The International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) and the Eastern Europe Foundation (EEF), with the support of the Norwegian Agency for Development and Cooperation (NORAD) and in partnership with Sweden (Sida), have launched a three-year project “Enhancing Civil Society Capacities for Resilience and Recovery in Ukraine”.

The aim of the project is to enhance the capacity of Ukrainian civil society organizations (CSOs) to set and achieve development goals that will contribute to Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, early recovery and democratic governance reforms in Ukraine. The activities aim to address the challenges faced by CSOs, including lack of resources, skills, engagement, visibility and networking. The project contributes to strengthening the capacity of civil society and improving its position to defend Ukraine as a resilient and inclusive European democracy, which will help it recover from the enormous damage caused by the Russian war.

The competition for institutional grants is aimed at comprehensively developing the capabilities of local and regional civil society organizations that are resource centers for supporting public participation, think tanks, and organizations involved in the processes of inclusive, participatory, transparent, green, and sustainable recovery.

The geography of the competition covers the regions that have suffered the most from military actions: Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions. Organizations registered in Kyiv are eligible to participate in the competition provided that they work in communities in Kyiv or one of the above-listed regions.

The competition will be held in two rounds: pre-selection and grant. During the implementation of the grant, it is expected that the winners-grantees will be intensively involved in the project activities and training program – in general until December 2027, including the reporting period.

The purpose of the competition is to contribute to the development of the institutional capacity of civil society organizations, which includes, among others: strategic planning; operational and financial management of CSOs; development of competencies in carrying out monitoring, advocacy, analytical and other types of activities; improving the quality and effectiveness of CSO activities in their areas of competence; strengthening the effectiveness of external communication; establishing cooperation with other partners in the public sector and interacting with stakeholders – the community, authorities, business, media, etc.

This will be achieved through the implementation of the institutional grant program:

• increasing the capacity of CSOs in project management, leadership and human resource management;
• promoting accountability and democratic governance of CSOs;
• improving CSO financial management, fundraising and diversification of funding sources for long-term financial sustainability and sustainability of the organization;
• strengthening the capacity of CSOs in research and analysis, communication, training and reporting;
• strengthening the capacity of CSOs to apply planning, budgeting and monitoring tools in recovery activities, which take into account, among other things,
• aspects of human rights, non-discrimination and gender equality;
• improving the capacity of CSOs to engage citizens and other organizations / institutions in processes of inclusive, ecological and sustainable recovery;
• strengthening inter-regional and inter-thematic coalitions and networks, knowledge exchange, mutual learning, dissemination of best practices among civil society.

Participants in the competition are public organizations, public unions, charitable foundations, and self-organization bodies of the population. Within the framework of the competition, three cohorts of grantees will be selected, for which various training programs will be developed (please clearly determine which of the lots listed below your organization is applying for):

LOT 1. Analytical centers;

LOT 2. Resource centers that activate public participation;

LOT 3. CSOs that directly contribute to the processes of inclusive, participatory, transparent, green, and sustainable recovery.

The applicant organization must be registered in the following regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv. The competition is open to organizations registered in the territories controlled by the government of Ukraine in the above-listed regions as of February 24, 2022, as well as during a full-scale war.

The organization may not currently be physically located in the place of its registration and may be re-registered in the territory controlled by the government of Ukraine if it had to relocate due to intense hostilities or occupation. However, the relocated applicant organization must have experience in engaging in community initiatives related to the region where it was registered (for example, participation in post-occupation recovery planning processes, remote monitoring of the situation in the territory of its native community, etc.). The members of the applicant organization’s team must be physically located in Ukraine and be ready to participate in the organizational development program in person.

Institutional grantees will be required to participate in a training program that includes a variety of activities, including: training, mentoring, and consultations to strengthen management, financial, and communication skills in CSOs; seminars to implement the principles of transparent governance, respect for human rights, non-discrimination, and gender equality, and environmental friendliness in their organizations; internships in the strongest organizations and exchange of best practices; free training on the Educational Online Platform Zrozmilo!, etc.

Within the framework of this program, we will promote the development of partnerships and networks to support local initiatives, encourage interaction with communities and authorities, and involve them in sustainability forums, surveys, and media activities.

The competition will be held in two rounds:

1st round, pre-selection: based on the submitted questionnaires, applicant organizations will be selected and assessed for compliance with the basic competition criteria (Appendix 1). The organization’s experience, current achievements, publicity, and team motivation to develop and increase their influence in solving topical issues at the local or regional levels will be taken into account. The competition participant’s questionnaire (Appendix 2) requests detailed information about the applicant organization and supporting documents, the list of which is specified in the questionnaire. Based on the results of the first round, 40-45 applicants will be selected to undergo a basic organizational audit.

2nd round, grant: organizations selected within the 1st round will be invited to submit a project proposal for an institutional grant. The decision to support or reject the project proposal will be made by an independent Expert Council. The decision will be based on the findings of:

compliance with the organizational development criteria (Annex 3);

the results of the basic organizational audit;

the quality of the project proposal and its compliance with the needs and vision of the applicant organization’s development identified during the assessment and organizational audit;
the compliance of the project budget with the organizational development plan that is the basis of the project proposal.

Since the main objective of the institutional grant is to strengthen the capacity of the applicant organization, the motivation of the organization’s team to build its organizational potential and the quality of meaningful work will be taken into account. Approximately 30 organizations will receive institutional grants for a duration of up to 26-28 months.

Appendix 1: Compliance with the basic competition criteria
Appendix 2: Competition participant questionnaire
Appendix 3: Compliance with organizational development criteria

To participate in the competition, please fill out:

In the 1st round – the 1st round competition participant questionnaire (Appendix 2) and send it together with the documents listed at the end of the questionnaire electronically to the address kukharenko@irf.ua no later than 15:00 Kyiv time, January 25, 2025.

Documents attached to the questionnaire must be sent in .doc, .docs, .xls, .xlsx or .pdf format. The maximum size of each file cannot exceed 8 Mb. Questionnaires sent after the specified deadline will not be considered. The results of the selection of the questionnaires of the competition participants within the first round will be notified to the applicants by a separate letter by March 7, 2025.

In the 2nd round, applicants selected during the first round will be sent a special application form along with a letter about the selection results and asked to submit a project proposal for an institutional grant by April 10, 2025, which will need to be registered on the IRF website, the “Electronic Competition” service (detailed instructions will be provided together with the application form). The results of the second round of the competition are planned to be announced by the end of May 2025.

The implementation period of institutional projects is 26-28 months, starting from mid-June 2025. The average budget of one institutional project is 5,500,000 hryvnias (please note that the size of the competition budget, and therefore the grants, may change depending on the current decisions of the program donors – NORAD and SIDA).

Please note:

• Questionnaires of the participants of the 1st round of the competition, which will be sent after 15:00 Kyiv time on January 25, 2025, will not be considered.
• Questionnaires submitted in any other way than the one mentioned above will not be considered.
• Decisions on supporting or rejecting the questionnaires of the participants of the 1st round of the competition, as well as project proposals of the participants of the next round of the competition, are final and not subject to review.
• All participants will be notified of the results of the competition by email.
• Telephone consultations on submitting questionnaires for the competition are not provided. Please send questions about participation in the competition by e-mail to kukharenko@irf.ua by January 20, 2025.
• The IRF does not provide grants to political parties, religious organizations and territorial communities, private individuals, as well as business entities that aim to make a profit.
• Materials submitted to the competition will not be returned or reviewed.
• Reasons for refusal to support questionnaire applications in the 1st round of the competition and project proposals in the 2nd round will not be communicated.

Contacts:

Democracy and Good Governance Program of the International Renaissance Foundation Tetyana Kukharenko, Manager of the Program and Project “Civil Society Empowerment for the Resilience and Restoration of Ukraine”, kukharenko@irf.ua

Source: gurt.org.u