“Resilient Movements, Stronger Communities”Financial support-2024

Under the programme “Resilient Movements, Stronger Communities” RFSL, the Swedish Federation for LGBTQI Rights, provides small grants to the LGBTQI+ movements in Ukraine. The aim of the financial support is to encourage LGBTQI+ organisations, initiatives, and groups to mobilise community members, strengthen internal capacity and/or influence decision-making structures.

The programme “Resilient Movements, Stronger Communities” is run by RFSL and is supported by Sweden. The overall aim of the programme is to contribute to strong and resilient LGBTQI+ change-makers in Ukraine, who are able to improve the lived realities of LGBTQI+communities.

What can be funded?

Under this first call RFSL will support a variety of activities aimed at mobilising and organising around LGBTQI+ issues, with a focus on regional and underrepresented groups. The project should be implemented during a period of 2-5 months.

The maximum requested grant amount is 100 000 SEK.

Activities that can be funded:

• Community mobilising and organising
• Creating meeting spaces
• Activities to strengthen the capacity in the own organisation, including activities focused
  on security, sustainability, and well-being (including strategic planning, risk analysis and
  development of a security plan etc.);
• Organising workshops and other sessions on physical, informational, digital and
  psychological security (both for teams of organisations, initiatives and groups and/or for
  LGBTQI+ communities);
• External and internal cultural events focused on community needs, such as music events,
  sports events etc. (both for teams of organisations, initiatives and groups and/or for
  LGBTQI+ communities);
• Advocacy activities, such as shadow reporting, alternative reporting, advocacy efforts
  towards stakeholders, and others.

Examples of eligible costs:

• Rent of meeting spaces, venues;
• Fees of facilitators, trainers, and consultants;
• Printing of specific materials;
• Transport and accommodation for participants;
• Salaries;
• Administration related to the activities.

Activities that cannot be funded under this call:

• Emergency grants or grants for evacuation and/or re-location;
• Acquisition, distribution and provision of humanitarian aid;
• Costs related to migration and asylum;
• Medical treatment;
• Participation in international conferences or Pride events;
• Payment of debts or interests on loans.

If you have an idea and are not sure if it could be funded, please contact us at ukraineprogram@rfsl.se and we will discuss it! If you prefer to communicate in a more secure channel than e-mail, please contact us in order to agree on a channel of communication.

Criteria for funding

To submit the proposal, the organisation, group, or initiative should:

• Be LGBTQI+ led and/ or have LGBTQI+ team;
• Be implementing activities focused on LGBTQI+ communities in Ukraine
• Priority will be given to organisations, initiatives and groups whose activities are aimed at working with regional and underrepresented groups among LGBTQI+ communities;
• Team of the organisation, initiative or group is based in Ukraine (if not in full, then at least partially)
• Be registered or have a fiscal host to ensure financial accountability;
• NOT have active grant partnerships (agreements) with RFSL (current, confirmed or pending)

If you are not sure whether your organisation/initiative/group has an active grant partnership with RFSL, please contact us at ukraineprogram@rfsl.se.

The project/activity should:

• Be focused on working with LGBTQI+ communities and their issues;
• Priority will be given to organisations, initiatives, groups and projects aimed at working with regional and underrepresented groups among LGBTQI+ communities;
• Be planned with input from LGBTQI+ communities and aimed to meet their needs and interests;
• Fall under the list of activities and events that can be funded;
• Be realistically implemented during specified project period;
• Have a clear timeline of activities in chronological order;
• Clearly explain the results that will be achieved.

The proposal should:

• Follow the instructions for application;
• Be submitted in Ukrainian OR English language;
• Include a description of context that would show relevance of the project;
• Clearly state purpose/ goal of the project and objectives of proposed activities;
• Include potential risks related to the project;
• Clearly mention how the success of the project would be understood and measured;
• Have a reasonable budget in SEK;
• Not exceed the maximum possible level of funding.

How to submit the proposal?

Proposals are accepted until March 12, 2024, CET 23:59.
The proposal, together with the budget, should be submitted to ukraineprogram@rfsl.se. Please, use the templates provided. In the subject of the letter, please, indicate name of your organisation, initiative or group (for example, “Your organisation Call for proposals”.

If you are applying as a regional chapter of a network / organisation with a head office in Kyiv, you will need to submit an endorsement letter from your head office stating that they support your application and are informed about it. The templates for proposal and budget are sent together with this informational letter. If you are missing any of these templates, please, contact us at ukraineprogram@rfsl.se.

BUDGET INSTRUCTION:

The budget should be specified, meaning that you will need to specify which costs you want to include in the project. Please add explanation in comments column, if needed. If you include staff costs, please add % of working time for the different positions.

ACTIVITY PERIOD INSTRUCTION:

The project must be implemented during a period of 2-5 months. This means that the project must be finished before September 30th, 2024, and reported no later than October 31st, 2024.

When you are ready to submit your proposal, please, make sure to re-name the templates, so they would include title of your organisation/group/initiative: “Your Organisation Proposal” and “Your Organisation Budget”.

Next steps and reporting

RFSL will make a preliminary assessment of applications during March 2024. Shortlisted applicants will be notified over e-mail and will continue their work with RFSL on the applications before entering into the agreements. This timeline might be revised depending on the number of proposals received.

When a grant is approved, an agreement will be set up between RFSL and the organisation/group/initiative that receives support. An integral part of a grant agreement is an administrative organisational self-assessment form, which shortlisted organisations/ groups/initiatives (as well as their fiscal hosts, if any) will need to fill out before entering into agreement (template will be provided). Conditions for how the funding should be used will be clarified in an agreement.

The unit responsible at RFSL will monitor the project through 1-2 meetings during the project period. A narrative and financial reports should be submitted to RFSL no later than one month after the activity period. Templates for reporting will be provided.