Background	Project Duration
Grant Size	Deadline
Own Contribution	Application Forms
Funding Priorities	Application & Procedures
Grantmaking Criteria	Languages
Guidelines	Tips

Irish Aid has long supported Irish and Southern civil society organisations through a variety of funding mechanisms. As the scope of Ireland’s cooperation with developing countries has widened significantly over the past decade, the Irish government has decided to streamline its NGO support schemes while at the same time enhancing the quality of the funded interventions.

The Civil Society Fund is a grant programme designed to provide funds more effectively and efficiently. It is designed to be a flexible funding tool that will facilitate a broad range of applications ranging from projects by small organisations to large programme proposals from professionally-staffed NGOs.

For project applications, the maximum grant size for each application is €200,000 per year. The maximum annual ceiling for NGOs receiving multi-annual project support is €1 million. For block grants, only one application per organisation is permitted during any three-year period.

Organisations applying for project applications will have to contribute at least 25% of the project costs. For block grants, there is currently no minimum own contribution specified.

As per the Civil Society Fund Working Guidelines, the overriding objective of the CSF is “to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by improving the livelihoods of disadvantaged communities in developing countries”.

In particular, with the Civil Society Fund Irish Aid seeks to promote the following five key objectives:

• Strengthening the voice of civil society organisations in order to enhance their influence on development policies at the local and national level
• Support for communities to stimulate their participation at local and national levels
• Support for communities to gain access to local development resources and the improvement of basic services
• Support for communities and organisations to respond effectively to HIV/AIDS through prevention, care and support programmes
• Support for communities to realise their human rights, in particular the rights of women and children

Organisations will have to explain how the proposed project or programme will make a particular contribution to a least one of the above objectives based on the applicant’s relative strengths, experience and expertise.

Each intervention should contribute to strengthening local civil society organisations as well as local communities and to linking these organisations and communities to constituencies in Ireland.

Irish Aid will prioritise interventions that address the following cross-cutting themes, which are an integral part of Ireland’s development cooperation:

• Gender inequality and the empowerment of women, including gender-based violence
• HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care
• Sustainable development and safeguarding the environment
• Promotion of human rights, especially building the capacities of communities to understand and exercise their rights

With regards to HIV/AIDS, the Civil Society Fund guidelines propose specific issues organisations should consider when mainstreaming HIV/AIDS through proposed interventions, such as the extent of HIV infections in the community, the impact of the disease on local resources and institutions, the number of orphans and vulnerable children in the community, etc.

As Irish Aid views civil society organisations as important partners in responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, NGOs may also apply for thematic programme support for HIV/AIDS which will include institutional, broad-based and specific responses. For more information, please refer to the Civil Society Fund guidelines (Annex 2 in particular).

• Currently, only Irish-based NGOs are eligible to apply for funds from the Civil Society Fund. However, Irish Aid plans to invite international NGOs and organisations from the South to apply, based on an assessment of its strategic priorities and the quality of the organisation’s programme
• The applicant must be a non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that is either registered in Ireland with a CHY number or equivalent or is a higher education / research institution with a tax clearance certificate form the relevant revenue authority. Moreover, the applicant must provide evidence of a support base in Ireland
• The applicant’s focus of work must be poverty reduction and development in developing countries (i.e., generally the bottom 50 countries of UNDPs Human Development Index) or in regions with countries which have low human development indicators and widespread poverty
• Organisations must demonstrate their capacity to implement the planned activities, to work with its local partners and to report on the project’s results. The outcomes of the intervention should be reported according to the format required by Irish Aid and Irish Aid funding must be acknowledged in annual reports and other publications
• Applicants must submit audited accounts for the previous three years prior to the application. Independent financial reviews of the organisation may also be required by Irish Aid. All organisations must demonstrate their adherence to “good practice” standards and codes of conduct

In addition to the above criteria, recipients of IrishAid’s MAPS grant facility (only open to a limited number of invited organisations only) cannot apply for the Civil Society Fund.¹

Detailed CSF guidelines can be downloaded at: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/grants_civil.asp.

The maximum project duration for project applications and multi-annual block grants is three years.

The closing date for project applications for the first of three rounds of funding for 2007 was 13 October 2006. For block grants, only one application per organisation can be submitted during any three-year period. Please check the Irish Aid website for upcoming deadlines.

The Civil Society Fund Application Form as well as the pre-qualification Form A in .DOC format can be downloaded at: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/grants_civil.asp

New prospective applicants have to complete a pre-qualification process in order to be eligible to apply for Civil Society Fund funds. This requires them to establish their organisational credentials and capacity to co-operate with Irish Aid. After the electronic submission the pre-qualification Form A (with attachments), applicants will be registered with a reference number that then is valid for three years.

After appraisal by desk officers of relevant Irish Aid sections as well as external consultants, the Civil Society Approvals Committee will make the final selection of successful proposals.

English

All organisations should carefully follow the Civil Society Fund guidelines and make sure their proposals address the key objectives and cross-cutting issues laid down therein.

At present, only Irish-based NGOs are eligible to apply for Civil Society Fund funds. As Irish Aid aims to support civil society organisations in developing countries under this scheme in the future, interested organisations should contact the Civil Society Section of Irish Aid to express their interest to receive funding from the CSF.

This scheme is open for Irish NGOs only. However, these NGOs might want to implement their projects in cooperation with a local partner. Therefore, interested organisations based in developing countries should get in touch with Dóchas, the Irish Association of NGOs, to explore potential partnerships with Irish organisations applying for this scheme.² 

_________________________________________________________________________________

¹ More information on the MAPS programme can be found here: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/grants_maps.asp

 

² Contact information can be found in the NGO Platform Contact Information section of this Guide.