Request for Proposals: COVID-19 Response and Recovery in Georgia

Deadline: 10-Nov-20

The East-West Management Institute (EWMI) Advancing CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability (ACCESS) is pleased to announce the Intersectoral Cooperation Grant Program for Georgian civil society organizations (CSOs) and business organizations to undertake joint efforts focusing on minimizing the social, health, and/or economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under this request for proposals (rfa), EWMI ACCESS will support joint initiatives by CSOs and business organizations that aim to meet community or nationwide social, economic, and/or health demands brought about by the pandemic.

The grant program aims to connect high-impact CSOs with trustworthy and responsible business organizations to support the most vulnerable groups and sectors collaboratively through policy change, service provision, and/or advocacy. The collaboration may take the form of financial support, information-sharing, knowledge-sharing, experience-sharing, and/or resource-sharing to ensure greater relevance, credibility, and success of the proposed action.

Funding Information

Requested grant awards under this RfA may vary from $10,000 USD to $20,000 USD.
Grant funds may be used only for the activities directly related to the implementation of the project, except for any proposed institutional development activities. The duration of project activities should not exceed six months.

Priority Areas

EWMI ACCESS will prioritize projects that:

Focus on combatting the impacts of the pandemic among vulnerable groups;
Propose sustainable solutions to the targeted problems;
Demonstrate a proven track record and expertise in the targeted area(s);
Seek to build broader coalitions between CSOs and the private sector, as well as with other groups (e.g. media, academia);
Include a plan to effectively communicate project objectives and outcomes to the broader public and beneficiaries;
Include effective grassroots concepts of citizen engagement and oversight in delivering project outcomes.

Eligibility Criteria

Application must include both an implementing CSO and a business organization as partners. The lead organization must be the CSO partner.
The CSO partner must be legally registered in Georgia as a non-profit, non-commercial organization, and it must operate as an independent, non-politically affiliated organization. It must have a transparent system of bookkeeping that is in compliance with Georgian legislation and International Accounting Standards (IAS). The CSO partner must not be a debtor, must have canceled any debt to the state, or have arranged for debt collection prior to receiving the first disbursement of EWMI ACCESS grant funds.
The partner business organization must be registered under the Georgian law.
Small, medium, and large business organizations are eligible to apply as CSO partners.
Civil servants, political appointees, members of the current parliament, staff of public broadcasting companies, and/or leaders of political parties cannot participate in a grant project as a director. In most cases, these individuals are also excluded from being grant-remunerated participants in projects.
EWMI ACCESS will not fund the projects that propose any of the following:
- Projects/activities that duplicate or conflict with existing efforts (including those supported by USAID or other donors);
- Business development and/or recovery initiatives;
- For-profit initiatives;
- Support for or lobbying on behalf of a particular political party;
- Religious activities; however, EWMI ACCESS may support a religious organization for non-religious aims if its proposal corresponds to the project objectives;
- Humanitarian activities;
- Theoretical research; or
- Individual and/or group travel as a primary project activity.