Deadline: 22 January 2019

The Active Citizens Fund – Slovakia programme has announced a 1st call for proposals under ‘Enhanced Capacity and Sustainability of Civil Society’.

The overall objective of the ACF programme is ‘Civil society and active citizenship strengthened and vulnerable groups empowered’.

Lack of resources to build capacity of civil society organizations forces organizations to focus on their survival and diverts them from pursuing also strategic changes in their activities to ensure their long-term development. In this area, the programme will enable organizations to improve their skills, strengthen their competencies, implement higher-level governance, and implement modern sustainability strategies.

The ACF will also support projects to improve the environment that affects civil society organisations, for example, to promote more favourable legislation, better access to public and private funding, and the development of philanthropy at the individual level. All projects supported by the Programme will allow organizations to strengthen their capacities, but ACF expect that 20 organizations will focus their projects directly on their reinforcement.

Funding Information

• The minimum and maximum grant amount per grant is set in two categories as follows:
  • medium project: 30,000 € – 65,000 €
  • strategic project: 80,000 € – 100,000 €
• Partnerships at project level will also be encouraged through favourable scoring of projects with donor state partners and by increased grant ceilings (up to 80,000 € in case of a medium project and up to 120,000 € in case of a strategic project) to finance bilateralactivities within supported projects. These extra resources can be used solely for financing of expenses related to common co-operation of international partners.

Duration of Projects

The duration of projects in this call for proposals must be as follows:

• medium project: 12 – 18 months
• strategic project: 18 – 30 months

Eligible Applicants

• Applicants eligible to carry out and implement projects are non-governmental organisations (NGOs). An NGO is a legal entity in the Slovak Republic, having a non-commercial purpose, independent of local, regional and central government, public entities, political parties and commercial organisations. NGOs are voluntary in nature, formed voluntarily by groups or individuals and usually involving an element of voluntary participation in the organisation.
• An eligible applicant is registered in the Slovak Republic in one of the following categories:
  • Civic Association according the Act No. 83/1990 Coll. on the Association of Citizens;
  • Foundation according the Act No. 34/2002 Coll. on Foundations;
  • Non-profit Organisation Providing Public Beneficial Services according the Act No. 83/1990 Coll.
  • Non-investment Fund according the Act No. 34/2002 Coll. on Non-investment Funds;
  • Non-profit Organisation according the Act No. 116/85 Coll. on terms for activities of organisations with international aspect;
  • Association of Legal Entities under the Act No. 40/1964 Coll. on Civil Code;
  • Slovak Red Cross under the Act No. 460/2007 Coll. on the Slovak Red Cross.
• Political parties, religious organisations, social partners, profit distributing cooperatives, informal and ad-hoc groups and individuals are not eligible applicants.
• Organizations that have not recovered amounts due, following a final court decision in connection with the NGO Programmes 2009 – 2014 in Slovakia, shall not be considered eligible applicants and/or project partners.

Eligible Project Partners

• Projects may be implemented in partnership with project partners. Project partners share a common economic or social goal with the project promoter, which is to be realised through the implementation of the project. The purpose of creating a partnership is to ensure close co-operation between different types of organizations with different experience in solving the issues in the field. Project partners shall be actively involved in and effectively contributing to the implementation of the project.
• The following entities are eligible to be project partners:
  • Any public or private entity, commercial or non-commercial, as well as non-governmental organisations established as a legal person either in the donor states (donor project partnership), beneficiary states or a country outside the European Economic Area that has a common border with Slovakia;
  • Any international organisation or body or agency thereof;
  • Informal, ad hoc and self-help organisations (including grassroots organisations) that are not registered legal entities in the beneficiary state (informal groups). Such organisations must however meet the requirements that they are not for personal profit, act for public good, are voluntary and non-discriminatory in nature, independent of local, regional and national government and other public authorities, and are independent of political parties, religious institutions and commercial organisations. These informal groups shall be represented by one single person, who signs the project partnership agreement on behalf of the group. An informal group cannot not be a direct recipient of the project grant.
• Legal entities based according to the Commercial Code are eligible project partners, but they cannot receive financial contribution from the Programme.
• Applicants may participate in the partnership with up to two other partners.
• Further requirements for partners´ participation in the project:
  • participation of project partners is irreplaceable, without partnership it would not be possible to implement the project properly and meet its goals;
  • partnership normally involves financial transactions, where the partner is awarded a financial compensation for realisation of activities in the project;
  • cooperation is not be that of supplier – customer relationship.
• In case of a project planned in partnership, the Partnership Declaration is a mandatory attachment to the project application.

How to Apply

Applicants can apply via given website.

For more information, please visit https://acfslovakia.sk/en/calls/enhanced-capacity-and-sustainability-of-civil-society/