U.S. Embassy announces Small Grants Program 2020

The goal of the Small Grants Program is to support civil society development in Belarus.

This year we are having two calls for proposals.  This is the second call for proposals. This call for proposals will be devoted to projects that contribute to:

  • Support to vulnerable and underserviced groups of the population
  • Inclusive development
  • Women’s empowerment and gender equality

Proposals that reach the broadest number of users, involve networking with other organizations, focus on activities in the regions, and include funding from other sources will have a strong advantage.

Competition is open to registered Belarusian non-governmental non-profit organizations.

Focus / Priorities:

  • The Small Grants Program only funds proposals that contain accurate and well-developed implementation plans and clear explanations of how the project goals will be achieved, where those goals address the Program’s themes and priorities.
  • The Program prefers supporting complete projects instead of individual activities, such as one-time conferences, publications, or round tables.  A complete project involves a sequence of coherent events, logically interwoven and linked in time.
  • The Program designed to achieve specific goals within a particular time frame, and focusing on target audiences.  The time frame for the project should be appropriate to the project activities and should not exceed 12 months. The project proposals should be submitted on the standardized application form and be modest in size (up to 6 pages in Times New Roman font 12).

An application package must contain the following mandatory elements:

  1. Signed SF424 Application Coversheet Form (pdf format)
  2. Project Application Form  in .doc format  (original doc format)
  3. CVs of the paid staff and experts
  4. Registration certificate

Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Potential to contribute to the development of the priority areas above
  • Feasibility and financial soundness of the proposal supported by a project monitoring and evaluation plan
  • Concrete and measurable results that will directly benefit the local community
  • Creative approach in working with target audiences
  • Past experience in successfully organizing and completing planned activities

Guidelines:

  • Grant activities may not violate Belarusian legislation.
  • Grants may not be used for partisan/political activity.
  • Grants are normally made on a one-time basis.  Duplicative projects will not be supported.
  • Administrative expenses should be linked to specific grant activities, not fixed overhead costs.
  • Embassy Small Grants Program funds should not be used to pay for international travel.
  • Proposals should be in English and Belarusian (or Russian).
  • Proposals that fail to meet the Small Grants Program criteria or submission requirements will not be reviewed.

The deadline is May 31, 2020. For details go to https://by.usembassy.gov/education-culture/u-s-embassy-small-grants-program/