Organising for change
Communities rising
We believe that for social change towards acceptance of diversity and equality to happen, LGBTI people and communities need to be at the core of our work. That’s why ILGA-Europe are launching a new re-granting programme ‘Organising for change: Communities rising’ to support LGBTI community organising work in the European region. Below you’ll find the call for proposals under this new funding opportunity.
INVITATION FOR APPLICATIONS
The rationale
LGBTI community organising is about individuals coming together, sharing their stories, gain support and strength from that sharing. This collective gathering of experiences eventually leads to people further organising to make a change in their community or society, so that the negative experiences they have will not be repeated for themselves or others. Thus for example advocacy work for legal and policy change is grounded in the collective experience of individuals who come together creating the argument and the energy for the push for change.
Providing support, organising social and cultural events, running discussion and artistic groups, are ways for organisations and initiatives to reach out to LGBTI people. Such activities also help to collect knowledge about people’s experiences of violence and discrimination in society. This knowledge gives direction to our advocacy, litigation and other type of work. First and foremost, these activities support LGBTI people to escape isolation, to receive support when they are in need, to develop self and collective awareness. This will hopefully lead to improvement of quality of life and empowerment to take action.
We believe that community organising also works the other way around: the more LGBTI people are aware, engaged, and mobilised, the more LGBTI individuals, groups and organisations are empowered and enabled in their work towards change. Our action as a movement has proven to be stronger when it is more grounded in LGBTI people’s realities and when the communities are engaged in actions that concern them. It is about enhancing communities’ ownership, participation, empowerment, being respectful, intersectional, accessible, and inclusive.
Organising communities is not an easy task. LGBTI groups and organisations - sooner or later - struggle with such work. It requires determination, resources and people; it is also a matter of vision and strategy, skills and plans. This programme aims to support groups and organisations in their efforts to strengthen LGBTI community organising[1].
Objective & activities
This programme aims to increase the LGBTI movement’s abilities to effect change for LGBTI people in Europe through strengthening organisations and groups’ capacity and skills of community organising work.
We believe that supporting a strategic approach towards more organised LGBTI communities will enhance organisations and groups’ capacity to bring about change:
- Community work will allow organisations to better respond to LGBTI communities’ needs.
- Organisations’ other strategies such as advocacy, litigation, campaigning, etc. will be significantly strengthened.
- Communities will develop ownership, be more engaged, and mobilised around shared movement’s struggles.
In an endeavor to strengthen the community organising capacity of the European LGBTI movement, ILGA-Europe will support work through a combination of activities: re-granting scheme, ongoing peer learning, coaching.
Through the programme we want:
- To increase the ability of the European LGBTI organisations to understand, reflect, and represent communities’ needs;
- To strengthen communities’ ownership and mobilisation especially around human rights work;
- To ultimately increase LGBTI people’s enjoyment of human rights.
Under the re-granting scheme we will support efforts that link LGBTI community work with documentation, advocacy, litigation, campaigning and mobilisation, alliance building, etc.
Activities that can be supported under this grant include (but are not limited to): needs assessment that supports organisations’ direction of work; development of community activities to reach out and engage LGBTI people who are further marginalised (perhaps because of their ethnic background, disability, language, geographical distance, faith or belief/religious identity, or because they don’t see a space for themselves because they identify as bisexual, transgender or intersex and the activities being organised seem to be only for lesbians or gay men, etc.); actions that focus on engaging communities in advocacy, documentation work, campaigns, etc.
ILGA-Europe welcome projects that look into creating sustainable practices or systems that will endure beyond the grant timeframe. The purpose of this project is to strengthen LGBTI community organising throughout the European region. ILGA-Europe aim to make lessons learned widely available.
Budget & scope
The programme will be open to LGBTI organisations from the following countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey.
By starting with a limited group of countries, ILGA-Europe and partners will be able to focus on achieving results and capturing the learning; the intention is for lessons learned and good practices to be consolidated and to be made available more widely within the European movement following this project.
The grant amount available for your application is a maximum of € 9.500 for up to eight grants.
Eligibility
Organisations carrying out activities supporting the rights of LGBTI people in the pre-selected program countries are eligible, i.e. Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey.
Evaluation grid
Section of the form / Evaluation criteria / Scoring1, 2, 3 / Clear description of the organisation (type, structure, division of responsibility, activities) also in relation to the priority of the programme. Financial and management capacity. Overall quality of the proposal. / 0-15
(min 10)
4 / Project description (clarity of purpose/ change, coherence with the context, description of the steps and milestones). Overall strategy linking community organising and other work streams (clarity, alignment with the comprehensive strategy to achieve substantial change for LGBTI people). Illustrates that the project can yield effective results, overcome challenges, improve strategic approach to change. / 0-25
5, 6, 10 / Methodology and activities. What and how will it be implemented to achieve project goal, logic and clarity of explanations, clear link between objectives, strategy, methods. Results (outputs and outcomes). Role of beneficiaries and stakeholders. Budget clearly reflects activities described and other relevant costs. / 0-25
4, 5 / Relevance of the project. Activities proposed allow increasing accountability towards the LGBTI communities. The approach described enhances communities ownership, participation and empowerment. It is respectful, intersectional, accessible, and inclusive. Practices and system described are capable to endure beyond the grant timeframe. The project describes work to reach out and engage groups within the LGBTI communities which are further marginalised, unreached, and underrepresented. / 0-20
5.2 / Timetable / 0-5
7,8 / Sharing with ILGA-Europe membership. Evaluation and impact.. Method of measuring success and impact. / 0-10
Additional information
- Projects submitted within this re-granting scheme must be clearly distinct from other projects currently implemented by your organisation.
- Projects implemented under this grant do not require co-funding.
- Implementation period (= period of cost eligibility) is 12 months (1st September 2017 to 30th August 2018) provided that the project will be approved and the contract signed before the 1st September 2018.
- Due to ILGA-Europe’s donor requirement, applicant organisations, their board members and key staff will be subject to a vetting process (security check).
- Applicant organisations should also commit to attending two partners meetings on the side of the ILGA-Europe Annual Conferences in Warsaw (November 2017) and in Brussels (October 2018).
- Applicant organisations should commit to have a conversation with ILGA-Europe staff every 4 months (i.e. twice within the frame of the project) with the purpose of reporting the situation regarding projects implementation. Conversations will include an update outlining the progress made and any issues that might be relevant for the continuation of the project (incl. relating to the overall national context in which the project is being implemented, and links with applicant overall strategy for change).
- Applicants should also commit to take part in regular peer learning activities involving future grantees under this scheme, e.g. monthly or bimonthly group calls focusing on specific practices or tools. Lessons learned and good practices from grantees will be made available more widely within the European movement through ILGA-Europe website and other means.
- A final report is due one month after conclusion of the project, latest by 31th September 2018. A format for reporting will be provided by ILGA-Europe. The final report should include an in-depth project evaluation, as well as quantitative and qualitative data relating to the project’s objectives and overall project outcome and outputs. Project related outputs such as articles, documentation of meetings with agenda, participants’ lists and evaluations, photos, manuals etc. should be submitted along with the final report.
- Financial reporting will have to include copies of all invoices and receipts.
Deadline
Deadline for applications is 24 April 2017 at 18 CET. Results will be available in June 2017
To submit or if you have any questions or doubts in the preparation of your project proposal, please contact Valeria Santostefano, ILGA-Europe Senior Programmes & Policy Officer
Organising for change
Communities rising
APPLICATION FORM
Please answer all questions and follow the structure outlined below. A well-detailed and well-structured application will increase your chances of getting ILGA-Europe’s support for the proposal. ILGA-Europe reserve the right to ask for additional information for an objective evaluation of your proposal. For additional information and to submit the application please contact Valeria Santostefano, ILGA-Europe Senior Programmes & Policy Office.
Please use as a reference the ILGA-Europe’s material “Organising for change: Resources to support LGBTI community organising work”.
Project title:Planned period of implementation: / 1 September 2017 - 30 August 2018
Name of the implementing organisation:
Contact information (post, e-mail, phone):
Contact person:
Date of organisation’s registration with the authorities[2]:
Organisation is in existence since:
If relevant, date of completion of the previous project (reports approved by ILGA-Europe):
Date of project submission to ILGA-Europe:
1. Project summary (Max 100 words):
Please complete at the end of the writing process
2. Tell us about your organisation (max. 1 page):
This is a space for you to show your capacity to engage in the work you are planning
a. What is the structure of your organisation (e.g. board, staff, volunteers, members - include numbers)?
b. Please describe the capacity of your organisation to administer and (financially) manage grants of a similar size.
i. Indicate who will coordinate the project, and who will be responsible for keeping financial records
ii. Provide up to 3 examples of previous projects implemented (Name of the project, funder, period of implementation, budget amount)
iii. Provide an example of how you deal with keeping financial records (e.g. travel expenses, how payroll costs are calculated and administered, etc.) and how does the decision making process work around it.
c. For the vetting process (security check), please include a list of board members and key staff (name, function) involved in the project.
d. Do you currently receive or have you applies for other grants from ILGA-Europe or the US State Department (e.g. through Dignity for All, Freedom House, American Bar Association, or US embassies)? If yes, which ones? How will you ensure that there is no overlap of the projects but that they, preferably, complement each other?
3. Tell us about your organisation and its’ work (max. 1 page)
This is a space for you to show how your organisation work relate to the priorities of the program
a. What does your organisation want to achieve (your main goals) and what type of activities (and strategies) does your organisation develop to succeed?
b. What kind of LGBTI community organising work has your organisation been involved in? (Please describe it as it is connected to your goals; provide an example of a successful story of community organising in which you participated)
4. Project goals (max. 1 pages):
Through this section we want to hear more about what you want to change in your environment/context around LGBTI community organising; what are the steps or milestones you foresee, and what role this project plays in the process. Links with the context you work in should be explicit throughout the description.
a. What is that you want to change or to be different as a result of this project and why is this important in your context around LGBTI community organising? (Please be very specific and ensure that this is clearly defined)
b. How will this project contribute to achieving the change? (Please specify the steps/milestones you plan to achieve thanks to this grant)
c. How does this project connect LGBTI community work with other streams of work in your organisation? (E.g. advocacy, campaigning, etc.)
5. Project Methodology (max. ½ page):
Please make sure you include specific information about the methodology, tools and techniques you will use to implement the project; e.g. needs assessment, community forums, specific outreach techniques, etc.
6. Project Activities
6.1 Description of planned activities
Describe each project activity; identify the objectives, expected outcome and outputs, beneficiaries and stakeholders involved. Fill in the table below or provide a similar overview.
Activity # 1 / Description of the activity (in chronological order of implementation)e.g. Outreach of LGBTI communities in the countryside town ABC
Objectives / What you want to achieve
e.g. LGBTI communities in the countryside town ABC is aware about activities implemented by the organisation
Expected outputs / Direct, measurable, tangible and visible results expected from program activities
e.g. Number of flyers distributed, views of promotion videos, number of meetings organised
Expected outcomes / Short-term and medium-term effects of program’s outputs.
e.g. Community members participate and contribute in activities implemented by the organisation
Beneficiaries / Who is the activity for
e.g. LGBTI communities in ABC, specifically trans people
Stakeholders involved / Other actors (NGOs, professionals, institutions, etc.) who are not directly benefiting from the activity but are somehow involved or interested in it
e.g. other human rights NGOs in town ABC
Any other information
Activity # 2
Objectives
Expected outputs
Expected outcomes
Beneficiaries
Stakeholders involved
Any other information
Activity # 3
Objectives
Expected outputs
Expected outcomes
Beneficiaries
Stakeholders involved
Any other information
Add rows if necessary!
6.2 Time table