Call for proposals

The Stefan Batory Foundation in partnership with the Polish Children and Youth Foundation announces an open call for proposals under the Citizens for Democracy Programme for non-governmental organizations, financed by the EEA Grants.

The aim of the Programme is to strengthen civil society development and enhance the contribution of non-governmental organizations to social justice, democracy and sustainable development. Grants offered in the Programme are designed to: foster citizenship, promote democratic values, including human rights; develop advocacy and watchdog role; promote strengthened capacity of NGOs and an enabling environment for the sector; empower vulnerable groups.

The Programme puts a special emphasis on horizontal concerns such as: hate speech, extremism and hate crime, racism and xenophobia, homophobia, anti-Semitism, tolerance and multicultural understanding, Roma, sexual harassment, violence against women and trafficking.

Grants are available for: thematic projects, systemic projects and for developing bilateral cooperation. Organizations applying for thematic and systemic projects may use part of the grant for capacity building.

Eligible applicants

Grants are available to Polish non-governmental organisations, particularly foundations and associations, which: are legal entities registered in the relevant National Court Register; have a non‐commercial purpose; are independent of local, regional and central government, public entities, commercial entities and political parties; are not religious institutions; pursue public interest and abide by the principles of democratic values and human rights.

Organisations may apply for grants individually or as leaders of partnerships with other entities or informal groups from: Poland, the Donor States (Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway), 14 EEA/Norway grants Beneficiary States (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia Spain), countries outside the European Economic Area which border on Poland (Belarus, Ukraine, Russia) or with intergovernmental organisations.

Grants for seed money under bilateral cooperation are available also for non-governmental organisations, public or private entities, commercial or non-commercial, from the Donor States: Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.

Areas of support

THEMATIC PROJECTS

Grants for activities falling into following areas:

Civic participation – engagement of citizens in public life, increasing participation in public policy and decision making on issues that are relevant at a local and national level;
Public scrutiny – improvement of good governance, transparency and citizens trust in public institutions;
Combating discrimination – promotion and protection of human rights, fighting homophobia, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and all types of discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender;
Counteracting exclusion – extending the scope and forms of support provided to the vulnerable groups at risk of social exclusion and engagement of these groups in the decision making processes;
Children and youth – education of children and young people on human rights and civic participation, fighting against discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation of children and youth.

Amount available in the 1st call for proposals: EUR 9,5 million.

Grant amounts: PLN 50,000 – 250,000 [ca. EUR 12,500 – 62,500] for organisations which implement projects individually; PLN 50,000 to 350,000 [ca. EUR 12,500 – 87,500] for organisations implementing projects in partnership with other Polish or foreign entities.

Project implementation period: in line with the nature of project providing the costs are incurred no later than April 30, 2016.

Co-financing requirement: minimum 10% of total project costs, including a financial contribution of minimum 50 per cent and an in-kind contribution as voluntary work of maximum 50 per cent of matching funds.

Smaller and less experienced organisations which submit projects of a budget of up to PLN 70,000 [ca. EUR 17,500] and their average spending of the last two years did not exceed PLN 70,000 [ca. EUR 17,500] may receive from the Batory Foundation up to PLN 3 500 [ca EUR 875] required as financial matching contribution.

Application’s timeframe: In the first call for proposals project outlines (in Polish language only) should be filed through the Electronic Application System, accessible from the Programme’ website www.ngofund.org.pl beginning with September 1^st 2013, 12.00 (noon) CET. The deadline for submission of projects’ outlines is October 15, 2013, 12.00 (noon) CET.

Decision on selecting project outlines to the second stage of appraisal will be made before December 2, 2013. Detailed project applications will be filed through the Electronic Application System, accessible from the Programme’s website www.ngofund.org.pl from December 2, 12.00 (noon) CET till December 30, 12.00 (noon) CET. Final decision on projects’ selection will be made by February 3, 2014.

Application form and guidelines are available on the Programme’s website: ngofund.org.pl

Subsequent calls for proposals for thematic projects will be opened March 1 – April 15, 2014 and September 1– October 15, 2014.

SYSTEMIC PROJECTS

Grants for activities designed to develop and implement systemic solutions that will strengthen and enhance the quality of the overall non-governmental sector or its individual ‘subsectors’ in such areas as:

Legal framework – creating favourable legal and institutional environment for development of NGOs and civic initiatives;
Mission and standards – strengthening NGOs identity, basing their activity on mission and strategic planning as well as research and better understanding of needs and expectation of their constituencies;
Information and communication – expanding the scope of available information on NGO activity, creating forum of debate and reflection on issues important for the development of civil society, raising public awareness on diverse character of NGOs and effects of their activity;
Sources of financing – increasing effectiveness and efficiency of NGOs in raising funds from diversified sources;
„Subsectorial” problems – identifying and proposing solutions to problems/needs specific for particular types/ groups of NGOs.

Amount available: EUR 6,2 million.

Grant amounts: PLN 300,000 – 1.5 million [EUR 75,000 – 375,000] (for projects implemented individually), PLN 300,000 – 2 million [ca. EUR 75,000 – 500,000] (for projects implemented in partnership).

Project implementation period: minimum two years providing costs are incurred no later than April 30, 2016. In justified cases project implementation may last less than two years.

Application’s timeframe: Projects outlines (in Polish language only) should be filed through the Electronic Application System, accessible from the Programme’s website www.ngofund.org.pl beginning with October 16, 12.00 (noon) CET. The deadline for submission of project outlines is November 15, 2013, 12.00 (noon) CET.

Decision on selecting project outlines to the second stage of appraisal will be made by December 16, 2013. Detailed project applications will be filed through the Electronic Application System, accessible from the Programme’s website www.ngofund.org.pl from January 1, 2014 12.00 (noon) CET till January 31, 2014, 12.00 (noon) CET. Decision on projects’ selection will be made by March 3, 2014.

Application form and guidelines are available on the Programme’s website: ngofund.org.pl

BILATERAL COOPERATION

Seed money for search for partners and micro grants for networking, exchange, sharing and transfer of knowledge, technology, experience and best practice between Polish organizations and entities from Norway, Lichtenstein and Island.

Amount available: EUR 420,000: EUR 180 000 for seed money and EUR 240 000 for micro-grants.

Grants amount:

up to PLN 50,000 /EUR 12, 000 – seed money for developing partnership projects (available to all applicants)
up to PLN 65, 000/ EUR 16,000 – micro grants for enhancing or strengthening cooperation (available exclusively to organizations which received grants for implementation of thematic or systemic projects).

Project implementation period: in line with project’s nature.

Co-financing requirement: not required.

Application’s timeframe: Applications can be submitted on an ongoing basis beginning with September 1, 2013 till September 1, 2014 for seed money and since February 3, 2014 till December 1, 2015 for micro grants. Applications (in English or in Polish) for grants under bilateral cooperation should be filed on forms downloaded from the Programme’s website and submitted by e-mail to the Programme Team at: [email protected]

The decision on grant award will be made within a month after submission of the application.

Application form and guidelines are available on Program’s website: ngofund.org.pl in English and Polish.

Project selection procedure

Thematic and systemic projects will be assessed in a two-step procedure: first organizations submit project outlines. The organizations whose projects are selected to the second stage will submit detailed project applications. Project outlines and detailed project applications are assessed by independent experts. A recommendation on the list of applications recommended for the grant award is made by the Selection Committee. Based on the recommendations of Selection Committee, a final decision on a list of applications qualified for the grant award is made by the Programme Committee.

Applications for grants for bilateral cooperation will be reviewed and assessed by the Programme Team (Bilateral Fund Coordinator and the Coordinators of respective support areas). The final decisions on grants award will be made by Programme Manager.

Additional information

Detailed information on application procedures, description of selection process (selection criteria and scoring chart, appeal procedure from formal assessment), types of eligible activities and expenditure, payments system as well as application forms are available on the Programme website ngofund.org.pl together with a user guide for applicants and grantees which details step by step requirements related to developing and filing the applications, implementing the projects and reporting on the grants expenditure.

Contact

From August 15, 2013 the Programme Team is available to respond to the questions regarding the thematic scope of the Programme, the application and selection process. All questions sent by email at [email protected] will be answered in two working days. Information will be provided also by phone and Skype.

On October 1^st , 10.00 am – 4 pm the Programme team organizes an open day for applicants at the premises of the Batory Foundation and Polish Children and Youth Foundation. All contact data (telephones, mail and Skype addresses ) are posted on Programme’s website ngofund.org.pl