orbeliani will then pay directly by bank transfer for what has been agreed with the applicants, relieving them of the responsibility of having to handle large payments.  Donors will be able to observe implementation of the funded activities as they occur.

Orbeliani has five guiding principals that drive what we do: transparency, learning, compliance, speed, and thrift. When donors agree to fund through us and applicants seek funds through us, they also agree to these five principals.

We are as transparent as the internet allows us to be. All our accounts are publicly available, in real time including each and every individual payment and can be broken down by initiative, type or donor. Any amount spent wether for Orbeliani itself or on behalf of an initiative can be viewed by the public. At any time a donor, member of the public, journalist, or anybody else with internet access can see what funds have been spent on any given project or on Orbeliani's administrative costs. Complete transparency is much more effective than financial reports and when it becomes habitual and is built into the administrative system, much more efficient.

Rather than initiative groups being required to write reports, all recipients are required to engage in a public forum about their work. They write about what they have done, what has worked, and what hasn't worked implementation ideas. They are obligated to work with other recipients through this public forum so that a community of implementors is seen by all. Forums for discussion are much more effective than formal narrative reports. Mistakes are discussed rather than concealed, successes can be copied more easily, failures avoided. A learning community is a better way than narrative reports to understand the nature of an initiative.

The laws of each country and the requirements of each donor are different and change, sometimes quickly. As a single organization that takes responsibility for the implementation of a variety of activity, and at the same time administers funds, we are in a much better position to hold ourselves to strict compliance than a collection of small young organizations. All donors have complete confidence that their funds are spent legally and within the requirements they have stipulated.

Plans are time sensitive. An idea addresses a particular reality, but reality changes. An effective donor must be able to support an initiative that is relevant when the funds are dispatched. Our system is designed to dispatch funds compliant with requirements very quickly. Transparency creates speed and speed is often a crucial part of an initiative. We do not slow anybody down.

The requirements of compliance are so strict and the penalty for non-compliance so drastic that many donors will disburse funds through extremely expensive mechanisms. The amounts an organization spends on indirect costs and administration compared actual work or grants dispatched can be difficult to discern. Some times the raw information is not made available, sometimes there is difficulty in categorizing. Our extreme transparency makes it easy to see and categorize costs. We will take a smaller portion of funds than any other organization to administer these initiatives and will constantly strive to lower the amount we must charge for administrative and management functions.

We are happy to work with donors on how they can best select individuals or initiative groups. On the other hand we can also implement selection in cooperation with the donor, or with the priorities designated by the donor. When funds are transferred to Orbeliani, we sign a contract with the initiators, they meet each other and are trained in undertaking those responsibilities. The donor may watch the progress directly and at any time can view up to the minute automatically generated comprehensive financial information.

At the early stages, people who have an idea to improve their society do not want to and do not need to administer a legal entity, to undertake procurement procedures, to learn and adhere to tax laws, to write lengthy grant proposals and reports. These things that are important, but not at the beginning. These things should come after time and with some experience. They should be a part of scaling previous successful work. Otherwise they can come to dominate the activity and focus. These things should not be the very first step for a person who wants to bring an idea life or to change a community; because it's not about the money.