Co-Impact offering Systems Change Grants (US $10-25 million)

Deadline: 31 March 2020

Co-Impact is pleased to invite submissions from qualified organizations and partnerships for the 3rd round of systems change grants.

Co-Impact supports a small number of transformative systems change initiatives, each of which is poised to bring about significant and enduring improvements for millions of women and men in the Global South.

Co-Impact also invests in strengthening program partners so they can achieve strategic coherence and develop critical capabilities needed to effectively advance systems change. They identify grant opportunities through a sourcing process that includes an open call for concepts and referrals from experts within their networks.

Support Initiatives

Co-Impact seeks to support initiatives that:

• Focus on improving the lives of one million people or more;
• Have a clearly articulated approach to changing systems at scale;
• Are led by and deeply rooted in the Global South/countries in which they seek to make a difference;
• Address gender equity and inclusion, and are substantively led by women (in at least 50% of the initiatives they will support);
• Have a strong track record of results; and
• Use evidence-informed pathways to achieve specific outcomes in health, education, and/or economic opportunity.

Funding Information

Co-Impact provides flexible grants, typically of US $10-25 million over 5 years, for systems change initiatives in the areas of health, education, and economic opportunity, and that address gender equity and inclusion in meaningful ways.

Qualification

Please ensure that you fulfill the following criteria before writing a concept note:

• Outcomes: Enable enduring change in health, education, and economic system(s) that significantly improve the lives one million or more disadvantaged women and men, disaggregated by sex (in one or more low- or middle-income countries in the Global South) within 5 years, related to one or more of the following people-level outcomes:
  • Significantly improved economic opportunity outcomes, measured as increases in one or more of the following areas:
    • Quality (safe, stable, fairly compensated) income-earning opportunities/jobs
    • People entering and remaining in quality income-earning opportunities/jobs
    • Net earnings realized from income-earning activities, and/or household assets
    • Value of household assets that demonstrably increase the household’s resilience and/or income-earning potential
  • Significantly improved health outcomes, due to improved access to and/or quality of health care, measured as reduced rates of one or more of the following:
    • Mortality
    • Morbidity
    • DALYs (disability-adjusted life years)
    • Reduced rates of stunting and wasting of young children
  • Significantly improved education outcomes, measured as increases in one or more of the following areas:
    • Improved rates of children who are “school-ready” when starting primary school
    • Basic literacy and numeracy in primary grades and/or adult literacy
    • Completion of secondary education, particularly for girls
    • Attainment of measurable, critical “deeper learning” skills (e.g., ability to analyze, reason, think critically, problem-solve)
• Scale of Impact: Proposed initiative has a high potential for large-scale change and is poised to:
  • Improve one million lives or more in 5 years, in at least one of the target outcomes; and
  • Enable “adoption at scale” of a proven model
• Global South Rootedness: The anchor partner/lead organization is led by and rooted in the Global South, meeting at least 2 out of the 3 of the following criteria:
  • Global Head Office and majority of total staff presence are in a Global South country (with a strong preference for them to be in the country(ies) that the initiative is targeting).
  • The anchor organization or initiative leader and at least 50% of the senior leadership are from a Global South country (with a strong preference for leaders from and/or a national of the country(ies) the initiative is targeting).
  • The anchor organization/initiative has long-term roots in the region, as demonstrated by 10+ years of working on strengthening systems in the target country or region, and can demonstrate long-term and substantial working partnerships with local actors and commitment to investing in local talent for leadership positions.
• Gender: Proposed initiative has a proactive and strategic approach to addressing discrimination against women and girls to exercise voice and participation, set agendas and make decisions. This commitment needs to be embedded within their programmatic work, own organization, and analysis of the problem as well as design for systemic change.
• Countries: Proposed initiative is focused on one or more low- and middle-income countries in the Global South. They do not support work in high-income countries. Initiatives need to explain how the country(ies) in which they seek to work have at least minimal civic and governance conditions that are necessary to undertake – and sustain – a meaningful systems change effort. They do not have a pre-selected list of countries that qualify, but they expect you to provide compelling explanation as to why your work will succeed if you if you propose to work in countries where civic and governance conditions are obviously challenged.
• Evidence: Independent, third-party evaluation shows that the core approach/model/idea(s) at the center of the initiative works and achieves the intended people-centered outcomes. While this evaluation needs to be relevant, rigorous and of high quality, they do not require the use of any particular methodology.
• Scale: The proposed or very similar systems change initiative is already well underway (not a startup or initial pilot), and in the past year has benefited at least 10,000 persons in a significant way.
• Organizations:
  • Initiatives has significant capacity and track record to work at scale; the annual budget in the last audited financial report of the Lead Organization is at least US $1 million or equivalent.
  • Partnerships between multiple organizations are encouraged but not required; partnerships should designate a lead organization.
  • Organization/partnership is not a political campaign promoting a specific candidate or party. While policy interventions may be a part of an initiative, lobbying organizations primarily seeking to change legislation are not eligible.
  • For-profit organizations are eligible provided the primary objective of the effort is to achieve lasting social impact for millions of people in the domains.

How to Apply

Interested applicants can apply via given website.

For more information, visit https://www.co-impact.org/how-to-apply/