Applications Invited for GFCF Grants to Foster Community Philanthropy

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About the Organization

The Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF) is a global, virtual organization with a small team, headquartered in Johannesburg. We have been working with the global community philanthropy field since 2006, and are all about building networks with like-minded organizations that see the power of people-led development.

About the Grant

We provide small grants aimed at stimulating and support the development of community philanthropy organizations around the world. Beyond the financial aspect, grantmaking also serves as a way to build relationships with individual organizations, learn about and support their work and to help connect them into the growing global community philanthropy movement.

In our grantmaking, we try to strike a balance between consolidating relationships with longer-term grant partners and continuing to add new organizations into our network. Our annual grantmaking depends to a large extent on the resources we have been able to mobilize from donors. We do not no hold an open call for applications every year but eligible organizations are welcome to submit inquiries throughout the year.

From 2020 – 2022 we focused much of our efforts and resources on supporting our global network of community philanthropy partners as they responded to COVID-19, both in the short and longer-term. Our grantmaking was directed towards partners’ efforts to respond to immediate needs, but also to be able to start looking ahead towards larger efforts to bring about long-term change, i.e. to #BuildBackBetter.

Most of our grants are aimed at strengthening individual organizations as trusted and effective grassroots grantmakers that can harness both local and external resources. Sometimes our grants have a particular geographic or issue focus.

In the 2023/2024 financial year, we made 73 grants to 63 community philanthropy organizations and 4 individuals across 30 countries. The total amount of grant funds disbursed was £1,419,803.

Grant Size

Grants are normally in the range of U.S. $7,000 – $20,000 (size will depend on annual budget, nature of activities and whether the organization is already known to the GFCF).

Grants are normally for an initial period of one year (follow-on funding may be possible).

Participation in a learning network / grantee convening may be a condition of the grant.

Eligibility

Is your organization:

• A community philanthropy organization?
• A community foundation?
• A women’s fund?
• An environmental fund?
• A national public foundation?
• A grassroots grantmaker?
• Any other kind of organization that identifies with the concept and practice of community philanthropy?

Are you interested in:

• Shifting power and control closer to communities so that people have greater say – and the opportunity to act – when it comes to driving their own development?
• Recognizing, valuing, growing local assets and resources as a central pillar of community-owned and community-led development?
• Piloting and demonstrating new approaches – whether around governance, decision-making, local resource mobilization – that build local agency and foster new kinds of participation and ownership?

Does your organization:

• Serve a particular community, whether geographic, issue or identity-based, and see it as a source of knowledge, assets, relationships and agency?
• Use grantmaking as a deliberate development strategy, which devolves power and resources to groups and organizations your community, because you believe that the best decisions and actions are rooted in and shaped by local experience and knowledge?
• Work to build a local culture of giving (philanthropy) and co-investment within the community you serve, whether as a strategy for flattening power, growing a local support base or constituency for community issues, increasing civic participation and horizontal accountability?
• Seek to build trust, networks and connections within, across and beyond the community/ies you serve?
• Seek to address, engage in, build support for complex, unpopular or minority issues within your community?

Are you based in:

• Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, or Latin America and the Caribbean

How to Apply

Eligible applicants are welcome to submit a concept note (either to info@globalfundcf.org) or through our on-line form. In order not to waste your time, check here to see if your organisation is eligible.

Apply for a grant

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