BRLF invites submission of proposals

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Bharat Rural Livelihoods Foundation (BRLF), an independent society set up by the Government of India to upscale civil society action in partnership with Government, invites proposals from prospective civil society organizations aiming at transforming the livelihoods and the lives of the rural poor, particularly the Adivasis.

The geographical focus of the proposals should be the central Indian tribal belt in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. A list of focus blocks is attached as Annexure A. Proposals must be for projects to be implemented in these blocks, which have more than 20% Scheduled Tribe population.

A concept note introducing BRLF is attached as Annexure B. The note provides an indicative list of thematic areas for which proposals are sought.

All proposals would require five elements:

• Leveraging resources from government flagship programmes and/or banks
• Co-financing by at least one other donor. (Of the total project cost supported by BRLF, at least 20 per cent must be co-financed by some other donor and the program cost- partly or fully. This does not include the cost leveraged from government flagship programmes and/or banks or the contribution of local communities)
• Focus on tribal, especially women’s empowerment
• Focus on innovative pilots under the project is encouraged
• Capacity building activities for CSOs/PRIs/government officials/village youth/women groups/federations     

How to apply:

BRLF invites submission of proposals online as well as offline. It is mandatory to submit proposals in both offline and online. How to register and submit online and offline application is explained as below:

Online Submission:

Steps for partner registration with BRLF:

This is the first step that every partner, looking for support from BRLF, will have to follow. This is basically introduction of a partner to BRLF. At this step, system automatically checks that the partner organizations meet the basic criteria required to seek grant from BRLF. For partner registration, following steps should be followed.

1)  Type www.brlf.in in address bar of your browser (Chrome/ Internet Explorer) and press Enter to access BRLF website

2) Go to “Our Work” tab at the home page, select “Funding Support” and then select “Call for Proposal”. 

3) Click on “Call for Proposal” button at the bottom of the page

4) Click ‘Register Partner’ link for new registration. (In case, a draft of registration application was saved earlier, the application can be accessed from where it was last saved by using ‘Resume Partner Registration’ link)

5) Enter the details as per the displayed form

6) After all the details are entered, click ‘Save’ and then click ‘Next’ to proceed to next screen.

Refer to ‘Description of fields – Partner Registration Form’ section for details of data expected in each field

7) Please keep a note of email ID and PAN entered. These will be used for accessing the draft saved application and for activation of user account after registration

8)  After filling, click ‘Submit’ to submit the completed registration form

9)  On successful submission, systems displays a success message and prompts to check email for activation link.

10) Click ‘Ok’ to go back to BRLF website.

11) Access your email account and access the link provided in the mail received from notifications@brlf.in

12) Enter registered PAN and email ID and click ‘Done’ to activate your partner account.

13) Set password that follows the ‘Password Guidelines’ and is easy to remember for you and click ‘Done’

14) On success, system displays message that account has been activated successfully.

15)  Click ‘Ok’ to go to login page.

Steps for online proposal creation after partner registration:

Partners registered with BRLF can apply for funds by submitting a detailed proposal to BRLF. The proposal can only be submitted if the call for proposal is open by BRLF. Call for Proposal closure date is displayed (flashed) at the home page of the website. All the submitted proposals go through a systematic and transparent evaluation process.

1)  Type www.brlf.in in address bar of your browser (Chrome/ Internet Explorer) and press Enter to access BRLF website

2)  Go to “Our Work” tab at the home page, select “Funding Support” and then select “Call for Proposal”. 

3)   Click on “Call for Proposal” button to access BRLF Aid 360 Application

4) Enter the User ID and Password created after completion of partner registration and click ‘Sign In’

5)  Click ‘Proposal Details’ menu option to start with proposal creation

6)  System displays ‘Maintain Partner Profile’ screen.

7)  Verify all the partner registration details by toggling between the tabs, once verified, click ‘Update’ to proceed to proposal creation

8) System displays the ‘Create Proposal’ screen. Enter the pertinent details in each field of ‘Project Details 1’ tab to ‘Project Details 5’ tab and on completion of the proposal creation form, click ‘Submit’.

9) You should periodically click ‘Save’ to save the form with whatever data has been entered till that point

10) Refer to ‘Description of Fields (3.2)’ section for details of what should be filled in each field.

11) Refer to ‘Guidelines to fill LFA (3.3)’ to see how LFA excel sheet (Proposal Details 3 Tab) should be filled

12) Refer to ‘Guidelines to fill Budget Sheet (3.4)’ to see how Budget excel sheets (Proposal Details 3 Tab) should be filled

Note: It is suggested to have the offline application filled in first and start the online application to save time.

Offline Submission:

Please find attached the proposal format as Annexure C, the budget format as Annexure D, Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) as Annexure E and Yearly Plan of Operation for Year 1 as Annexure F, which need to be duly filled in and submitted along with the covering letter through e-mail.

Each proposal could be for 3 years, covering a minimum of 8,000 families over three-year period. On successful completion of three years, an extension for two more years may be considered based on assessment of the performance and availability of resources.  

BRLF grant support would be for meeting the costs of partner organisations on Development Support Cost such as programme staff, administrative costs , capacity building and innovative pilots costs. Programme expenditure would need to be met by leveraging from government programmes or banks and other donor agencies. BRLF will provide grant within a range of INR 1.2 to 1.5 Crore for a period of three years for the selected proposal to meet the core support costs on human resource, admin cost, capacity building and innovative pilotscosts.                            

Eligibility Criteria

The applicant organization should fulfill the following criteria to apply:

• The applicant organization should have an established track record and demonstrated experience (at least 5 years) and capacity of high quality work on sustainable rural livelihoods, people’s mobilisation and building people's institutions with a focus on tribal, especially women in the ten focus states mentioned above.
• The applying organization should be registered under section 12A of Income Tax Act 1961.
• Organizations should not have been blacklisted by any government department or donor agency.
• Applicants should have an annual turnover of at least Rs.25 lakhs in any year in the past three years along with properly documented financial and organizational systems in place for discharging their responsibilities under the project. Organizations with a smaller budget may be considered if they are part of a network which seeks funding support from BRLF.
• Organisations seeking BRLF support must also demonstrate their capability and willingness to work with Gram Panchayats (GPs). This may be reflected in a resolution of the GPs which they intend to work with, formally inviting them to extend support to the GPs in implementing projects. This resolution should be submitted along with the project proposal.

An organization profile should also be submitted along with the proposals, which helps to establish the claims of the organization. The profile should contain information on:

1. Registration status
2. FCRA status (if any)
3. Registration under Section 12-A of Income Tax Act
4. Major grants received from different sources in the past three years
5. Current organizational budget
6. Annual reports of the past three years
7. Copies of audited statement of accounts of the past three financial years
8. Details of members of the Executive Committee/Governing Board, giving names, address and contact details as also diversity profile of governance, showing representation of under-represented sections of Indian society
9. Brief profile of team members executing the project

A covering letter from the Chief Functionary (bearing his/her signature) addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of BRLF should accompany the proposals. Proposals may be submitted by email addressed to Pramathesh Ambasta, CEO, BRLF at brlf.proposal@gmail.com along with scanned copies of the above documents.

BRLF will acknowledge receipt of proposals by email. It will also intimate the organizations about the next steps, providing reasons for its decisions at each stage, in alignment with the policies it adopts for selection of projects and partners to support. However, on no count will BRLF be held liable to any claims of damages, costs or compensation on account of not supporting a project. BRLF further reserves the right to close the discussion on proposals.

The BRLF Call for Proposals stands closed on 30^th September 2017.

For the complete application form and required formats to be filled in, please visit www.brlf.in