Resourcing Lesbian* Movements in Europe – 2023

Building capacities of ELC member organizations, to support them in becoming a strong voice for lesbian communities, and in shaping rights protection and policy-making.

About the Grant

The lesbian movement is one of the most under-resourced sectors within civil society. As a regional network, the EL*C is dedicated to supporting its member organizations in strengthening their operational capabilities. To achieve this objective, we have devised a regranting program for EL*C members within the EU through collaboration with the European Commission’s CERV programme. At the same time, we are working on identifying regranting possibilities for our member organizations outside the EU.

Main Details

EL*C – EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community is happy to announce its much-awaited call for proposals! Our goal is to build capacities of EL*C member organizations across the European Union and support them in becoming a strong voice for lesbian, bisexual, trans, intersex, queer women and non-binary persons and in shaping policy-making and awareness raising. EL*C dedicates 550,000 EUR to this herstoric project.

The project request can be minimum 5,000 EUR and maximum 20,000 EUR.

No co-funding is necessary, EL*C will cover 100% of the costs.

The length of the project may be between 6 months and 12 months.

The start date should be in December 2023. The whole of the awarded grant amount will be paid out at the start, within the first month of the project.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants meeting the following eligibility criteria will be considered for funding:

Approved member organization of EL*C at the time of submitting the application (an organization is an approved member after going through a separate application process for membership and receiving a formal notification about approval of membership)
Legally registered, non-profit organization in their country of operation
Established in a Member State of the European Union (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
Respecting EU values, including values such as dignity, equality and justice
Fully completed application form, submitted before the deadline. Applications can be submitted in any EU member state language, however, English is preferred. Submitting in another language will not lead to any disadvantage.

Applicants found ineligible will be informed within 2 weeks after the application deadline.

Details of the Calls for Proposals

Please read carefully all the information below.

Project objectives to be supported

Projects which contribute to increasing/ developing/ strengthening one or more of the below:

NGO capacity to protect and promote the rights of LBTIQ community members,
NGO advocacy and watchdog role (including monitoring of state actions and reporting to the public),
NGO involvement in policy and decision-making processes with local, regional and national governments,
Awareness raising about EU rights and values regarding the LBTIQ community (including campaigning).

Activites

Activities listed below may receive funding. Please note that activities not listed below cannot be funded.

Desk research, baseline studies can be included (yet research cannot be the main goal of the project)
Training actions, study visits, field trips and internships
Facilitation of contacts, consultations and discussions between different stakeholders
Communication and information activities, including media work
Organization of conferences, roundtables, workshops and seminars
Promotion of the implementation of adopted laws and regulations
Advocacy for the revision of existing legislation and adoption of new legislation in accordance with EU standards and requirements
Establishment or continuation of dialogue with political parties, parliamentarians, legislative bodies, local municipality decision-makers or relevant authorities
Monitoring of national or local laws and policies, as well as monitoring international commitments, publication of monitoring reports
Drafting policy or legislative recommendations
Public awareness raising campaigns, including raising lesbian visibility campaigns
Publication of leaflets, manuals on best practice
Testing of innovative approaches that lead to better protection of rights
Internal/organizational capacity development activities
Community building, community strengthening activities including outreach and organizing
Provision of services to community members (for example psycho-social support, legal aid, other services).

Other activities not listed above cannot be included in the project; for example, regranting cannot be included.

Guidance on costs

General principles for admissible costs are the following:

they must be actually incurred by the applicant
they must be incurred in the grant period
they must be declared under one of the budget categories included in the application forms
they must be incurred in connection with the planned actions
they must be identifiable and verifiable, in particular recorded in the applicant’s accounts in accordance with the accounting standards applicable in the country where the applicant is established and with the applicant’s usual cost accounting practices
they must comply with the applicable national law on taxes, labor and social security
they must be reasonable, justified and must comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular, regarding economy and efficiency.

Categories of costs that can be included are the following:

Personnel costs
Subcontracting costs
Travel and subsistence costs
Equipment costs (must be declared as depreciation costs)
Other goods, works and services

Costs that are NOT allowed are the following:

costs or contributions that do not comply with the conditions set out above
costs related to return on capital and dividends paid by a beneficiary
debt and debt service charges
provisions for future losses or debts
interest owed
currency exchange losses
bank costs charged by the beneficiary’s bank for transfers from EL*C
excessive or reckless expenditure
deductible or refundable VAT (including VAT paid by public bodies acting as public authority)
costs incurred or contributions for activities implemented during grant agreement suspension
in-kind contributions by third parties
costs or contributions declared under other EU grants (or grants awarded by an EU Member State, non-EU country or other body implementing the EU budget)
costs or contributions for staff of a national (or regional/local) administration, for activities that are part of the administration’s normal activities (i.e. not undertaken only because of the grant)
costs or contributions (especially travel and subsistence) for staff or representatives of EU institutions, bodies or agencies.

As for specific guidance for the various budget categories included in the application forms, we will add more information in the upcoming Q&A document, and we will talk about these in the information sessions.

Selection criteria

Eligible proposals will be assessed along the below selection criteria:

Financial and operational capacity
Relevance of the project
Design of the action, including clarity of activities
Implementation approach, including methodology
Sustainability
Budget and cost effectiveness.

A Selection Committee comprising of EL*C Board Members – thus persons elected by the community – will assess eligible proposals and will make funding decisions. Only a select number of EL*C Board Members will take part in this work, in particular those who do not have any conflict of interest in relation to potential applicants.

We will acknowledge the receipt of the application. It is possible that EL*C will be in touch with you with clarifying questions regarding the application. It is also possible that the Selection Committee will suggest changes to the project.

Eligible applicants will be informed about the grant decision as soon as possible. Awarded projects will be also announced on the EL*C Grants Program’s webpage.

Please note that applicants with awarded projects will be required to sign a Declaration of Honour, expressing their commitment to upholding European values and standards. Also, in rare cases they may be requested to undergo a due diligence check prior to signing the grant agreement.

Application details

You need to submit the completed application form before 23:59 CET on December 1st, 2023, to the following email address: grants@lesbiangenius.org

You can download the application form in several languages down below.

In addition to this, you can also submit the completed application form using the dedicated Open Dyslexic Font or the Fast Font (aid for persons with ADHD).

Information Sessions

EL*C will provide online information sessions in English about the call for proposals. You may register for the information sessions here. It is sufficient to register for one session, as the information provided will be the same in each session. Following your registration, we will send you the link to the information session.

October 9 at 9:00 CET
October 16 at 17:00 CET
October 30 at 14:00 CET

A Question and Answers document is available on this page, with updates after every information session.

In addition, if you cannot find an answer to your question in this document, in the Q&A file or during the information sessions, you may also send an email to grants@lesbiangenius.org any time prior to November 14, 2023. We will regularly update the Q&A document with responses sent to your questions.

Necessary Documents

Complaints Mechanism

This publication was co-funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of EL*C – EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Grantees

EL*C is thrilled to have the opportunity to fund and build the capacity of 31 amazing lesbian organizations. Our awarded grants for the year 2023 go to organizations across the EU working in a variety of fields associated with lesbian rights and culture. Find the full list of EL*C 2023 grantees (downloadable Excel file):