The Active Citizens Fund seeks to develop the long-term sustainability and capacity of the civil society sector, with the aim of strengthening its role in contributing to democratic governance, policy development, promoting democratic participation and active citizenship. Priority is also given to actions that improve the accountability of NGOs to the wider public and strengthen their ability to empower and involve local communities, as well as advocate on their behalf, and actions to communicate the impact of civil society to social change.
Partnership with donor country organisations is encouraged.
Eligibility
Civil society organisations working in public benefit that work in the following five areas are eligible to apply:
- Democracy, active citizenship, good governance and transparency
- Human rights and equal treatment through combating any discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation or gender identity
- Social justice and inclusion of vulnerable groups
- Gender equality and gender-based violence
- Environment and climate change
Project outcomes
Projects funded under this Open Call for Proposals must contribute to the following outcomes and outputs of the Active Citizens Fund Estonia:
- Civil society and active citizenship strengthened, and vulnerable groups empowered
- Enhanced capacity and sustainability of civil society
- Platforms and networks among CSOs established or sustained
- Monitoring and evaluation capacity of CSOs supported
Supported measures
Projects must focus at capacity building of civil society organisations and may include various types of measures, for example:
- development of transparent and accountable governance procedures of CSOs;
- improving of CSOs’ management procedures;
- bringing new knowledge, skills and people to civil society activities;
- strengthening CSO networks;
- mutual learning and dissemination, e.g. mentorship programmes;
- implementing impact evaluation tools to measure the impact of CSOs;
- forging partnerships with other sectors;
- activities to improve financial viability etc.
Size and duration of grants
Small grants are available between EUR 10,000 to 20,000 and the duration of the projects must be between 12 to 18 months.
Deadline
Deadline for submitting applications is December 9, 2019.
For more information on the call, application procedure and Q&A visit the ACF Estonia website.