Eligible organisations from Member States and from Turkey can apply to this Grant Scheme co-funded by the EU and the Republic of Turkey within the Annual Action Programme for Turkey for the year 2014 under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II).

The global objective of this call for proposals is to strengthen the capacity of grassroots CSOs for active democratic participation in policy and decision making processes. The proposals should fall in one or more of the following priority areas: 

• Improving Administrative Skills of Grassroots CSOs; 
• Improving Advocacy Skills of Grassroots CSOs; 
• Improving Communication Skills of Grassroots CSOs.

Grant information

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between EUR 40.000 and EUR 60.000, and between 50% and 90% of eligible costs.

Duration

The initial planned duration of a project may not be lower than 10 months nor exceed 12 months.

Eligibility criteria

In order to be eligible for a grant, the applicants must:

• be a legal person, and
• be non-profit-making, and
• be established in a Member State of the European Union or Turkey or an eligible country according to the IPA Regulation , and
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s), not acting as an intermediary, and
• be grassroots CSOs from Turkey (associations and foundations), or
• be grassroots CSOs from the EU Member States or other eligible countries except Turkey (associations; foundations; associations and foundations established as non-for-profit companies/charitable organisations), and
• be established before the launch date of call for proposals (21.06.2017).

The lead applicant may act individually or with co-applicant(s). In case, an entity from an EU Member State or other eligible country according to IPA Regulation (except Turkey) applies as a lead applicant, then it should have at least one co-applicant from Turkey.

Deadline

The deadline for the submission of concept notes is 18 August 2017 as evidenced by the date of dispatch.

How to apply

The application process consists of two steps: 

• Concept notes 
• Full applications 

In the first instance, only concept notes must be submitted by post for evaluation. Thereafter, lead applicants who have been pre-selected will be invited to submit a full application. For full details of how to apply please visit the EuropeAid call page.

Matrix, through its Matrix Causes Fund (MCF), provides support to organisations which promote access to justice (particularly for people trying to get support to meet their basic personal needs), or promote equality of opportunity, or promote a sustainable environment. Since 2003, Matrix have committed over £850,000 to national and international charitable causes. Matrix Causes Fund is a restricted fund under the auspices of Prism the Gift Fund, UK charity no. 1099682.

Eligibility criteria

Applications are particularly welcome from organisations whose focus is on supporting the needs of vulnerable people such as prisoners, asylum seekers, people with mental health difficulties, people (particularly children) with disabilities, or women in refuges.

Grant size

The MCF will only provide an organisation with one-off funds of up to £5,000, or funds of up to £3,000 a year for 3 years. The MCF will fund the costs associated with things like publications, staff/volunteer training, publicity, events and equipment which can benefit many people and be long-lasting. Only in exceptional circumstances, will the MCF provide funds to cover costs (such as salary costs) for an organisation’s direct service delivery to individual clients or members of the public. The MCF does not provide funds to support or replace statutory or other services generally provided by public bodies such as schools.

Deadline

The Matrix Causes Fund Committee will next meet on Monday 10 July 2017. Any applications to be considered at the meeting should be received by 17.00 on Monday 3 July 2017.

How to apply

For further information and to apply, please visit The Matrix Causes Fund.

The Life Chances Fund (LCF) is an £80 million top-up fund, whose objective is to help those people in society who face the most significant barriers to leading happy and productive lives.

The £80 million has been committed by central government to provide contributions to outcome payments for payment-by-results contracts, which involve socially minded investors – ie towards Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). These contracts must be locally commissioned and aim to tackle complex social problems.

Objectives

The overall objective of the £80 million LCF is to help those people in society who face the most significant barriers to leading happy and productive lives. It will do this by:

• increasing the number and scale of SIBs in England
• making it easier and quicker to set up a SIB
• generating public sector efficiencies by delivering better outcomes and using this to understand how cashable savings are
• increasing social innovation and building a clear evidence base of what works
• increasing the amount of capital available to voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector providers to enable them to compete for public sector contracts
• providing better evidence of the effectiveness of the SIB mechanism and the savings that are being accrued
• growing the scale of the social investment market

Deadline

31 July 2017

How to apply

There is a 2-stage application process: firstly only expressions of interest are to be submitted and successful applicants in the first stage will be invited to submit a full application. 

For further information and to apply please click here.

The Christmas Challenge, founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Alec Reed CBE, is the UK’s biggest online match funding campaign which helps UK-registered charities raise funds for their cause. It offers supporters of participating charities the opportunity to have their donation doubled on theBigGive.org.uk when the campaign goes live on #GivingTuesday, 28th November 2017.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to apply for the Christmas Challenge 2017, a charity must:

• Be registered in the UK or have exempt status from HMRC
• Be registered on theBigGive.org.uk
• Have at least one year of filed accounts and an annual income of £25,000 or more (as per last filed accounts)

How to Apply

The application process has two stages:

• Stage 1 Application: 5th June – 7th July (you must submit stage 1 by 7th July deadline to proceed)
• Stage 2 Application (pledge collection): 5th June – 1st September

To apply please visit The Christmas Challenge 2017 website.

Deadline

7 July 2017.

The European Commission is currently seeking proposals under its Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) programme for Transaction cost support for social enterprise finance. 

The European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) 2014-20202 is a European-level financing instrument managed directly by the European Commission to contribute to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy, by providing financial support for the Union’s objectives in terms of promoting a high level of quality and sustainable employment, guaranteeing adequate and decent social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions.

The objective of the call is to test a transaction cost support scheme in the form of a grant to be combined with financial instruments as a means to address the mismatch of needed and sustainable ticket sizes. More particularly, it aims at catalysing smaller risk-capital investments of below EUR 500 000 that otherwise would not happen.​

Examples of activities to be funded

• travelling to meet (potential) investees;
• screening and processing investment applications;
• preparing legal documents, potentially with a lawyers’ advice;
• carrying out the due diligence, including assessing (potential) impact;
• providing investment readiness, scaling readiness or business restructuring support;
• bringing in co-investors;
• managing the investments and monitoring social impact​.

Funding information 

The total budget earmarked for the EU co-financing of projects under this call is estimated at EUR 3 million. The EU grant requested should indicatively be between EUR 300 000 and EUR 1 million. Under this call for proposals, the EU grant may not exceed 80 % of the total eligible costs of the action. 

Eligibility criteria

a) by place of establishment: 

Legal entities properly established and registered in the following countries are eligible as
applicants (sole or lead and co-applicants): 

• EU Member States; 
• Iceland in accordance with the EEA Agreement; 
• Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.

b) by type of entities: 

To be eligible, the applicant (sole or lead and co-applicants) must be: 

1. An investment fund, a Fund-of-Funds, a special purpose vehicle, in any form, established or to be established. In this case, there are 2 options:
    Either the legal entity of the investment fund, the Fund-of-Funds or the special purpose vehicle can be an applicant.
    Or the (future) manager of the investment fund, of the Fund-of-Funds or the special purpose vehicle (established or to be established) can be applicant. For the avoidance of doubt, the (future) manager must already be an established and
   registered legal entity at the time of the submission of the application.
2. A (co-) investment scheme in any form (including managed accounts and other types of contractual arrangements) established or to be established. In this case, either the (future) manager of the (co-) investment scheme / the managed
   accounts must be applicant or the parties of the (future) contractual arrangements must be applicants (in a consortium).
   The (future) manager or the parties to the (future) contractual arrangements must already be established and registered legal entities at the time of the submission of the application. 
3. A foundation

Deadline 

15 July 2017

How to apply 

For further information, guidelines and to apply, please visit the EaSI website.