Deadline: 28-Jan-21
The Tinker Foundation’s Institutional Grants program provides project funding to organizations working to improve the lives of Latin Americans, with an emphasis on support for organizations in the region.
The Foundation funds research and advocacy, experimentation, scaling up of promising interventions, and exchange of knowledge and models – with the overarching goal of contributing to large-scale change in policy and practice. They award grants through three program areas that they have prioritized during the last decade because of their importance to the region.
Priorities
- Democratic Governance: The Foundation invites projects that work toward creating and consolidating systems of justice that are independent, effective, reliable, equitable, and transparent. They will consider proposals focused at the national or sub-national level, including those with comparative or regional components. Projects may relate to what could be called the “unfinished work of judicial reform,” i.e., the challenges and opportunities involved with implementing and operating within more recently adopted structures and frameworks. Initial areas of interest include:
- Promoting transparency and accountability in the justice sector, both from within justice institutions and without (civil society monitoring, etc.)
- The selection, training, and assessment of justice sector actors, as well as developing next-generation talent
- Increasing access to justice, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups
- Education: In this context, the Foundation’s education grantmaking strategy in 2020 and 2021 is supporting work that focuses on the most significant near-term effects of the pandemic on education, including learning loss and dropout. They are prioritizing projects that seek active engagement and participation of the most vulnerable students and communities and, to the extent possible, complement priorities and initiatives of the public education system. The Foundation seeks to support projects that generate approaches and evidence that could be relevant to other educational disruptions and contribute to broader efforts in the region related to educational access and equity.
- Sustainable Resource Management: The Tinker Foundation’s work on the environment is focused on efforts that support sustainable management of habitat and resources and incorporate social and economic dimensions affecting the well-being of local communities. Projects will address these challenges at multiple levels ranging from engaging with policy makers, to capacity building, and standards development and implementation. Funding is available for projects that address one of the following key themes:
- Promoting Sustainable Management Practices: Projects should address the crucial links between effective resource management and communities that use them and seek to ensure that economic returns resulting from improved management policies benefit local populations. Potential strategies include assessing and establishing best practices; developing the human talent required to manage and conserve resources (i.e., technical training); and identifying mechanisms, practices and/or policies that avoid or mitigate overexploitation.
- Water: Water scarcity and quality issues have emerged as a critical concern worldwide. In Latin America, as elsewhere, the shortage of water and the resulting social, economic, and health costs disproportionately impact the poor. For that reason, the Foundation has a particular interest in projects that promote equitable access to a clean and secure water supply.
Funding Information
- Grant amounts vary by program area. However, the typical range is between $50,000 to $150,000 per year, for up to three years.
Eligibility Criteria
- Organization Status: The Tinker Foundation provides grants only to organizations that are charitable in nature, i.e., with a United States 501(c)(3) tax status or its equivalent if the organization is located outside the U.S. Organizations from Latin America do not need to have United States 501(c)(3) status.
- Geographic Focus: The project must be focused on the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America, including:
- Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
For more information, visit https://tinker.org/institutional-grants-apply-page/