Advocacy Grant 2018

The Advocacy grants may cover the following broad types of activities:

Lot 1: Policy Engagement and Development

• Plan and implement advocacy initiatives aimed at bringing about positive change in social enterprise policy and practice; to this end grantees will actively promote, and act as a platform for, joined-up advocacy;
• Engaging with the ARMM local government and government agencies to identify and promote opportunities for social enterprise legislation/policy, practice and funding allocation;
• Link local issues and initiatives with provincial, regional and national policy advocacy platforms such as the PRESENT Bill to ensure civil society advocacy initiatives represent the needs and demands of local communities;

Lot 2: Public Outreach, Coalition Building and Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships

• Where necessary use campaigning as a public engagement tool to promote public support for an improved environment for social enterprises;
• Engage the public/constituents in defining the issues, identifying solutions and in the implementation of advocacy initiatives and social action projects by trained Active Citizens;
• Establish functional CSO social enterprise coalitions with linkages to local government, private sector and academe;
• Increase activity of social entrepreneurs in the region through local festivals, learning events and marketplace;

Lot 3: Research and Insight

• Ensure advocacy and campaigning work on social enterprise is supported by evidence that is gathered through research and promote collaborative research
• Set up regional resource centres where CSOs can access social enterprise information and where appropriate computer and internet facilities
• Work with CSO-SEED to undertake an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of civil society’s work in a specific area and use it to identify opportunities for improvement and social enterprise development;

The duration of the grant will be a maximum of eight (8) months.

The maximum amount of the grant is EURO 7,500.00.S

CSO-SEED will prioritise support to applicants delivering projects and programmes in the ARMM and those that have experience in implementing advocacy initiatives and projects in areas such as but not limited to entrepreneurship, livelihood and cooperative development and economic empowerment.

Entities from outside ARMM must have a co-applicant from ARMM.

To be eligible for the grant, applicants must fulfil the following criteria:

• Legal registration (SEC, CDA, DTI) with a bank account in the name of the organisation
• Sound business model / financial standing
• Portfolio of work in advocacy work
• Experience of working in diverse contexts
• Experience of working with marginalised and vulnerable communities
• Demonstrated experience to meet the project and financial planning, management and reporting requirements
• Ability to leverage some resources and other value adding partnerships for the planned project

Specific criteria will be:

For CSOs - A demonstrated commitment to developing or supporting social enterprises through their community-based activities. CSOs with service type social enterprises will be preferred.

Other Organisations - A demonstrated commitment to integrating social enterprise approaches into their programmes. There must be previous work done on social enterprise or for the sector.

Budget

Applicants must provide a summary budget for their proposed project. The budget headings that applicants must present against are:

• Staff and advisory / consultancy costs (costs of your staff, and any specialist consultancy staff that you need to contract)
• Operational costs (e.g., office running costs, local transport, accommodation and expenses)
• Core project activities (e.g., workshops, performances, services, printed project materials, capacity building activities, etc.)
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning

The application form consists of the following main parts:

Section 1: Introduction and proposal summary

Section 2: Programme Interest

Section 3: Your organisation

Section 4: Context and rationale

Section 5: Detailed project description

Section 6: Budget

Section 7: Project Management

Section 8: Sustainability

Section 9: Declaration

Submission of proposal

Please submit your proposal electronically to marilen.soliman@britishcouncil.org.ph and bceucsoseed@gmail.com by 17.00 on 18 May 2018.

Proposals must adhere to these instructions and to the instructions included in the application form (including page limits). Proposals must not exceed 8MB in size.

Proposals must be completed using the following templates available from the downloads section below.

1. Grant application form
2. Due diligence checklist
3. Conflict of interest disclosure form

Along with the templates above, the applicant must submit the following:

1. Cover letter/expression of interest
2. SEC Registration
3. Latest Financial Statement

Proposals will be assessed by a selection panel consisting of representatives from the British Council, Foundation for a Sustainable Society Inc, (FSSI), Balay Mindanaw Foundation Inc (BMFI), Philippine Social Enterprise Network (PhilSEN) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) – ARMM.

This selection panel will meet within one week of the submission deadline, and will make the final recommendation for shortlisted organisations.