Call summary :

GIF’s Innovating for Climate Resilience Fund invests, through grant, equity and debt instruments, in innovations with the potential to scale and support the world’s poorest to build resilience and adaptation.

GIF has published a Climate Strategy setting out our proposals to unlock investment and finance in resilience and adaptation, by investing in solutions that can make an outsized difference to the poorest people, and that can be scaled, de-risking them for other investors. We know that generating evidence of impact and scalability can be tricky. We want to address this challenge and partner with innovators to improve the rigour of measurement and evaluation of impact towards climate resilience and adaptation. In turn this will help us all to better understand the emerging innovations that can make a difference to the ability of individuals to live their lives in a changing climate.

Who can apply?

Any type of organisation may apply. This includes social enterprises, for-profit companies, non-profit organisations, government agencies, international organisations, and research institutions in any country. It is recommended that individual innovators, entrepreneurs or researchers apply through an affiliated organisation.

What does GIF look for application?

While we are open to applications in any sector in any developing country, we have precise criteria we use to assess the fit of your application. These are described on the What We Fund page of our website and summarised below:
1 - Target market - We invest in innovations designed to bring benefits for those who live on the equivalent of $5 a day and we are especially interested in funding innovative solutions that impact those living on less $2 a day or other vulnerable or disadvantaged groups.
2 - Innovation and Impact - We define an innovation as any solution which has the potential to improve the lives of the poor in developing countries more effectively than existing approaches. So, to meet our criteria your approach must be a new approach which is not already commonplace, and you must be able to demonstrate how you think it can improve upon alternative solutions.
3 - Evidence - We expect that innovations we support are informed by evidence of what works. This evidence might focus on the changes in the lives of your beneficiaries or customers or ‘how-to’ evidence on how your solution can be deployed or scaled successfully. Our expectation of the level of evidence needed increases with the level of funding requested. More information on this can be found in the guidance on Stage of Funding. GIF also expects that our funding contributes to the evidence base for an innovation.
4 - Scale - GIF only funds innovation which have the potential to scale to benefit millions of people. Scaling can take place through in any number of ways– growth of a successful business or uptake by a government partner, for example. The million lives collective showcases some of the innovations supported by GIF and others which are either reaching millions of clients or on their way to doing so.
5 - Team - We look for innovations which are backed by teams which demonstrate a deep understanding of the problems they are tackling and the context in which they are working. Applicants should demonstrate the track record and skills needed to leverage the partnerships required to succeed and navigate the challenges which come with scaling innovations.

How much funding can I apply for?

GIF has a staged funding approach, whereby the amount of funding available is tiered according to the level of maturity of your innovation and the activities proposed. The three tiers are:
- Pilot – the innovation is at an early stage but you have a credible plan for how it can be developed and tested in a real-world setting. Funding of up to USD 230,000 is available to test core assumptions around operational, social, and financial viability.
- Test and transition – the innovation has already shown promise of success at a small scale, and you have some information on your operational, social, and financial viability which you want to solidify before you scale. Funding of up to USD 2.3 million is available to support further growth and generate additional evidence on whether the innovation can achieve social impact and market viability, for commercial innovations.
- Scale – the innovation has a strong evidence base and logistically credible plan for scaling to reach millions of people. Funding of up to USD 15 million is available to expand the reach of innovations with a view to reaching millions of people in the long term if successful.