Call summary :

Every year, we offer grants of up to £30,000 for projects lasting up to two years to civil society organisations in the Commonwealth. We support projects that seek to facilitate constructive engagement between civil society and decision makers, including civil society participation in policy development and decision-making.

Funding priorities

1/ Health Justice
2/ Freedom of Expression
3/ Climate Justice
Projects could support civil society to engage meaningfully with government on:
- Ensuring representation, inclusion, and protecting the rights of those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
- Addressing the social, political, and economic root causes of climate injustice.
- Strengthening the voices of those most affected by the climate crisis in multilateral and national spaces.
- Ensuring that the voice, agency, and leadership of young women and men are at the centre of policy discussions and decision-making at all levels.
- Advocating for corrective justice for environmental harm, including compensation mechanisms, access to justice and effective remedy, and legal empowerment.
- Ensuring accountability and effective remedy for human rights harms caused by climate change.
- Developing, reviewing, improving, and monitoring laws, policies and practices promoting climate justice.
- Exposing and addressing the factors that contribute to the increased vulnerability of social groups to the consequences of climate change.
- Exposing and addressing negative social and distributional outcomes of climate change mitigation policies and/or encourage support for the development of pro-poor mitigation approaches.

Funding Information
- The total grant amount requested must be of £15,000 or between £15,001 and £30,000 per year, and for a maximum of two years.

Who is eligible to apply?
1. The applicant must be a not-for-profit civil society organisation registered in an eligible Commonwealth Foundation member country (see here for the list of eligible member countries).
2. Newly registered organisations (those that have been registered and operating for less than a year) are not eligible to apply.
3. The proposed project must be implemented in the country of registration. Projects can be implemented in one or more eligible Commonwealth Foundation member countries and can have a national, sub-national, regional, or international remit. In multi-country projects, strong local participation in project implementation is required (see further information on partnerships below).
4. The applicant organisation must have a minimum of two years’ demonstrable experience working on participatory governance and advocacy within the area/theme(s) of the proposed project.
5. The total grant amount requested must be of £15,000 or between £15,001 and £30,000 per year, and for a maximum of two years. (Note there are different requirements depending on the requested grant amount, see further “how to apply”, below).
6. The requested grant amount should not exceed 70% of the applicant organisation’s total annual income, averaged over the past two years.
7. The annual income of the applicant organisation, averaged over the past two years, must be less than £2.5m.
8. The project proposal must address at least one of the Foundation’s priority themes.
9. The project proposal must demonstrate appropriate integration of gender considerations. For example, the applicant may use the findings of gender analysis to inform the design of the project and / or ensure allocation of adequate resources to effectively address gender equality in the project cycle.
10. Proposals must relate to projects that are expected to begin within the second half of 2024 (i.e., after 1 July 2024 and before end September 2024).