About the Spirit of Women Changemakers Small Grants Programme
The Spirit of Women Changemakers small grants programme will fund activity in the UK that improves the wellbeing of women and girls who are subjected to harmful gender norms and stereotypes. We want to support organisations to empower women and men to create lasting change in their communities and sustainably improve gender equality. We are inviting applications to fund creative, cultural, sporting and/or volunteering responses to at least one of our two key impact goals.
These are to:
- Improve women’s body confidence and challenging objectification in all areas of life, including in personal relationships
- Challenge traditional gendered caring roles and the undervaluing of care
Who can apply?
The programme is open to charities, Community Interest Companies and Social Enterprises. Partnerships or consortiums may apply, but these must identify a lead accountable organisation able to meet all the eligibility criteria outlined below.
The lead organisation must be able to provide audited accounts or the equivalent for the last 12 months and details of referees from two organisations that have funded them in the past.
What can you apply for?
Projects must meet at least one of our two key impact goals. These are to:
- Improve women’s body confidence and challenging objectification in all areas of life, including in personal relationships
- Challenge traditional gendered caring roles and the undervaluing of care
Each project must also meet each of the following requirements:
- The activity will contribute to social cohesion, bringing diverse groups together to engage in their communities,
- All projects must also undertake to improve (and measure through agreed indicators) participants’ wellbeing.
- All projects must also challenge perceptions of disability. This can be through the project activity itself or through ensuring inclusion of disabled people alongside non-disabled people in the project activity
- Activities must also have a celebratory aspect in the run up to the 2018 centenary
Applications can be made for grants of between £5,000 and £15,000. You may allocate a proportion of the grant to cover staff costs, capital or support costs associated with the delivery of the project. The funded activity must be for the benefit of women in the UK and must be a new project for your organisation. We cannot fund the continuation of existing activity.
It’s important to Spirit that we fund activity which will genuinely make a difference and that others are able to learn from the projects we support. We want our grants to support activity that builds on and embeds existing learning in its approach.
We will require successful applicants to collect data and present it in ways that that will enable others to learn from their experiences in the future. The funded activity should produce a measurable change, or show us measurable evidence of what’s needed for change to happen. The Fawcett Society will work with successful applicants to tailor an approach to data collection appropriate to the project nature, beneficiaries and size.
The funded activity must be completed by the end of March 2018
You may apply for a grant for a project which will also receive funding from elsewhere. But you must be able either to:
- Confirm that other funding has been secured OR
- Demonstrate that you will be able to deliver the project without additional funding sources if you receive a Changemakers grant.
Activity we will not fund
We cannot fund activity which promotes a religion or political party or political lobbying and campaigning. We cannot support applications from individuals.
Changemakers will seek to support activity in a range of geographical locations and from diverse organisations.
A panel including representatives of Spirit of 2012, the Fawcett Society and BE Group will assess all applications. Their decision is final.
The Application Process
We are aware of the pressures that many organisations are under and have created a multi stage process to minimise the time you need to invest should your project or organisation not be a good fit for the grants programme.
There are three stages to the application process:
Expression of interest (EOI).
This short questionnaire will confirm your readiness for the Spirit of Women Changemakers Small Grants Programme and will confirm whether your email address is already registered in our online application system.
Expressions of interest will be open from the 19th November 2016. We will accept expressions of interest up until the 22nd December 2016.
First Stage Application.
If your EOI is successful, you will be informed immediately. We will then email you to invite you to log back in to the system and provide some brief details about your business and project once the first stage of the application form is open. The first stage of the application will be open from the 1st December 2016. You must complete and submit this no later than the 23rd December 2016.
Second Stage Application.
If your First Stage application is successful we will inform you by the 13th January 2017. We will then invite you a final time to log back into the system and provide more in-depth detail about your business and project. The Second Stage application must be completed by the 17th February 2017.
If you have any questions, at any point during your application you can contact an advisor using the email SpiritofWomen@be-group.co.uk or call the BE Group team on 0191 389 8434 (Monday to Thursday 9am- 5pm/ 9am- 4.30pm on Friday).
We may approach you with questions or for further information throughout the process.
- You can also get more information here
- Successful applicants will be informed in March 2017
- To express your interest please click here
http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/campaigns/changemakers-small-grants-programme/
November 28, 2016
HERitage stall this Saturday 29th January at St Cuthbert's hall, Amble. Come along, see you there