Elrha’s Journey to Scale: Funding for Scaling Humanitarian Innovation

Deadline: 14 February 2020

Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) has launched the second round of Journey to Scale (J2S) program to provide initial support for ten shortlisted teams to develop scaling strategies for their innovations. The fund will award five teams with the strongest proposals flexible funding of up to 580,000 GBP each to explore different scale pathways and refine their approach.

Journey to Scale (J2S) is aimed at humanitarian innovators who have successfully piloted their solution in at least one humanitarian setting and are now looking to scale the impact of their innovation.

The fund welcomes applications of innovations that address challenges in any sector(s) of humanitarian action. Innovations can involve either directly empowering or supporting people affected by crises, or providing services to other humanitarian actors.

Phases

J2S includes two phases:

Phase 1: Strategy Development (May–September 2020)
- Following an open application process, ten innovation teams will be selected to take part in the Strategy Development phase. The teams will receive mentoring and support to develop a comprehensive scaling vision and strategy. At the end of the Strategy Development phase, the fund will bring the teams together for a workshop to learn from each other and to finalise their scaling strategies. 10,000 GBP will be available to each team to support this phase.
Phase 2: Strategy Implementation (December 2020–2023)
- At the end of the Strategy Development phase, the ten teams will be invited to submit their Phase 2 proposal, including their scaling strategy. The five strongest proposals will progress to the Strategy Implementation phase, receiving up to 580,000 GBP in grant funding.
- In addition to financial support, the fund will also offer one-to-one mentorship for each team throughout the grant period, as well as workshops to strengthen their scaling capacity, further opportunities for peer learning through the grantee cohort, and access to their network of former grantees and humanitarian partners.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply to J2S:

Applicant’s organisation must be a legally registered entity (i.e., academic/research institute, government, international non-governmental organisation, national non-governmental organisation, private company, Red Cross/Red Crescent movement, United Nations agency or programme, or civil society organisation).
Application must be from a single organisation, rather than from a partnership between two or more organisations. They encourage this to ensure that there is clarity over the ownership of the innovation and that teams have the flexibility to explore diverse partnerships throughout their scaling journey.
Applicant’s innovation must address a challenge from one or across multiple sector(s) of humanitarian action. It can involve either directly empowering or supporting people affected by crises or providing services to other humanitarian actors.
Applicant’s innovation must have been piloted in at least one humanitarian setting.
This might include, but is not limited to, a rapid-onset disaster, slow-onset disaster, or conflict or protracted displacement situation.
Applicant’s innovation must have undergone an independent evaluation of its effectiveness.
If team is part of a larger organisation, applicants must have agreement from leadership to explore different pathways to scale, including potential uptake of their innovation by other organisations.
Applicants must not have previously received funding in the first round of J2S.
Team must be able to attend the Strategy Development workshop (two to three team members), taking place 8–10 September 2020, plus a day of travel time on either side. The location of the workshop will be confirmed at a later date.