Grant contest for Russian CSOs supporting vulnerable youngsters. Deadline: 31 May
Grant competition for CSOs supporting children with disabilities and their families, orphaned children, and young adults with learning difficulties
26 April 2021
CSOs, governmental and municipal institutions, and cultural institutions, are invited to take part. The competition has been allocated a budget of 600,000,000 roubles.
“Over the course of nearly 30 years of active development of the non-governmental sector in Russia, organisations have accrued an immense wealth of experience. It is important that this experienced be systematised, described, and scaled up,” says Natalya Polyakova, acting director of the foundation Absolyut-pomosh (Absolute-Help), “but for this we need additional resources. The goal of this year’s grant competition is to support CSOs aiming to scale up, and to allocate funds for the development and replication of sustainable social technologies”.
To enter the competition, participating projects must be aimed at the foundation’s traditional target groups. These are children with disabilities and their families, orphaned children, and young people with learning difficulties.
The foundation has laid out five possible thematic areas for the projects:
- social support and assistance;
- improving quality of life and engagement;
- supporting families and preventing orphanhood;
- supporting accessible education;
- raising publicity and awareness.
Applications are accepted for three nomination categories:
- ‘Absolute Support’, the main competition category;
- ‘Absolute Partnership’, grants for long-term projects for experienced organisations;
- ‘Absolute Perspective’, nomination by invitation for young organisations.
Absolute-Help permits project budget expenses to cover legal consultation fees, accountancy fees, audits, and the preparation of informative annual reports to the public.
“It is very difficult to find funding for these types of administrative expenses. Large scale private fundraising mechanisms are largely ineffective here. We know full well how important it is to invest in strengthening organisational structures and improving the culture of informational transparency within CSOs. This is the only way to achieve the desired sustainability for the charity sector,” explained the foundation.
Terms and conditions for participation in the competition can be found in more detail on the foundation’s official site.
Applications are accepted on the grant platform grant.absolute-help.ru until 31 May 2021. Results will be announced in July 2021. Winning projects will start to be implemented from 1 September 2021.
An online webinar for competition participants took place on 29 April at 13:00 (Moscow time), after which a recording of the event was made available on the Absolute-Help foundation website.
