RaiseUK solved it by navigating TA funder frameworks, output requirements, and replication logic — securing US$266K from a UK TA facility to fund India's first gender-sensitive parametric crop insurance product.
The same social enterprise working on climate resilience for smallholder women farmers needed a second, distinct funding stream: technical assistance capital to design, test, and demonstrate India's first gender-sensitive parametric crop insurance product. TA grants require engaging an entirely different category of funder — development finance technical assistance facilities rather than philanthropic foundations — with distinct due diligence processes, output frameworks, and reporting requirements centred on replication potential rather than impact narrative.
The client had not previously engaged this funder category. The product was genuinely novel: a parametric insurance structure calibrated to the two climate risks most devastating to smallholder women farmers in UP and Rajasthan — drought and flood — with gender-disaggregated trigger design. Building a successful proposal required understanding how TA funders think before building the case for support.
Beyond the funding itself, the initiative required building a full multi-stakeholder consortium to bring the product to life. Six consortium partners were identified, engaged, and closed end-to-end by RaiseUK — supporting the client as the anchor institution of the facility. This included developing a shared consortium vision, coordinating joint multilateral meetings, securing formal agreements between partners, and establishing each partner's commitment to the pilot demonstration, evidence building, and subsequent national scale-up and replication. Bringing together six distinct institutions — each with their own governance, compliance, and operational frameworks — into a unified partnership was a critical enabler of the TA facility's success.
Identified UK-based technical assistance facilities with mandates covering South Asian agricultural finance and climate resilience. Mapped the specific output requirements and reporting frameworks of the highest-alignment TA facilities.
Developed a TA proposal narrative positioning the parametric insurance product as a demonstration model for national replication — aligning with TA funders' preference for scalable, replicable innovations over one-off interventions.
Identified, engaged, and closed six consortium partners end-to-end — supporting the client as the anchor of the initiative. Developed the shared consortium vision, coordinated joint multilateral meetings and formal partnership agreements, and secured each partner's commitment to the pilot demonstration, evidence building, and subsequent scale-up and national replication.
Built a rigorous output and learning framework aligned to the TA facility's reporting requirements — including milestone-based disbursement triggers and a documentation plan for the policy model and product design. Supported the client through the approval and contracting process to commitment.
US$266K technical assistance grant secured from a UK-based TA facility — funding the design, testing, and demonstration of India's first gender-sensitive parametric crop insurance product. Six consortium partners were engaged and closed end-to-end, creating the multi-stakeholder delivery structure required for the pilot and subsequent national replication.
The product is calibrated to protect 10,000 smallholder women farmers against drought and flood losses in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The TA grant funds the design phase; successful demonstration will trigger the premium subsidy funding secured separately (see Case Study 03).
"They understood how TA funders think — and built the case accordingly. We'd never navigated that category before."Programme Director · Climate Social Enterprise · India
Technical assistance fundraising requires a fundamentally different approach from philanthropic grant fundraising. TA funders evaluate proposals against innovation potential, replication logic, and output rigour — not primarily impact narrative. And building a genuinely novel product at scale requires more than a funder: it requires a consortium of committed institutional partners. Understanding both of these realities determined the approach from day one. If you need TA funding and consortium development support for something genuinely novel — or if you've never navigated this funder category before — this is the engagement model.
Together, the US$266K TA grant and the UK£300K premium subsidy grant (Case Study 03) constitute a complete funding stack for the parametric insurance model — design through deployment — secured through RaiseUK's engine within a single programme year.