To strengthen resilience and effectiveness of nongovernmental organizations (“NGOs”) providing services to the population affected by the full-scale Russian invasion, and to facilitate the organizational development in the wartime,  

East Europe Foundation announces a grant competition within the framework of the second phase of the Capable and Resistant Program (hereinafter referred to as the “Program”).

The Capable and Resistant Program is implemented by East Europe Foundation with funding from Switzerland.

GRANT COMPETITION OBJECTIVES

The Program’s grant component will support initiatives of NGOs that provide services to people affected by the full-scale Russian invasion.

It is proposed to focus on the most vulnerable groups, such as internally displaced persons (“IDPs”) and those who have returned to their places of permanent residence, the local population, as well as women and children affected by the war.

Initiatives can be related to responding to the needs of the organization’s target audience (“TA”), supporting existing and/or developing new services and activities that are important to the TA and the local community.

Possible activities within the framework of the grant competition include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Measures to promote social integration and rehabilitation of internally displaced persons, including employment assistance, legal aid, psychological support, other counseling support, and more;
• Efforts aimed at assisting IDPs and/or the affected local populations with acquiring new skills and developing competencies to help them adapt to new conditions, including entrepreneurship, employment, and more;
• Measures to facilitate the involvement of IDPs and other vulnerable groups in solving community problems, such as conflict prevention and mediation; minimizing conflict risks, and more;
• Measures to create/improve the conditions for IDPs to stay in the host community;
• Establishing or strengthening partnerships between interested CSOs and local authorities to address local problems and wartime challenges in order to support the affected population;
• Creating or maintaining safe and inclusive coworking spaces, spaces for work, study and/or cultural leisure for IDPs and local residents, including youth, children and their parents, the elderly, etc.;
• Measures to combat gender-based violence (GBV);
• Services and support to (multi-)vulnerable populations: elderly people, GBV survivors, people with disabilities, national minorities, LGBTIQ+ people, and others;
• Other activities and initiatives that provide support to people affected by the full-scale Russian invasion, including IDPs and vulnerable local populations.

Within the framework of the project proposal and with proper justification in the application form, activities aimed at enhancing the operational and/or organizational capacity of the CSOs can also be supported, if these activities lead to achieving a certain coverage of beneficiaries during the project implementation period and align with the goals of the Capable and Resistant Program: provision of services and support to people affected by the full-scale Russian invasion. We recommend providing the justification in the section of the application form titled “Description of project activities: strategy and mechanisms for achieving the goal”.

In this way, the Foundation can support expenses that are anticipated, but not limited to:

• Administrative expenses, among others, including staff expansion to support the organizational program activities (for example, new positions for communication specialists, monitoring and evaluation experts, fundraising, etc.).
• Measures for NGOs staff and volunteers in accordance with the priorities and needs of the organization, including efforts to ensure psychological resilience; prevent professional burnout; ensure professional development, etc.;
• Purchasing equipment or services that are essential to attain the organization’s mission or project objectives. Examples: IP phones for the hotline; additional furniture and equipment if the organization expands its activities and staff; refurbishment of the organization’s or the community’s premises if the core services were/are provided in these premises, in case if the premises need to be refurbished, especially as a result of hostilities; renovation of vehicles on the organization’s balance sheet, etc.

SUPPORT CONDITIONS

Lot 1: Grants to the amount ranging from UAH 3,000,000 to UAH 4,500,000 for NGOs that have demonstrated previous experience in implementing similar projects and the necessary professional capacity. It is planned to support between seven to ten projects under Lot 1.

Lot 2: Grants to the amount ranging from UAH 1,000,000 to UAH 1,300,000 for NGOs that have demonstrated previous experience in implementing similar projects and the necessary professional capacity.  It is planned to support between ten and fifteen projects under Lot 2.

Geography of the competition: the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine at the time of application.

Only one application per applicant may be supported within this competition.

The grant competition is open to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), in particular, charities (non-entrepreneurial associations, institutions, foundations, etc.); public associations (public organizations, public unions), which are registered as legal entities in Ukraine and have a non-for-profit status.

Applications from business entities, including corporations and individual entrepreneurs, state authorities, local governments, political parties, and religious organizations shall not be considered. Applicant organizations must not be in a state of bankruptcy or dissolution at the time of application.

Grants cannot be issued to organizations that, at the time of signing the grant agreement, are registered (have a legal address) in the territory defined as temporarily occupied (in the list of settlements in the territories of which the state authorities of Ukraine temporarily do not exercise their powers, as well as settlements located on the demarcation line).

!Please note that this competition does NOT support the purchase, transportation and distribution of humanitarian aid (including food and non-food items, medicines, etc.) and assistance to the military.

The Capable and Resistant Program offers activities to develop capacities of the civil society organizations and strengthen their resilience in the wartime. The partner organizations selected through a competitive process will be offered organizational capacity assessments, online trainings and mentoring from leading experts at the organization’s request. Organizations may be eligible to receive a voucher for up to UAH 40,000 on a competitive basis, which can be spent on the development of communication and/or IT tools or additional training. By applying for the grant competition, organizations undertake to participate in the training and information activities of the Capable and Resistant Program, as well as to fulfill the reporting requirements (interim and final narrative and financial reporting shall be provided).

All applications submitted to the competition will be reviewed and evaluated by an independent panel of experts based on the following selection criteria:

• Alignment of proposed activities with the terms of the competition.
• Understanding the needs of beneficiaries and the scope of addressing them.
• Project feasibility, clear identification of risks.
• Experience of the organization’s members and involved professionals;
• The organization’s previous successful experience in implementing similar projects and budgets.
• Justified budget.

Additional preference will be given to the projects whose geographical coverage includes territories that have been affected by hostilities.

Expected project duration: up to five months. Please note that all projects should be completed before March 31, 2024, at the latest.

The projects are expected to start in November-December 2023.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION

Please submit and fill out the following (In Ukrainian):

• Application form. Recommendations on how to fill out the form can be found at this link;
• A logical model;
• Budget.

A set of documents is identical and must be submitted for both Lot 1 and Lot 2.

East Europe Foundation reserves the right not to support any project if the quality of the project applications does not meet the terms of the competition.

Please note:

• The application must be submitted in Ukrainian;
• The list of costs that cannot be supported by the Foundation is contained in the project budget template;
• The grantee’s own contribution under the grant component of the Program is not required;
• Applicants will be notified of the results of their application review in writing by e-mail;
• The decision of the grant competition board shall deem final and shall not be subject to review;
• Submitted applications shall not be returned or reviewed.

Deadline for applications: 23:59 on September 20, 2023 inclusive (Kyiv time, UTC +3 / EEST)

The results of the competition will be announced in November 2023.

All applications should be sent to [email protected] with the subject line: “Application for the grant competition Lot Number_”.

Questions regarding this call for project proposals may be sent to [email protected].

The information session is scheduled to take place at 14:00 on Wednesday, September 06, 2023.

To participate in the information session, each participant must fill out the form by September 05, 2023 inclusive. The link to join the Zoom meeting will be sent to the email addresses of the registered participants.