Small Grants Scheme

Our principal means of supporting civil society organisations (CSOs) in the region is via our Small Grants Scheme. The BEARR Trust inaugurated its Small Grants Scheme in 2006 to provide seed-corn funding to small CSOs working in partnerships in the field of health and social welfare. Each year, the SGS focuses on a specific theme, to support vulnerable groups such as the homeless, young offenders, the disabled, victims of human trafficking and the elderly. We regularly publish reports from our funded projects via our website and newsletter.

We publish our call for bids on our website in January-February each year, with a deadline in February-March, and announce the results in April-May.

In 2025, we invited potential applicants to send project proposals for two strands: Strand A for projects on the theme “Joint projects that support the integration and inclusion of vulnerable people into their local community” and Strand B for projects to support the welfare of staff and volunteers, and organisational resilience. The Trustees are currently reviewing applications for this year’s Small Grants Scheme and results will be announced by the end of May. For more information on 2025 Small Grants Scheme, click here.

For all Small Grants Scheme projects prior to 2025, please click here.

In 2024, the SGS supported Strand A projects on the theme “Community Integration of Displaced People”. This strand was open to civil society organisations (CSOs) in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan; and Strand B projects to support the welfare of staff and volunteers, and organisational resilience. This strand was open only to organisations in Ukraine and Moldova. For details of the 2024 Scheme, click here.

In 2023, BEARR’s Small Grants Scheme invited applications across two strands: a) joint projects that promote the long-term partnership between two or more CSOs supporting vulnerable people in any area of health or social welfare (open to new and former applicants), and b) projects aimed at building organisational resilience or to improve the welfare of staff and volunteers (open to former BEARR grantees in Ukraine and Moldova only). Here are the chosen projects for 2023.

BEARR’s 2022 Small Grants Scheme invited applications for two types of projects: a) projects to improve the social welfare of migrant workers and the wellbeing of their families (open to new and former applicants), and b) projects to improve the welfare of the organisation’s staff and volunteers, and the organisation’s resilience (open to former BEARR grantees only). To view the chosen projects from 2022, please click here.

For BEARR’s 2021 Small Grants Scheme, we invited applications for projects that propose ways of reducing social isolation. We received 227 applications, over 60% of which came from Ukraine, with at least one application from every other country in BEARR’s region. 15 projects were selected; you can read about them here.