Strengthening grant

Strengthening grant - Rules and eligibility

Eligible organisations

Strengthening grant - eligible organisations

The general eligibility criteria for Strengthening grantees are:

1. The applicant organisation must be registered in one of the AmplifyChange eligible countries.

2. The project must be implemented in one of the AmplifyChange eligible countries.

3. The applicant organisation must have a bank account.

4. The project must respond to one or more of the Amplify Change priorities:

Addressing gender-based violence, including sexual violence and female genital mutilation.

Addressing the causes of unsafe abortion including criminalisation of abortion

Challenging stigma, discrimination, attitudes and laws that undermine human rights, including on grounds of gender identity or sexual orientation, particularly LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) individuals.

Improving sexual health of young people and girls, including through comprehensive sexuality education and ending child, early and forced marriage.

Increasing access to comprehensive reproductive health services for socially and economically marginalised and vulnerable people.

AmplifyChange will consider concept notes from civil society organisations based in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia. We recognise the broad scope of civil society and the wide range of organisations, actors and coalitions it encompasses. Therefore we are happy to receive concept notes from community groups, non-governmental organisations, indigenous groups, charitable organisations, faith-based organisations, research institutes, social enterprise groups, public-private partnerships, communications and media groups and professional associations.

Where revenue‐generating activities are undertaken, evidence should be provided of how any surplus supports the organisation’s core mission and values.AmplifyChange is prepared to support applications made on behalf of a coalition. If you are applying as part of a coalition you should identify a lead or coordinating applicant organisation to complete the application. A coalition is defined as an established partnership, a consortium, a group of organisations or individuals who share a collective identity and who are cooperating together to achieve a joint mission or deliver a project together.

 

What are we looking for?

Strengthening grants support particular, usually time-limited, projects (6-24 months) that seek to engage and contribute to bringing about specific change in one or more of the priority themes of AmplifyChange.

Strengthening grants are intended to support and strengthen the work of small to medium civil society organisations, partnerships and coalitions who are operating at a local, community, district or national level, to support a wide range of advocacy and policy engagement activities. 

Strengthening grant > What are we looking for?

What were we looking for in the last funding round?

What we were looking for in Strengthening grant round 2?

For the last funding window we anticipate awarding approximately 50 Strengthening grants.

The call focused on supporting the advocacy efforts of civil society organisations seeking to bring about positive policy and reform in AmplifyChange priority areas. So we will give priority to applications that address our outcome of ‘Change in policies and laws’ across our priority themes. Change in policies and laws an outcomes in our Theory of Change. The sorts of indicators of progress we will be looking for in applications can be found here.

We review all Strengthening grant applications we receive. A key review criteria we will use in assessing them is whether the proposed work specifically sets out to contribute to changes in policies and laws. The guidance on our priorities, including Levers for change and Possible entry points for policy change offer examples of strategies and activities we seek to support:

Addressing gender-based violence - Levers for change

Addressing the causes of unsafe abortion - Levers for change

Challenging stigma and discrimination - Levers for change

Improving sexual health of young people - Levers for change

Increasing access for marginalised and vulnerable groups - Levers for change

We expect this last funding round to be highly competitive, so we asked that applications directly and specifically respond to the priority focus of this call highlighted above.

We make funding decisions based on an independent review process, and we take into account our policy and operational benchmarks. When organisations are recommended for funding, they then undergo integrity due diligence checks and financial management assessments. More guidance on how we work and make funding decisions is available here.​ We anticipate the review and checking process will take until early 2017, when you should anticipate grants starting.

We can provide support to cover costs related to:

Implementing specific activities in line with one or more of the AmplifyChange thematic areas  

Staff costs including support staff

Technical assistance costs

Travel costs associated with the project objectives and activities

Organisational capacity building and strengthening support including staff training and development

Activity Monitoring & Evaluation costs

Indirect project support costs. These are expenses which are incurred in the support of operational activities including, for example, rent, shared utility costs and audit fees.

Strengthening grant > What are we looking for?

What type of funding is provided through a Strengthening grant?

AmplifyChange provides flexible funding to enable groups to achieve their advocacy activities and goals. Strengthening grants are able to support a wide range of activities as long as they support AmplifyChange priority themes.

Therefore we can fund costs to enable a Strengthening grantee to: 

Conduct specific activities 

 

 

Financial & Grants Management

Budget Preparation	Steps to be taken while Applying for Grants
Bank Reconciliation	Letter of Intent
AdvancesÂ	Capacity Building
Cost Effective Analysis	Concept Note
How to choosea Bank	Bank Accounts
Cash and Fund flowÂ	Asset RegisterÂ
Financial Statements	Cash and Acrual based AccountingÂ