CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE KOSOVO WOMEN’S FUND

Issued: 20 January 2023                                          Application Deadline: 20 February 2023

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) is pleased to announce that Kosovo Women Fund (KWF) will continue providing core support to KWN member organisations. We invite member organizations committed to furthering women’s rights and gender equality to submit applications for core support to their organisations.

What is core support?[1]

Core support (sometimes referred to as core budget, general budget, institutional or organizational support or unrestricted or untied funding) means flexible funding, given to an organisation to enable the organisation to realize its overall strategic plan and aims. It differs from funding provided through a specific project, which must be used only for specific, set objectives and activities (often referred to as ‘tied funding’ because it is ‘tied’ to a certain activity and cannot be used for other purposes). Several definitions of the term ‘core support’ exist. Basically, it means supporting the overall strategy, operations and administrative costs of an organisation. Rather than making an organisation follow a donor’s procedures, core support usually allows the organisation to use its own preferred procedures for auditing, procurement, and reporting. Rather than focusing on costs, core supports focuses on the results achieved. Additionally, the organisation (and not the donor) decides on these results.

Thus, core support contributes to any costs that the organization has, towards realizing its strategic aims. This may include but not necessarily be limited to:

• Overhead, institutional, administrative, or general organizational running costs, including staff;
• Implementing the organisation’s strategic plan;
• Advocacy, as defined by the member organization;
• Development and capacity building of the organisation.

Why core support?[2]

There are several reasons why KWN believes core support is important and seeks to provide it to its members:

• KWN trusts activists: We believe that women’s rights activists are best placed to know their communities’ needs and priorities and should therefore make decisions on how to spend funds.
• Focused on priorities: We believe core support rightfully provides member organisations with more control over how funds are channelled, ensuring that funds reach thematic areas and geographic regions often neglected by donors.
• Sustainability and capacity-building: Core support allows organisations to strengthen their internal organisational capacities and enhance their staff’s capacities. This enables them to enact more long-term changes in their communities rather than ad hoc activities. It also enables them to build their organisational capacities and systems for the future, towards more sustainable work.
• Flexibility: Core support provides member organisations with the flexibility to pursue their own priorities and reduces the administrative workload associated with specific donor project requirements. Core support can be adapted to shifting priorities on the ground accordingly, such as changes in target groups, scope, health, and/or political circumstances.
• Mission-driven and fostering independence: Core support enables organisations to strategize independently and be less donor-driven.
• Deeper impact: Our research shows that core support allows women’s rights civil society organisations to focus more on impact rather than mere survival. The time spent seeking to secure fragmented funds for basic operations, and reporting on the use of various piecemeal funds takes time away from their work towards social change.

Ineligible Costs

Given requirements by KWN’s funders, the core support must not be used for purchase of property, land, or buildings. Purchase of capital-intensive equipment may only be made provided that this is not the main purpose of the action. How the equipment will be used and disposed of after the end of the core support agreement must be documented. The grant may not be used for: debts and related service charges; provision for losses; potential future liabilities; provision for reserves; travel costs for business or first-class plane tickets; credit to third parties; extra allowances, such as sitting allowances or equivalent to finance allowances for participating staff/invited speakers/participants of workshops; and participation in or support to political parties, groups, movements or campaigns.

GRANT AWARDS

The grants distributed in this grant round for core support will receive support through KWN’s initiative supported by the following funder:

• Sigrid Rausing Trust in the amount of at least €120,000;

SIZE AND DURATION OF GRANTS

KWN anticipates distributing at least twelve (12) grants with maximum amounts of €10,000 each. Initiatives are expected to begin on or around 1 June 2023 and can last up to a maximum of six (6) months from the date of contract signature, ending no later than 30 November 2023.

All grant beneficiary organizations who successfully implement the first round of core support grant (within this call for proposals) will be to eligible to apply for the second grant during the period 2023 – 2022.

KWN reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted, as well as to discuss applications with applicants. Funding decisions will be made by KWF Grants Review Committee (GRC).

ELIGIBILITY

In order to apply, organizations must fulfil the following criteria:

1. Be a KWN member;
2. Be focused on women’s empowerment and/or furthering gender equality;
3. Have no staff members currently part of KWN’s Board, or part of the GRC.

The GRC will prioritize funding for organisations that:

• Have a clearly articulated strategy or strategic aims as an organisation, towards women’s empowerment and/or furthering gender equality in Kosovo. If there is no written strategy, short description of strategic goals can be submitted with the application form;
• Seek to bring about sustainable changes in supporting, protecting, or promoting women’s rights and gender equality at municipal and/or national levels (e.g., organisations aiming to contribute to tangible and visible results like new legislation, improved state services for women, municipal budgets more responsive to diverse women’s needs, etc.
• Have strategic aims that will contribute to implementing the KWN Strategy for 2023-2026 established and agreed to by KWN members to address together the main gender inequalities that they identified in Kosovo;
• Explain well in their application how core support will enable them to achieve their organisation’s strategic goals;
• Have a clear membership and/or constituency that the organisation serves;
• Report regularly to their constituents, membership, and/or board about progress towards realising their strategic aims, as applicable to the organisation’s statute;
• Actively seek to be inclusive of diverse women and girls, supporting and/or engaging persons with different abilities, minority ethnic groups, rural women, youth, and/or marginalized persons in their work;
• Provide a complete, well-considered organisational budget for 2022 and 2023 based on currently known secured and requested financing; the application should explain clearly how the use of funds will support the overall budget of the organization [note: an organisational budget is a budget that includes all of the organisation’s existing and anticipated expenses for all of its staff, operations, and planned activities for that period, towards achieving its strategic aims. Ideally, the budget should include columns that show the funding that the organisation is receiving, plans to receive, and still needs to secure to have the resources it needs for realising its aims for that year. KWN will support members in preparing this document, as requested;
• Demonstrate how they monitor and evaluate their work, and how they plan to do so in the future;
• Lack other funding opportunities from different donors; and
• Demonstrate experience successfully implementing a KWF grant previously.

APPLICATION SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

Applications may be submitted in Albanian, Serbian or English languages. The full application must be submitted electronically to the following email: grants@womensnetwork.org. Applicants must submit the following documents:

1. Application, using the KWN Application Form (Word format, attached and available at: https://womensnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/KWF_Application-Form-2.docx;
2. Organisation’s Strategy, if in writing, or short description of organisation’s strategic goals;
3. Statute; and
4. Overall Organisational Budget for 2023, using the KWN Form (Excel format, or your organization format attached and available at: https://womensnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/KWF_Budget-Proposal-Form-2.xlsx ).

Proposals submitted to KWN must be the original and sole work of the applicant organization. Plagiarism will result in disqualification of the application. 

KWN will retain all materials and documents submitted by applicants. KWN will not use information presented by applicants for purposes other than review and will not provide this information to other persons or institutions, except when required either by Kosovo law or requested by donors.

Upon delivery of their application, applicants will receive a Confirmation of Receipt with an application number, signed by KWN staff.

APPLICATION SCORING

The GRC will score applications according to the following criteria.

ANTICIPATED TIMELINE

The call for application can be found here, too: https://womensnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/KWF_Call-for-Proposals_Round-18_2022_SIGRID-1.pdf

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[1] This and the following sections draw from the Kvinna till Kvinna Guidelines for Core Support, adapted based on KWN’s strategic aims, experience and prior evidence-based research on the topic, including interviews with KWN members.

[2] This section draws from KWN’s work on Where is the Money for Women’s Rights and the 2020 ICAN report “Funding Women Peacebuilders: Dismantling Barriers to Peace”.