Request for Applications: Hasanah Special Grant Program – Malaysia

Deadline: 15-Jun-25

The Yayasan Hasanah Foundation is requesting applications for its Special Grant Program to drive large-scale social impact for a more inclusive and progressive Malaysia.

Focus Areas

• Education
• Community Development
• Environment
• Arts & Public Spaces
• Knowledge

Categories

• They provide two types of funding:
  • Organisational Development Funding (ODF): aimed at strengthening our partners’ operations
  • Programme Management Funding (PMF): aimed at supporting the sustainability of initiatives

Objectives

• Education:
  • Developing talents through Scholarships and learning provisions, and enhancing school leadership: Types of Projects supported under this objective:
    • Programmes that support the enhancement of teaching pedagogy, upskilling of school leadership, and improvement of learning processes towards creating positive learning environment aimed at tackling learning loss and maximizing student outcomes.
    • Programmes that support the design and implementation of remedial learning to equip children with foundational literacy and numeracy and to improve students’ exam grades or SPM (or equivalent) outcomes.
  • Raising awareness and promoting psychological health and well-being in schools, and providing access to services and interventions:  Types of projects supported under this objective:
    • Programmes that enable mental health interventions, which includesincreasing awareness and promoting psychological health and wellbeing and providing access to services and interventions, specifically within the public education system involving school leaders, teachers, counsellors, students, and parents.
    • Programmes that utilize and deliver these following models will be given priority: Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support (MHPSS) for students and teachers, empowerment of Pembimbing Rakan Sebaya (PRS), Psychological First Aid (PFA) training, student-led models for literacy and awareness, and Social Emotional Learning (SEL).
• Community Development:
  • Strengthening underserved communities through the Community Based Approach (CBA) Model through a multidimensional approach to improve livelihoods and wellbeing: Types of projects supported under this objective:
    • Programmes that support interventions that address poverty alleviation, unemployment, and lack of economic opportunities to increase B40 communities’ ability to generate income and secure sustained livelihoods within a focused rural or urban community
    • Programmes focusing on upskilling to ensure employments and job placements among community members, especially youths across urban areas, or enhancing entrepreneurial skills in the F&B, agricultural, service sectors or any other skills that will contribute to an increased income or stable employment within a rural community
  • Creating self-organizing local leaders to ensure sustainable progress within the community: Types of projects supported under this objective:
    • Programmes that build the capacity of B40 communities to become community leaders with the ability to lead, self-organize and/or take on a leadership position to continue sustaining community projects which improves their community’s livelihood and well-being in the long-term.
  • Empowering Youth Livelihoods through TVET and Skill-Based Interventions: Types of projects supported under this objective:
    • Empowering youth livelihoods through TVET and skill-based interventions aims to bridge employment gaps in underserved communities. This includes funding ‘Train & Place’ programs, enhancing technical skills to foster sustainable income generation. These initiatives focus on upskilling to improve job placements and sustainability.
• Environment:
  • Demonstrating a sustainable development model for learning, adoption and advocacy nationwide: Types of projects supported under this objective:
    • Programmes targeted towards conservation of species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and their habitats, comanagement with local communities for protection of ecosystems (forest, freshwater, mangrove, coastal and marine) and improving habitat connectivity.
    • Programmes for marine protection include integrated marine management and specific area-based conservation efforts, such as those for Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) and Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs).
  • Advocating a clear responsible household waste management, including plastics through active programmes across the value chain: Types of projects supported under this objective:
    • Programmes that foster collaboration with relevant stakeholders towards improved policies and legislation to support responsible waste management including plastic waste.
    • Programmes that engage and initiate responsible waste management including reduction, segregation, recycling and upcycling that are innovative, sustainable and beneficial to local communities and the environment.
  • Biodiversity, conservation & environmental management, animal welfare: Types of projects supported under this objective:
    • Programmes that build the capacity of communities and youth in environmental conservation and monitoring, including the use of technology to protect Malaysia’s wildlife in their natural habitats.
    • Programmes on technical capacity building that will support the survey, identification and mapping required for the conservation and potential sustainable Green/Blue financing modalities.
• Arts & Public Spaces:
  • Demonstrating heritage textile conservation as a viable creative economic model – safeguarding, preserving, and conserving Malaysian heritage textiles while creating outreach initiatives and economic platforms: Types of projects supported under this objective:
    • Efforts to preserve, conserve or safeguard Malaysian heritage textiles (eg, promotion, protection, documentation, management)
    • Projects that promote excellence in craftmanship (eg. awards, competitions, textile technique & skills training).

Funding Information

• A maximum of RM2,500,000 can be awarded for projects spanning over three years, while pilot projects and shorter projects may be eligible for a smaller amount and subject to Hasanah grant governance process.

Eligibility Criteria

• Legal Registration: The applicant must be a registered entity under one of the following:
  • Registrar of Societies Act 1966
  • Companies Act 1965 (Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), Private Limited Company (Sdn Bhd))
  • Trustees (Incorporation) Act 1952
  • Registered Social Enterprise with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Cooperatives Development (MECD)
  • Trade Licensing Ordinance (Sabah)
  • Profession and Trade Licensing Ordinance (Sarawak)
• Minimum Operational History:
  • Must have been formed and officially registered for at least two years prior to applying. If the organisation operated under a different name previously, it must submit supporting documentation demonstrating continuous operations for two or more years.
• An organisation may participate as a co-applicant in other applications while submitting its own.
• Social enterprises defined as registered organisations or companies whose primary mission is to advance a social cause while maintaining a sustainable revenue stream are eligible to apply.
• Public institutions and consultancy firms may apply, but only as co-applicants, partnering with a civil society organisation (CSO) that will act as the core applicant.

For more information, visit Yayasan Hasanah.