The Global Fund for Women generally provides three types of grant: 1) General Support Grant 2) Travel Grant 3) Event Grant. Online application system currently supports only general support grant. Applicants who want to apply for travel or event grant have to download a copy of the application here.
General Support Grants
General support grants are very flexible grants. You can spend it for normal operating cost such as office rent, utility bill, staff salaries, equipment, infrastructure, renovation, capacity building as well as project costs. In order to get the general support grant, you must meet all the basic criteria of the fund. General support grants are classified as Innovation Grants, Strengthening Grants and Impact Grants. One applicant may submit one proposal to any of these three types at a time. While you have to submit a common application for Innovation and Strengthening grants, application for Impact Grants can be submitted only by invitation.
Types of General Support Grants:
Innovation Grants:
Innovation takes various forms i.e. unique or new intervention for example promotion of a new unique awareness raising message, a new business product. It can also be that the way a specific project intervention is delivered is exclusive. The important issue of innovation is not necessarily the intervention but that the intervention has probability to diverse tangible impacts in terms of women’s rights promotion. Please always be aware about the difference between innovation and invention. Invention is the creation of new knowledge or technology, while innovation builds upon previous technologies, approaches and knowledge to create a new or improved product or process. Invention is much more difficult to achieve than innovation, which relies more on knowledge accumulation; a process which comes naturally to most people who work in a particular sector for a long time.
Innovation grants are meant to encourage new and sustainable project that promote visibility and leverage resources for women rights program. This grant supports new women groups to connect with different national, regional and international network of women’s organizations. Using this grant, you can also test innovative project/approach which is associated with some sort of calculated risk. Under this grant scheme any innovative approach that addresses rural and excluded, supports feminists activists in women’s movement, and approaches with high probability of being sustainable can be propose. Example of innovation grants are: Protecting Electronic Violence Against Women (eVAW); Foundation for Media Alternatives (PH) Integration of sexual and reproductive health rights and livelihood for marginalized women, Developing mobile based application to prevent early marriage etc.
Strengthening Grant:
Strengthening grants are aimed to enhance ability of women’s groups to successfully address different problems that women and girls are facing in the society and bring about positive social change. If women’s groups and organizations do not have sufficient capacity and resources to be effective and strategic women’s movement will not be stronger. Strengthening grant supports fostering professionalism among women’s group. Strengthening grant provides financial support for infrastructure, capacity building training etc. Example of this grant may be: Arrange professional training, computerize monitoring & evaluation system etc. Strengthening grants are medium sized grants and are provided to the organizations who have a track record of cumulative change and have infused voices and issues into mainstream agendas.
Impact Grants:
This larger size grant is not open for all. Organizations or groups which have been invited to submit application by the Global Fund for Women can apply for this fund. Impact grants support national, regional, and global women’s rights organizations with significant capacity for growth and have longer working experience with the Global Fund for Women. Global Fund identifies such strong groups for impact funds and solicits proposal from them and partner with Global Fund. It supports to build a network, coordinated actions, promote feminists leadership. Impact grants may be for a project that may include capacity building activities, research, national, regional and international workshop/seminar etc.
Travel Grants and Organizing Meeting/Event Grants
The Global Fund for Women provides small travel grants to member organizations to attend different conference and events and Organizing Meeting/Event Grants to organize conference, seminar etc . In order to get these grants you must meet all basic eligibility criteria. For this grant you have to apply at least 8 weeks before the beginning of the event and priority is given to former grantees of Global Fund.
