Deadline: 18-Jun-21
The United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the Office of Public Affairs (OPA), is pleased to announce a Notice of Funding Opportunity to design and implement the BOLD (BiH Omladinski Lideri, Bosnia and Herzegovina Young Leaders) Small Grants Mentoring Program that seeks to empower young people across BiH, age 18-35, through leadership opportunities and training, to implement projects for positive change in their communities.
The goal of the mentoring program is to equip awardees of the grant competition with the skills and support needed, throughout the grant year, to effectively implement their projects in their communities, and to become skilled project managers and grant administrators. The applicant will be expected to guide the winning grantees through the administrative process of receiving their award, successfully implementing their program, handling problems as they arise, and reporting on the project’s progress to OPA.
Mandatory Components
- Applicants should propose a plan to convene all BOLD grant recipients in-person or online immediately after the notification of their selection, for a comprehensive workshop on the basics of grant management. The applicant should familiarize grantees with what to expect in terms of the mandatory grants forms, which they will receive from OPA’s Grants Team prior to receiving the funds. The applicants should introduce grantees to best practice communications skills with the granting organization (OPA), including timely and effective reporting on grant activities. During this introductory workshop the applicant should inform grantees that individual sessions will be scheduled, to go through the process of making potential adjustments to the budget to ensure that the activities planned consistently support their goals and objectives, that activities are feasible and maximally effective, and that the budget is realistic and economical. The applicant will then schedule individual sessions with grantees and work with each one on thoroughly reviewing and revising their proposals and budgets. Following the sessions, grantees will resubmit their proposals to OPA for the disbursement of funds.
- Applicants should include a plan to convene a minimum of two additional group, online or in-person, training sessions to ensure the most effective implementation of the proposals. Topics of these sessions should include, but not be limited to, finding partners for community projects and how to make the most of them, how to get buy-in and public support for the grantees’ ideas for community solutions, putting together a public communications and social media campaign, troubleshooting when problems arise, and coping with disappointment when expectations are not met.
- The applicant should propose a plan for ongoing personal mentoring support for each grantee throughout the grant year – whether in-person or remotely – to help them overcome hurdles in reaching their goals, identify problem areas, and encourage them to meet deadlines and keep to their plans. The applicant should be an approachable resource for grantees to go to for advice and learned experience.
- The applicant will be the primary liaison between OPA and the grantees and should keep up regular communication with OPA about the progress of the projects and notify OPA in a timely manner of any problems that arise.
- The applicant will report quarterly to OPA on progress of the projects, in a written format.
- The applicant will attend the main and final projects’ events and write a Facebook post (accompanied with photos) about them, and share them with for further posting and distribution.
Funding Information
- Length of Performance Period: 14 months
- Number of Awards Anticipated: One
- Award Amounts: One award in the amount of USD 10,000
- Total Available Funding: USD 10,000
Eligibility Criteria
- Non-government, non-profit organizations (including think tanks, civil society organizations) educational institutions that are based and legally registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and individuals are eligible to apply.
- Applicants must demonstrate an ability to work in all parts of BiH, whether independently or in cooperation with a partner organization.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=333560