LOIs can be submitted anytime
The South Asian Women’s Fund (SAWF) is committed to supporting women’s organizations and activists working towards realising women’s human rights in the South Asian region. It supports human rights in the context of conflict, identity, socio-economic deprivations and in relation to violence against women.
SAWF aims at supporting women’s groups and activists, who are working at the grassroots, to undertake innovative, cutting edge and critical work.
Types of Grants
- SAWF’s Small Grants– Launched in 2010-11, are for innovative and distinctive initiatives, being led by dynamic women leaders and/or the second line leadership of the organization. These grants are given to women’s groups and/or organizations, Individuals and grants for attending events, workshops and/ or conferences.
- Grant Size: Up to 5000 USD
- Thematic Grants– These grants are available under two themes
- SAWF’s Seeding Grants– Seeding grants are available for newly established women interventions that seek to provide core support to small women’s rights groups having difficulty in strengthening the institution building process. The grant supports interventions, which are upcoming, seeking to increase and strengthen the participation of feminist voices.
- Grants availability: 10,000 USD.
Focus Areas
- Women leadership
- Human rights
- Women with disabilities
- Sex worker rights
- Women in conflict
- Justice
Focus Countries
Eligibility Criteria
- Any woman’s organization whose annual budget is under USD 50,000, located in the focus countries.
- The organization should be registered and have the requisite legal registration.
- At least 70% of its decision-making body and staff should be women.
- It should be committed to feminist principles and right based approaches.
- Women volunteering or working with a women’s rights or a human rights organization may apply.
- A second-line woman leader of a mainstream organization may also apply for the grant.
How to Apply
- SAWF does not accept unsolicited full proposals. Applicants must first submit the Letter of Interest. The format of LOIs is available to download from the website.
- SAWF will accept LoIs in English and any of the regional languages – Bangla, Hindi, Nepali, Sinhalese, Tamil and Urdu via email.
- Upon selection, an organization will have to submit the following documents for the finalization of the grant:
- An attested copy of the registration of the organization
- List of its governing body and executive staff
- Tax exemption status
- Audited accounts of the previous financial year
- Annual report or any other document in its stead that lays out the activities, achievements and challenges that the organization undertook in the preceding year.
For more information about these grants, please visit SAWF.