Resourcing Lesbian* Movements in Europe – 2025

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

CALL FOR GRANT APPLICATIONS CLOSED ON 12th May 2025
Resourcing Lesbian* Movements in Europe

EL*C – EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community is happy to announce its 2025 Resourcing Lesbian* Movements in Europe call for proposals! Our goal is to build capacities of EL*C member organizations across the European Union, to support them in becoming a strong voice for lesbian* communities, and in shaping rights protection and policy-making. In 2025 EL*C dedicates 320,000 EUR to this herstoric grant-making program.

Please note that EL*C uses the term lesbian with an asterisk (lesbian*) as inclusive of cis, trans and intersex women, and non-binary persons who self-identify as lesbian, bisexual and queer.

Main Details

We are thrilled to receive your applications by 23:59 CET on July 31st, 2025.

The project request can be minimum 10,000 EUR and maximum 60,000 EUR.
- Grant requests for Category I. should range between 10,000 and 30,000 EUR; and for Category II. between 30,000 and 60,000 EUR.
- Please note that if you received funding in 2024 in the previous cycle of the „Preventing and combating intersectional violence towards Lesbians*”, the cumulative amount of 60,000 EUR cannot be overstepped in the two cycles.
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 between September 15 and October 30, 2025.
For all projects, 50% of the grant amount will be paid out immediately and the other 50% following the approval of the interim report. The interim report is due at midterm of the project while a final report needs to be submitted 30 days after the end date.

Eligibility Criteria

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

Approved full member organization of EL*C at the time of submitting the application (an organization is an approved full member after going through a separate application process for membership and receiving a formal notification about approval of membership)
Important: Please note that the membership admission process takes several weeks. If you applied after April 11, we won’t be able to complete it by the submission deadline (12th May).
Legally registered, non-profit and non-governmental, civil society 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, including budget, 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 below information.

Project objectives to be supported

Projects which contribute to increasing/ developing/ strengthening one or more of the below, in order to benefit lesbian* communities:

NGO capacity to protect and promote the rights of lesbians*, especially in the field of rights protection, monitoring, implementation and advocacy;
NGO advocacy and watchdog role;
NGO involvement in policy and decision-making processes with local, regional and national governments;
awareness raising about EU rights and values regarding lesbians* in support of NGOs watchdog and advocacy work.

Activites

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

Desk research (research cannot be the main purpose of the action), baseline studies
Training actions, study visits, field trips and internships
Facilitation of contacts, consultations and discussions between different stakeholders
Communication and information activities
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 of dialogue with political parties, groups of parliamentarians or legislative bodies
Documentation and monitoring activities, as well as monitoring international commitments
Publication of monitoring reports
Drafting policy or legislation recommendations
Public awareness raising campaigns
Publication of leaflets, manuals on best practice
Testing of innovative approaches
Community building activities in support of NGOs watchdog and advocacy work,
Internal/organizational capacity development activities
Service provision to community members, in support of NGOs documentation and monitoring activities

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

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)

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

Selection criteria

Eligible proposals will be assessed along the below selection criteria:

Operational capacity (20 points)
- How complex is the project as compared with the applicant’s prior experience? Has the applicant managed other similar projects in the past? Based on the application, does the applicant have the capacity to implement the project?
Relevance of the project for the lesbian* community (20 points)
- Is the project’s goal/ objective relevant from the perspective of the call for proposals; in particular, is there a focus on rights protection, monitoring, implementation and advocacy? Based on the information provided in the application, is the project relevant for lesbians*, in the applicant’s context?
Design of the action and Implementation Approach (15 points)
- Do the planned activities contribute to the objectives? Are the activities realistic and doable within the project period? Are the activities well-planned? Does the application only include activities that are listed in the call for proposals? What methods are they planning to use? Do the methodologies serve the project’s objectives and the values that the CFP is serving, in particular, do they serve rights protection, monitoring, implementation and advocacy work? Are the methodologies well-chosen, doable and effective?
Sustainability of the action (15 points)
- Is the project’s impact going to influence the life of the community beyond short-term gains? What are the mid-term and long-term impacts that the project will contribute to, especially in the field of rights protection, monitoring, implementation and advocacy? Is there a vision for potential long-term sustainability?
Budget and cost effectiveness of the action (15 points)
- Are the planned budget items reasonable, detailed, and in line with the planned activities/ objectives? Are they under-planned or possibly overestimated?
Intersectionality (lesbians* facing multiple hardship, exclusion, discrimination) (15 points)
- Is the applicant/ project working with lesbians* facing multiple hardships, exclusion, discrimination, including those living in rural areas?

Priority will be given to applicants not yet funded by EL*C in 2023 and 2024, and to those without funding. In addition, funding requests from small grassroots CSOs will be prioritized over well-established groups with significant budgets.

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 this webpage.

Please note that applicants with awarded projects will be required to express 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, including the budget, before 23:59 CET on May 12-th, 2025, to the following email address: grants@lesbiangenius.org

Please make sure not to send it last minute, as it may take a few minutes for different mail servers to send the emails.

You can download the application form in several languages down below.
Please note that we used e-translation when preparing the application forms. If something is not clear in the translated texts, please reach out to grants@lesbiangenius.org.

Information Sessions

EL*C will provide online information sessions in English about the call for proposals. It is sufficient to join only 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.

March 20 at 9:00 CET
March 26 at 12:00 CET
March 31 at 18:00 CET
April 10 at 17:00 CET

» Register here for the information sessions.

A Question and Answers document will be available on this webpage, with updates after every information session.

In addition, if you cannot find an answer to your question on this webpage, in the Q&A file or during the information sessions, you may also send an email to grants@lesbiangenius.org any time prior to April 28, 2025. We will regularly update the Q&A document with responses sent to your questions.

Necessary Documents

Complaints Mechanism

In case you would like to make a formal complaint regarding the selection process or its result, please send it to grants@lesbiangenius.org within 5 working days after the notification email about the grant decision has been sent. A Complaints Committee will investigate each complaint and will provide an official answer within 30 days. The Complaints Committee consists of three members: an executive director of EL*C, and two members of the Selection Committee who were not involved in the evaluation of the application.

This publication was 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 12 amazing lesbian organizations. Our awarded grants for the year 2025 go to organizations across the EU to support them in becoming a strong voice for lesbian* communities, and in shaping rights protection and policy-making. Find the full list of EL*C 2025 grantees (downloadable PDF file):