Call for Proposals

Key Facts | About the fund | About the grants call | Process | Support |
Opportunity grants | Movement building grants | FAQs

OPPORTUNITY GRANT CLOSED FOR APPLICATIONS. 

Key facts

Opportunity Grant		Movement Building Grant
Maximum GBP 5000 per year renewable for two years= GBP 10,000		Maximum GBP 50,000 over two years
South Africa, Zimbabwe and Lesotho		Any Southern African Development Community Country
Deadline for full application: Midnight SA time on Wednesday 31 August 2022		Deadline for concept note: Midnight SA time on Monday 22 August 2022
		Deadline for full application: Midnight SA time on Friday 30 September 2022.
Grant period: From 1 January 2023 to 30 December 2024
Areas of work for both grants
Increasing access to reproductive health	Improving sexual health of young people		Removing barriers to safe abortion
Eliminating GBV		Removing stigma and discrimination

Women’s Rights organisations are invited to apply for funding from the Voice and Choice Southern Africa (VCSA) Fund, established under the Amplify Change Partnership Grant. The fund is managed by Gender Links through the GL Sustainability Hub Grant Making Unit.

About the fund

The right to bodily autonomy and integrity is a central pillar of women’s rights. Since the adoption of a far reaching SRHR strategy by SADC Health Ministers in November 2018, the Voice and Choice Movement has gathered momentum in Southern Africa. With the support of Amplify Change, GL has coordinated the Voice and Choice work of the Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance. As a partner of Amplify Change, GL is managing a new sub granting portfolio – the Voice and Choice Southern Africa Fund.

We are a challenge fund that responds to ideas presented by civil society to strengthen sexual and reproductive health and rights. As a challenge fund we rely on you to propose your ideas for successful advocacy to strengthen SRHR. We support local civil society organisations that advocate to strengthen SRHR across our five priority themes. Applicants need to think strategically about their local movements and define a role that will make the most effective contribution to change. Applications must respond to AmplifyChange’s Theory of Change

About the Grants Calls

The VCSA Fund offers two types of Grants

1. Opportunity Grants – a maximum of GBP 10,000 over two years to organisations with an annual budget of less than GBP 50,000 per annum, in Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

2.  Movement Building Grants – a maximum of GBP 50,000 over two years for organisations with a budget of less than GBP 500,000 per annum, in any one of the 16 countries of the Southern Africa Development Community.

Applicants may only apply for the Opportunity Grant or Movement Building Grant NOT both. They may only apply for one grant within either of the two windows.

Process

All applications must be filled in online. In the case of the Opportunity Grant  you must first fill in the eligibility form, before proceeding to full application The deadline for submission is midnight SA time on 31 August 2022. You will be informed of the outcome by 1 October, 2022. 

In the case of the Movement Building Grant, you must also fill out the eligibility form before proceeding to do a concept note. This is due by midnight SA time on 22 August 2022. You will receive a response to your application by 1 September, 2022. If you are successful you will be invited to submit a full proposal by 30 September 2022. The final outcome will be announced by 15 October 2022. 

Support

GL seeks to ensure that this process is inclusive as possible and in particular that the online application does not disadvantage any organisation. The following are available to assist:

Guides and films

Opportunity grants 

OPPORTUNITY GRANT CLOSED FOR APPLICATIONS. 

What we are looking for

Opportunity grants provide funding for small organisations to support sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocacy at a local level. We support grassroots organisations who often find it difficult to access funding.

The purpose of an Opportunity grant is to help new and smaller community-based groups to pursue innovative ideas and approaches for SRHR advocacy. Grants are for a maximum of GBP 5000 per year for a maximum of two years.

We aim to be flexible in our funding approach so that smaller and new organisations can access funding, but we do expect to support projects that have promising potential to achieve meaningful change for sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Eligibility for the Opportunity Grant

An organisation that is eligible for an Opportunity grant must:

• Be a Women’s Rights Organisation. This means that your organisations main focus must include one of the following: women’s or girl’s rights; gender equality; making feminist change; LGBTIQ+. Furthermore your organisation must be women led.
• Based in and implementing a project in Lesotho, South Africa or Zimbabwe.
• Have an annual income of less than GBP 50,000 and be able to verify this through duly signed financial statements.
• Be registered or willing to register before the grant call. Unregistered groups are eligible to apply. If your group is unregistered, you will still be considered for funding and – if successful at application stage – will be subject to the same due diligence and financial assessments that apply to all organisations. If your organisation can register, then we will support you in this process before your project starts. If it is not possible to register, you will need to nominate a fiscal sponsor.
• Your organisation has to have or be willing to have a formally constituted Governance structure as part of the grant agreement.
• Your organisation has to have or be willing to have a company bank account as part of the grant agreement.
• Your organisation has to have or be willing to have more than one signatory to the bank account as part of the grant agreement.

An organisation that is eligible for an Opportunity grant may not be:

• An applicant for a Movement Building Grant; or more than one Opportunity Grant.
• An individual;
• Private company;
• Political party;
• Government entity;
• Discriminatory in any way.

Please take the eligibility test before proceeding to the application.

If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact grants1@genderlinks.org.za

Movement Building 

CLOSED FOR CONCEPT NOTES. SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS WILL BE ADVISED HOW TO PROCCED TO FULL  APPLICATION.

The purpose of the Movement Building grant is to contribute to the development of stronger and more inclusive movements advocating for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in Southern Africa. Our appraisal of applications will therefore include an assessment of how resources are allocated across partners to contribute to equitable and effective allocation of resources across a movement. Applicant organisations can only submit one application as the lead, however they can have downstream partners.

What type of Networks are we looking to support?

Applications should be developed jointly with network members. The proposal development, share of the budget and governance of the network should reflect the participation and involvement of the whole network. Applications should propose an effective approach to ongoing monitoring and relationship-building with civil society organisations. This may include:

• Inclusive leadership: advocates are stronger when they work together, but more resilient when actors can each stand in their own right. Successful advocacy benefits most from a combination of SRHR expertise and diverse connections. Network grants therefore support efforts to coordinate campaigning across multiple organisations and their public supporter base.
• Connecting and community-building: including (but not exclusively) physical convening, mentoring, or facilitating exchanges as part of establishing a stronger community of professional advocates and emerging leaders to SRHR. This would help to create the development of professional identity and career pathways for emerging advocacy leaders.
• Linking and learning: to support stronger learning within SRHR advocacy communities. We will support learning activities such as the sharing of best practice or the honest appraisal of failed initiatives. We will also support the production of evidence on advocacy impact and effectiveness of advocacy practice.

Eligibility for the Movement Building Grant

The eligibility criteria refers solely to the lead applicant:

The lead applicant must:

• Be a Women’s Rights Organisation. This means that your organisations main focus must include one of the following: women’s or girl’s rights; gender equality; making feminist change; LGBTIQ+. Furthermore your organisation must be women led.
• Be registered in a Southern African country. We are seeking to support Southern African based networks, emerging from and rooted in their own communities, with the aim of advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• Have the ability to define a strategy, raise funds, set performance targets and other objectives, define a brand identity and have a governance structure fully independent of a Global North-based headquarters or support office.
• Be an established civil society organisation₁ with transparent governance structures,
• Have audited accounts for the past two years.
• Have a bank account with two signatories
• Have a registration status that enables them to receive funds from foreign sources
• A proven track-record of working in at least one of the five priority themes
• A proven track record and capability to provide support to the SRHR movement, with experience of working with or supporting SRHR networks, coalitions, partners or civil society organisations;

An organisation that is eligible for a Movement Building Grant may not be:

• An applicant for an Opportunity Grant; or more than one Movement Grant.
• An individual; 
• Private company; 
• Political party;
• Government entity;
• Discriminatory in any way.

Frequently asked questions

• Which grant to apply for

  Who determines whether the organisation should apply for movement building or opportunity grant?
  The applicant, and the eligibility criteria. If you are a non-profit Women’s Rights Organisation (WRO) with an income of less than GBP 50,000 per annum registered in South Africa, Lesotho or Zimbabwe, working on SRHR, you may wish to apply for the Opportunity Grant. If you are a registered WRO in any SADC country with at least two years of audited financial statements; a track record in building SRHR movements; an income of less than GBP 500,000 per annum you may wish apply for the Movement Building grant.

• Applying for more than one grant

  Can an organisation apply for both grants?
  No.

• How to get to the application

  How do we go about the eligibility test?
  Please find the eligibility test for the Movement Building Grant here on the website and for the Opportunity grants here on the website.

  I have already done eligibility test and was successful. Where do I go to proceed with application?
  If you were successful, you will get a message on the screen giving you a link to the application form.

• Track record, size and income

  Is the grant accessible to new organizations who haven’t received funding?
  Yes, for the Opportunity grants, available in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.

  What if you fall in-between. so you are not small enough for opportunity grant but not big enough to be eligible for the movement building grant? The criteria for the movement building grant is that your income should be less than GBP 500,000 per annum. It is therefore not clear how you would fail to be big enough. However there are several other criteria, notably a track record of SRHR movement building.

  Can assets of the organisation be considered as GBP500, 000?
  This is an income figure. Again, your income needs to be less than this amount, so it should not be a difficult threshold to attain.

• Leadership

  What does women-led mean? Are we talking about cis-gender women or is it inclusive of women who are assigned male at birth?
  Transgender men, i.e. men who identify as women, can be considered to be women leaders.

  Which aspects of the LGBTIQA+ work is covered; our previous application was declined due to the leader being a male (gender non-conforming)?
  The criteria is that the organisation should be led by persons identifying as women.

• Amplify Change grantees

  Are organizations that are current or past AmplifyChange grantees eligible to apply (for the movement grant, in particular)?
  Yes

  Are current Amplify change grantees eligible for opportunity grants?
  Yes

• Registration

  Is a Non-Profit Company eligible to apply?
  Yes

  Is a grassroots NGO eligible to apply?
  Yes, particularly for the Opportunity grants that are available in Lesotho, Zimbabwe and South Africa. For these grants you are not required to have registration, a board or a bank account with two signatories but rather commit to ensuring these are all in place should you be successful. To lead a Movement Building application (available in any one of the SADC countries) you will need to have all these in place plus at least two years audited financial statements to qualify.

  We are an INGO can we apply?
  International non-government organisations (INGOs) may apply ONLY as a partner within a Network grant led by a southern-based organisation where relevant and where they demonstrate good value for money.

• Receiving foreign funding

  How do we check whether we are eligible to apply for foreign funding? This is specific to each country. Generally it should be possible to receive donations from a foreign source for the promotion of social justice.

• Financial compliance

  A question that small/medium organisations in our network has raised: They already went through the eligibility test and apparently they are disqualified as they do not meet the “existence of the audited financial statement”. They did not have the opportunity to do it yet but are willing to start if they eventually are selected to receive the funds. Do you suggest any further tip to cope with that situation or they should let down?
  For the Movement Building Grant it is necessary for the lead organisation to have at least two years’ worth of audited financial statements.

  If my financials are currently under audit and will be finalised by date of final submission can I answer yes for audited financials for purposes of eligibility? Can an organization in the process of auditing its books eligible for funding?
  Yes as long as you are certain that these will be available if invited to submit a full application for the Movement Building Grant, due on 30 September, 2022.

  Are we able to utilise a Fiscal Sponsor if you are ineligible as a young growing movement? Are we able to get a fiscal sponsor who has all the requirements?
  Yes, this will be considered, as long as 1) the fiscal sponsor meets the requirements and 2) your organisation meet all the other criteria, and is willing to put these measures in place as part of the grant.

  Are you eligible to apply if you are non-tax compliant?
  This is not a requirement at the time of application but is likely to be a condition of your contract at due diligence, should you be successful.

• Movements and coalitions

  How do you define a “movement”? Are there particular types of cultural, social, or political change that you prioritise or are most interested in within the SRHR space for the movement-building grant?
  Please see the questions in the eligibility criteria for the Movement Building Grant. The areas of work for both grants are increasing access to reproductive health; improving sexual health of young people; removing barriers to safe abortion; eliminating GBV; removing stigma and discrimination.

  We work with several networks; can we submit more than one application?
  Organisations may submit only one application as a lead organisation in this Movement Building grant round.

  We like to work in consortia can we still do this?
  Only one organisation can apply as the lead and take full responsibility for all legal and financial obligations. The consortium members would be implementing or downstream partners. There are no limits to the number of organisations in a consortium, as long as these are well managed.

  Can one organisation involve its affiliates as part of Coalition?
  Yes

  Can a coalition be one organisation, with branches or strictly two or more organisations? Can coalitions be considered as one organisation with 28 branches?
  Yes, as long as it fulfils the criteria for movement building.

  Four organisations are planning to collaborate. Is this okay?
  Yes, as long as there is one lead organisation that meets the eligibility criteria of the Movement Building Grant.

  Can an applicant that has not been eligible be put as a partner?
  Yes, as long as it is a WRO that promotes SRHR.

  Can government partners be named as project partners or coalition members as part of the movement grant, or do they need to be CSOs? Governments can be project partners but not coalition members. Government entities cannot receive funds from the grant.

  Is Lesotho Eligible for Movement Building grant?
  SRHR movements led by WRO in any of the 16 SADC countries are eligible to apply for the Movement Building grant, as long as the lead agency meets the fund criteria.

  Can the project be implemented in more than one country in SADC? Can this project be implemented transnationally and one organisation receiving the grant (Zambia, Zimbabwe & Lesotho) Is it possible for a project to be implemented in more than one country?
  Our main objective is to strengthen national level networks. We will consider multi country initiatives only if they can demonstrate real impact.

• Opportunity – geographical scope

  Is Zambia excluded from the smaller grants for new organisations? Are CSO’s in Angola eligible to apply?
  This grant is only open to WRO in South Africa, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

• Themes

  How many themes can we work on?
  AmplifyChange has five priority themes and you are welcome to work on any of these themes, you can chose one or work on more than one as you see fit. The themes are: increasing access to reproductive health; improving sexual health of young people; removing barriers to safe abortion; eliminating GBV; removing stigma and discrimination.

• Budget

  How do we determine the exchange rate for the budget?
  For guidance on this and other financial concerns please look at the financial guidance on our Resources page.

  For the opportunity grants what operational areas do the grants cover, for example salaries, travel, training etc.? Does opportunity grants also cover administration costs?
  Yes. For details please refer to the budget guidance in excel spread sheet at the start of, and embedded in the application. The budget specifies desirable proportions of programmes, to HR, to administration costs.