Small Grants Competition to Support CSO and Investigative Media Initiatives (Ukraine)

The purpose of the grant competition is to contribute to strengthening the system of control by civil society and the media; improving public access to public information that does not pose a threat to defense capabilities; monitoring government decisions, public procurement, and budget expenditures at the local level, including for reconstruction; increasing the effectiveness of advocacy and public involvement in government decision-making through supporting project initiatives of mainly regional NGOs, investigative journalism centers, and the media, and building their capacity.

Goal

• The goal of this project is to promote sustainable and inclusive restoration and reforms of democratic governance in Ukraine by building and strengthening the institutional and programmatic and technical capacity of civil society watchdog organizations and independent investigative media throughout Ukraine to conduct public monitoring and oversight of transparent and effective management of public resources, expose abuse and corruption at all levels and promote long-term systemic prevention of corruption, conduct effective advocacy in the field of transparency and accountability of government, qualitatively inform and involve the public in participation in government decision-making, effectively join forces and interact with each other and other stakeholders.

Objectives

• The project objectives and expected results must be feasible and relevant to the available resources and the project implementation period. Applicants with several years of successful experience in the field of the proposed activity and the ability to involve a wide range of partners and relevant stakeholders will be given preference. Preference will also be given to projects whose experience has the potential to be successfully replicated in other regions of Ukraine.

Priorities

• The subject of the proposed projects’ efforts should be to increase the level of accountability and transparency of government through public monitoring and control of the use of public resources and/or advocacy for relevant changes at the local level.
• The competition also considers applications aimed entirely or partially at developing the institutional capacity of relevant CSOs and media.

Funding Information

• The total budget for the round is €800,000. IWPR plans to support most projects worth up to €25,000 per organization. The limit for a coalition project is €25,000 per organization in the coalition and €75,000 for the entire coalition. As an exception, IWPR is willing to consider well-founded projects worth up to €50,000 per organization.
• The budget should be appropriate to the proposed activity, economical, transparent and competitive. Mentoring support for institutional development of the organization or software and technical skills, which you indicate in the project application, is not included in the grant budget, but is paid directly to IWPR if it is approved.
• Project duration: projects can last from 3 to 12 months, should start no earlier than June 1, 2025 and end no later than May 31, 2026.

Eligibility Criteria

• Grants (non-repayable targeted financial assistance) under this competition are provided mainly to public organizations that have non-profit status.
• As an exception, grants may be provided to commercial companies (for example, media outlets), however, such a grantee must pay income tax on the grant funds from other sources. The project cannot finance political parties and religious communities.

For more information, visit IWPR.