Independent Human Rights Fund for Scotland

Deadline: 4-Sep-24

The Independent Human Rights Fund for Scotland is seeking applications for organisations taking action to realise and defend rights, and tackling immediate rights issues affecting people’s daily lives.

The Fund exists to support people and communities to use human rights as a tool for change. It is independent from government.

The three key aims of the Fund are to:

Enable organisations working in the Scottish context to close the gap between policy and practice and the lived experiences of people whose rights are most at risk.
Help to unlock the inherent power of individuals, communities and organisations to hold duty bearers to account for the delivery of rights for allthose who live in Scotland.
Create conditions that support a vibrant, independent, sustainable human rights sector in Scotland to ensure an effective human rights-based approach is achieved in practice.

Funded work will focus on people, including children and young people, whose rights are most at risk in Scotland. This would include groups who face injustice, are not well listened to and whose power is often limited in relation to the systems that impact their lives.

Funding Information

The maximum grant which can be applied for is £50,000 per year for up to three years, i.e. a total maximum per application of £150,000.
The minimum grant which can be applied for is £10,000 per year for one year, i.e. a total minimum per application of £10,000.

Time Periods

Organisations can apply for a grant for between one and three years. For example, an application could be for the minimum one year, for 18 months, or for the maximum three years.
The grants are expected to start from 15 December 2024. Therefore a one-year grant will finish on 14 December 2025, and a three-year grant will finish on 14 December 2027.

Geographical Scope

Applications must propose work to be undertaken in Scotland by organisations with a presence in Scotland. The work must directly relate to the human rights of people in Scotland.

Eligibility Criteria

The Independent Human Rights Fund for Scotland will make grants to third sector organisations in Scotland working to advance human rights nationally or locally within Scotland. Organisations would be expected to take a human rights-based and community-led approach to their work and evidence participatory and/or lived experience-led ways of working.
Organisations can apply independently or in partnership.
All organisations are limited to being involved in only one application to this funding round, regardless of their role in the application. Therefore, organisations will need to decide whether to apply alone or as part of a collaborative proposal. If applications are sent which involve the same organisation more than once, then the first application to be received will be taken forward and subsequent applications will be ineligible.
Collaborative applications that include multiple organisations are welcome. These will have to specify a ‘lead partner’ and that organisation will have overall responsibility for the grant. The Fund is encouraging larger organisations to collaborate across the sector and develop partnership applications. However, ‘lead partners’ do not need to be the largest partner in the collaboration: organisations are encouraged to apply in groupings which feel comfortable and meaningful to them and which reflect the strengths and contributions that different organisations will bring.
Specific Eligibility
- Type of organisation
  - To apply to this Fund independently or as a Lead Partner organisations must be constituted and formally registered as third or voluntary sector organisations, constituted on a not-for-profit basis (e.g. this could include organisations registered with OSCR as a charity and SCIO, or with Companies House as a social enterprise).
  - Public, statutory or private sector organisations are not eligible to apply. The Fund will be exploring the potential for future rounds of funding to support unconstituted groups or individuals, but this first round will only accept applications from registered organisations.
  - Unconstituted groups and informal third sector organisations (e.g. a community group) can be involved in applications if the lead partner in the application is a formally registered third sector organisation. Additional (non-lead) partners can be, for example, unregistered groups as well as other registered third sector or voluntary organisations.
  - All partners should have meaningful roles in the proposed work and receive appropriate financial resourcing for the activities they are undertaking.
- Focus on human rights
  - Organisations must have clear and explicit human rights focus to be eligible to apply. This focus must be evidenced in key documents, for example organisations’ founding documents or most recent audited accounts. This could include work focussed on the rights of specific groups of people, for example, women’s rights or disabled people’s rights. Organisations must also evidence a track record of explicitly focussed human rights work in Scotland for the last three years. These requirements apply to the lead partner in a collaborative application, and not to additional partners.
- Organisation size (by income)
  - Organisations with an income of between £25,000 and £250,000 can apply, either independently (alone), or as part of a collaborative application.
  - Organisations with an income of over £250,000 per year can only apply as part of a collaborative application. They can be the lead organisation, or a partner where another organisation is the lead.
  - Organisations with an income of under £25,000 per year can only apply as part of a collaborative application where another eligible organisation is the lead partner.
  - An organisation’s level of reserves will not be taken into account in decision-making on applications.

For more information, visit Corra Foundation.