Partnership Grants
USAID’s Civic Engagement Project invites civil society organizations (CSO) alliances in Macedonia to apply for Partnership Grants. The CSO alliances include legally registered and not registered CSO coalitions, platforms, networks, and alliances comprised of more than five member CSOs.
The Civic Engagement Project is a five year USAID-funded program that contributes to achieve two objectives: (1) strengthened influence of CSOs on policies and programs related to priority issues of citizen concern; and (2) increased and sustained youth engagement in public life in Macedonia. The Partnership Grants will be managed by Metamorphosis.
The aim of the Partnership Grants is to support CSO alliances to: (i) become leaders in shaping and constructively engaging in issues of public concern; (ii) enhance their capacity to engage citizens, media, government institutions and other stakeholders in advancing the public’s wellbeing; and (iii) strengthen their institutional capacity.
The Civic Engagement Project will award up to (2) grants under this RfA. The maximum grant award for each proposal is 120,000 USD, and is for activities lasting up to 3 (three) years. The Project reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted.
Grant activities could include:
- Advocacy, monitoring, public policy analysis, and public education initiatives in the following areas: good governance, public service improvement, rule of law, anti-corruption, human rights, economic growth, business enabling environment, and monitoring and oversight of public institutions; and
- CSO alliance’s capacity development activities, that could include establishing and providing membership services to CSO alliance’s members; expanding the CSO alliances with a variety of stakeholders including region-based CSOs, CSO that represent socially excluded groups, or/and the private sector, media, as well as the academia; working constantly, persistently, and creatively to engage citizens and various constituencies, i.e., media, private sector, and the government, in all aspects of the CSO alliances’ work; and strengthening CSO alliances’ networking with relevant stakeholders in South East Europe and beyond.
Download:
- RFA Announcement (.pdf)
- Full Request for Application (.pdf)
- Application Form (.docx)
- Budget Template for Partnership Grants (.xlsx)
- Clarifications regarding the RFA (.pdf)
DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING PROPOSALS: 16:30, DECEMBER 23, 2016
Clarifications regarding Request for Application
Question 1: Can a foreign organization that has a registered branch in Macedonia be the leading/coordinating organization for non-registered CSO alliance?
Answer 1: USAID’s Civic Engagement Project (CEP) and CEP’s RfA for Partnership Grants target Macedonian CSOs alliances and CSOs, the latter as a coordinating body for a non- registered CSO alliance. An organization is considered to be a Macedonian CSO if it is managed by a governing body the majority of who are citizens or lawful permanent residents of Macedonia.
Question 2: Can you please clarify whether CSOs which apply on behalf of a CSO alliance that is not registered and will be managing the grant if selected, will also be eligible to apply on the other upcoming grant schemes within USAID’s Civic Engagement Project?
Answer 2: All members of a given CSO alliance that will be awarded a Partnership Grant are eligible to apply to other CEP grant programs.
Question 3: As members of the network we have three Macedonian CSO organizations currently. Can we include more Macedonian CSO in a Memorandum of Understanding as mentioned in your RFA?
Answer 3: The Project will give priority to CSO alliances that have five or more CSO members and a proven track record of engaging in joint actions at least for the last three years. Since your network currently has three Macedonian CSOs, you could include more CSOs in the MoU that spells out the CSO alliance members’ commitment to work together. However, please note that the CSO alliance members should have at least three years of undertaking joint actions, although CEP may make a rare exception if sufficient evidence is presented to show that the CSO alliance’s leadership has adequate prior experience and the CSO alliance is capable of filling a niche that has been underserved in the past.
Question 4: Can we include in the implementation, partners such as Bar Associations?
Answer 4: Yes, you could include other partners in your CSO alliance. These partners will be eligible to receive funding through the Partnership Grants only if they are registered as non-profit organizations in Macedonia and they are considered a Macedonian organization (see question 1 above regarding the latter criterion).
Question 5: Can we include in the implementation of activities representatives of CSOs from the region that are members of our network?
Answer 5: Yes, CSOs that headquartered in the regions are considered regular members of CSO alliances that are eligible to apply for Partnership Grants.
Question 6: Can we apply only with Capacity Building activities as mentioned in Page 01 of your RFA or we have to include other activities such as advocacy, monitoring etc.?
Answer 6: The Partnership Grants aim to support the grantees’ capacity development activities to enhance their ability to deliver results on advocacy and monitoring activities that focus on priority issues of concern to citizens in Macedonia including: good governance, public service improvement, rule of law, anti-corruption, human rights, economic growth, business enabling environment, and monitoring and oversight of public institutions.
Question 7: Do the activities have to be implemented only in Macedonia?
Answer 7: Nearly all the proposed activities should take place in Macedonia, except for (limited) participation in networking or advocacy activities that are closely related to the CSO alliance’s proposed strategic interventions, but might be taking place abroad. In any case, should the CSO alliance propose activities that will take place abroad, it should clearly state how these activities are relevant to the proposed interventions.
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