Strengthening Grants inviting Women-led, LGBTIQ-led and Disabled Persons Civil Society Organisations

Deadline: 11 October 2019

AmplifyChange is seeking applications for its Strengthening Grants to support time-limited projects (usually up to 24 months) that seek to engage and contribute to bringing about change in one or more of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) priority themes of AmplifyChange.

Strengthening grants are intended to support, strengthen quality and scale-up the work of small to medium civil society organisations, partnerships and coalitions who are operating at a local, community, district or national level.

Strengthening grants are also intended to support organisational development and boost effectiveness of organisations; they understand that this enables organisations to better implement projects that are aiming to secure improvements in SRHR.

Priorities

AmplifyChange support advocacy and activist groups working on these five priority areas:

• Addressing gender-based violence, including sexual violence and female genital mutilation (FGM).
• Addressing the causes of unsafe abortion including decriminalisation of abortion.
• Challenging stigma and discrimination, attitudes and laws that undermine human rights, including on grounds of gender or sexual orientation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals.
• Improving sexual health of young people and girls, including comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and addressing child and early forced marriage (CEFM).
• Increasing access to comprehensive reproductive health services for poor, vulnerable and marginalised people.

Outcome Areas

In this call for Strengthening grant proposals, AmplifyChange will consider proposals working to strengthen one or more of the outcome areas that AmplifyChange supports. These are:

• Increasing individual awareness of SRHR as human rights
• Improving access to SRHR resources, information & services
• Transforming social norms
• Changing policies & laws
• Building stronger, more inclusive movements for SRHR

Budget

• AmplifyChange will not consider grants below EUR40,000 or exceeding EUR100,000 in budget.
• Up to 40% of a Strengthening Grant can also be used to support core costs – the costs of organisational development and boosting organisational effectiveness of an organisation dedicated to strengthening SRHR.
• In this round, a Strengthening grant will range from EUR40,000 – EUR100,000. Grants will be for a maximum of two years (24 months).
• AmplifyChange receives strong competition for Strengthening grants. Therefore,  they encourage applicants to provide realistic budgets to match their proposed approach, and not just apply for the maximum amount available.

Eligibility Criteria

• This Strengthening Grant round is open to women-led, LGBTIQ-led and disabled persons civil society organisations only. Applicants must be Southern-based organisations from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
• A Women-led organisation is an organisation whose senior leadership at both board and staff levels is comprised of more than 50% women. The Executive Director must be a woman. Definition of a woman is anyone who identifies as a woman and is inclusive of cisgender, transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary people.
• A LGBTIQ-led organisation is an organisation whose senior leadership at both board and staff levels is comprised of more than 50% of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex communities. The Executive Director must identify as LGBTIQ.
• Disabled persons’ organisations or DPOs are representative organisations or groups of persons with disabilities (PWDs), where PWDs constitute a majority of the overall staff, board, and volunteers in all levels of the organisation. It includes organisations of relatives of PWDs (only those representing children with disabilities, people with intellectual disabilities, and/or the Deafblind) where a primary aim of these organisations is empowerment and the growth of self-advocacy of persons with disabilities.
  • The applicant organisation must be registered in one of the AmplifyChange eligible countries.
  • The project must be implemented in one of the AmplifyChange eligible countries.
  • The applicant organisation must have a bank account.
  • The project must respond to one or more of the Amplify Change priorities.
  • The project must respond to one or more of the AmplifyChange outcome areas.
  • The organisation must be a Southern-based organisation.
  • The organisation must be a small to medium sized organisation with an average annual expenditure of less than EUR1 million per year.
• AmplifyChange will consider applications from civil society organisations based in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia. It recognises the broad scope of civil society and the wide range of organisations, actors and coalitions it encompasses.
• Civil Society Organisations can include:
  • Community groups
  • Youth Groups
  • Non-governmental organisations
  • Indigenous groups
  • Charitable organisations
  • Faith-based organisations
  • Research institutes
  • Social enterprise groups
  • Public-private partnerships
  • Communications and media groups
  • Professional associations

International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) based in the Global North and UN agencies are not eligible to apply for this call.

How to Apply

Applicants can apply online via given website.

More about the AmplifyChange

AmplifyChange is a multi-donor challenge fund to support civil society advocacy for sexual and reproductive health and rights. They are a fund which aims to empower young people, men and women to realise their sexual and reproductive rights.

This short film is an introduction to AmplifyChange. Find out more about who they are, what they do, how they work and learn about the work of some of their grantees. See the global demand for sexual and reproductive health and rights advocacy funding they have received since they launched in September 2014.

Vision

AmplifyChange’s vision is to contribute to securing universal recognition of sexual and reproductive health and rights as human rights, enabling women, men and young people to realise their full potential in safe and supportive environments.

AmplifyChange strengthens the social movement for change by providing support to civil society and community-based organisations working in countries where the needs are greatest, in particular Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

AmplifyChange provides grants to directly fund local civil society organisations (CSOs) that advocate for and promote better policy and action on neglected sexual and reproductive health and rights issues.

Top tips for Writing a Proposal

Current User Guides

AmplifyChange’s User Guides, a series of videos and PDF resources, are designed to give grantees and prospective grantees more detailed information and guidance on key aspects of project design and implementation.

1. Explaining our Theory of Change
2. Demystifying monitoring
3. Indicators
4. How should I plan my activities?
5. Building a successful coalition
6. How to write your application
7. Developing milestones​
8. Communications advice​
9. Project design

Eligible Countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Republic Of, Congo, The Democratic Republic of the, Cote D’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

For more information, please visit https://amplifychange.org/grant-model/strengthening/