Open grants call

Projects could support civil society to engage meaningfully with government on:

• Advancing a legal and regulatory environment that protects and upholds freedom of expression for all. 
• Advancing a legal and regulatory environment that promotes the freedom, growth, and vibrancy of civil society. 
• Promoting access to information and transparency in governance, including through a free and independent press, robust freedom of information laws and their practical application. 
• Advancing civil society engagement in national, regional and/or international mechanisms and processes to promote freedom of expression (e.g., national human rights institutions; Universal Periodic Reviews). 
• Promoting art and creativity as means of advocating for and raising awareness of freedom of expression. 

Examples of previous projects we’ve funded under this theme can be found here.

Please note: this is not an exhaustive list but rather a set of examples to demonstrate the range of possible areas of focus under this theme.

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. 

Examples of previous projects we’ve funded under this theme can be found here. 

Please note: this is not an exhaustive list but rather a set of examples to demonstrate the range of possible areas of focus under this theme.

The Foundation’s three themes overlap and connect in myriad ways. For example, freedom of expression and protection of the free flow of information are critical to ensuring meaningful progress on health justice and climate justice. 

Applicants are encouraged to explore the intersections between our three themes when developing their proposals and, where appropriate, to consider addressing more than one.

For example, a project could focus on using freedom of information legislation to ensure access to reliable information on the state of the environment or to promote government accountability in relation to climate laws and policies. Another project might focus on the links between climate change and health and how these can be addressed at the national level in ways that make a difference to vulnerable groups. 

Gender as a cross-cutting theme 

The Foundation’s commitment to supporting the constructive participation of citizens in their governance, and to nurturing the growth of vibrant and free civil societies is informed by a recognition that social structures and systems are not neutral. Rather, they operate in and are shaped by power dynamics that too often reflect and perpetuate inequality and discrimination. We understand that gender inequality is a major challenge to our vision of a Commonwealth of equal, just, and inclusive societies and are committed to integrating gender considerations across our work and the work we support. To that end, we ask all applicants to demonstrate an understanding of how gender operates within their chosen theme/s and show how they will integrate that understanding into their project. 

For example, a persuasive project proposal that seeks to promote free access to healthcare for workers in the informal sector would likely demonstrate an understanding of how gender affects access and what this means in terms of different needs and priorities. That same proposal would also likely demonstrate an understanding of how gender in this setting intersects with other forms of discrimination (e.g., how race or age impacts on the hurdles facing women workers seeking to access healthcare services) that are different from those faced by other female informal workers; and how that understanding informs the project. 

Partnerships 

The Foundation welcomes partnerships to enhance the scale, depth, and breadth of the proposed work. Only the lead applicant organisation, and not the partner(s), needs to satisfy the core eligibility criteria. Partners might be informal groups, social movements, individual artists or advocates whose contribution to the project will increase its impact. If any proposed partners are registered organisations in the country of implementation, their registration certificates should also be provided as part of the application.

Creativity for change

The Foundation believes art can create meaningful social change. This year we welcome applications from organisations that use art and creative advocacy to achieve policy change.

Participation of young people 

While not a formal cross-cutting theme, young people are central to the Foundation’s mission and its vision for a future Commonwealth of equal, just, and inclusive societies. Applications are encouraged from youth-led organisations working on constructive engagement. 

Small and vulnerable Member States 

The Commonwealth Charter explicitly affirms the role of the Commonwealth as a champion of small states and a special duty on the Commonwealth to support and advocate for the interests of small states as well as those that are otherwise vulnerable. Applications from civil society organisations in small and vulnerable states that are members of the Foundation are strongly encouraged.  

Note that applicants from small and vulnerable states whose projects are not selected under this open call may be contacted to discuss other potential funding opportunities. 

Capacity Strengthening  

This call is for specific project proposals. It means that the budget which is submitted must relate to the costs that will be incurred in implementing the proposed project. The Foundation does appreciate the importance of strengthening organisational capacity. Those applicants whose projects are shortlisted will therefore be invited to propose capacity-strengthening initiatives as part of their project’s budget, at up to 5% of the grant amount requested. These funds can be used to cover organisational needs that are distinct from the project, but that help to enhance broader organisational effectiveness.

The Commonwealth Foundation will not fund:

• Attendance at training courses, workshops, and conferences unless as part of a larger project funded by the grant.
• Academic study or research unless as part of a larger project funded by the grant.
• Publication of books and films, unless they are part of a larger project applied for under the grant (note that this provision does not apply to a creative element of any grant, as detailed below).
• Exchanges between developed countries.
• Activities that are solely targeted at building the capacity of government officials and/or the private sector. If the project requires activities such as training of government officials, funding for such components should be separately sourced.
• Projects that focus on service delivery (for example, the Foundation will not fund activities such as the distribution of medicines, construction of facilities, and installation of water pumps).

Survey Monkey Apply are the providers of the online platform we are using for grant applications. We will only consider completed applications that have been submitted using the online application system.

Before applying, you need to set up a SurveyMonkey Apply account. To set up your account, click ‘register’ on the website here.

To apply, you will first need to log in to your SurveyMonkey Apply account and complete and submit an online application form on the website here.

The application and supporting documents cannot be emailed to the Foundation.

Applications open at 1pm BST on 17 September 2024 and close at 1pm BST on 24 October 2024.

All applicants must submit a completed online application form. All applications must include the following additional documentation:

1. A logic model (using the template provided here).
2. A copy of the organisation’s registration certificate. This should be a clear scan of an official registration document provided by the relevant authorities in the country where the applicant organisation is registered. If the registration certificate does not clearly state that the organisation is not-for-profit, please add other documentation which can be used as evidence of your organisation’s not-for-profit status (for example, articles of association). When the original registration certificates are not in English, shortlisted applications can be expected to be asked to provide a certified translation.
3. If your organisation is based in India, you should be compliant with the Foreign Contribution Registration Act (FCRA) or have preparations in place to obtain a valid FCRA registration certificate to legally receive charitable funding from outside sources.
4. For grants of £15,000 per year: The applicant organisation may choose to submit either the latest audited accounts or a copy of the organisation’s most recent annual accounts. Annual accounts must include a balance sheet, a profit and loss statement and notes about the account. They must be signed off by the organisation’s Board or its principal executive officer. Audited accounts or annual accounts must not be older than December 2022.
5. For grants exceeding £15,000 per year: a copy of the organisation’s most recent audited accounts is required. Note that audited accounts must include both the accounts and the opinion of the external auditor who has certified them. They must be signed off by the auditor and the organisation’s Board or its principal executive officer. They should not be older than December 2022.

Please note: incomplete applications will not be considered.

Filling in the application form does not automatically submit it. Please make sure that after you fill in the application form you go back to the main application screen and click on the submit button to submit your application.

You will receive an email from noreply@mail.smapply.io, the email address from SurveyMonkey Apply, acknowledging receipt of your application soon after it is submitted. If you do not receive this acknowledgement email one of three things may have happened:

• Your application was not successfully submitted
• The email was sent to a different email that was provided in the form
• Your email is in your spam inbox

Please check out all these options and if you are still experiencing problems contact the grants team at cfgrants@commonwealth.int

All applicants must submit a completed online application form. All applications must include the following additional documentation:

1. A logic model (using the template provided).
2. A copy of the organisation’s registration certificate. This should be a clear scan of an official registration document provided by the relevant authorities in the country where the applicant organisation is registered. If the registration certificate does not clearly state that the organisation is not-for-profit, please add other documentation which can be used as evidence of your organisation’s status as a not-for-profit (for example articles of association). When the original registration certificates are not in English, shortlisted applications can be expected to be asked to provide a certified translation.
3. If you are based in India, you should be compliant with the Foreign Contribution Registration Act (FCRA) or have preparations in place to obtain a valid FCRA Registration to legally receive charitable funding from outside sources.
4. For grants of £15,000 per year: The applicant organisation may choose to submit either the latest audited accounts or a copy of the organisation’s most recent annual accounts. Annual accounts must include a balance sheet, a profit and loss statement and notes about the account. They must be signed by the organisation’s Board or its principal executive officer. Audited accounts or annual accounts must not be older than December 2022.
5. For grants exceeding £15,000 per year: a copy of the organisation’s most recent audited accounts is required. Note that audited accounts must include both the accounts and the opinion of the external auditor who has certified them. They must be signed off by the auditor and the organisation’s Board or its principal executive officer. They should not be older than December 2022.

Additional information on accounts is provided below. Note that incomplete applications will not be considered.

Under this call, we are looking to support projects that seek to facilitate constructive engagement between civil society and government, including civil society participation in policy development and decision making. The call is focusing on three priority themes: (i) health justice; (ii) climate justice; and (iii) freedom of expression. Projects must address one or more of these three themes. Possible areas of focus within the priority themes can be found in the Call guidelines. All projects are required to integrate considerations of gender into their design and implementation.

The Foundation appreciates that CSOs interested in applying for a grant may already be doing significant work that falls within the parameters of this grants call and that would benefit from support for expansion and/or continuation of that work. We are therefore willing to consider supporting initiatives that are not ‘new’ but an additional component or extension of an existing initiative.

If funding is being sought in relation to an existing initiative, this should be indicated in the application. In such cases, the applicant should clearly explain why the additional component/work is important and the impact that it will have. For applications under this category that reach the shortlisting stage, the Foundation will likely request additional information on the project including its source of funding and evidence of results secured thus far.

For grants exceeding £15,000 per year, applicants are required to submit a copy of the organisation’s most recent audited accounts. (Grant applications of up to £15,000 may choose to submit either audited accounts or annual accounts as detailed above). Audited accounts must include both the accounts and the opinion of the external auditor who has certified them. They must be signed off by the auditor and the organisation’s Board or its principal executive officer. They should not be older than December 2022. 

Project audits and independently verified accounts will not be accepted in place of the organisation’s audited accounts. Audited accounts for an affiliated organisation registered in a different country will not be accepted.

For grants of £15,000 per year, the applicant organisation may choose to submit either their audited accounts (see Question five above for requirements) or a copy of the organisation’s most recent annual accounts. Annual accounts must include a balance sheet, a profit and loss statement and notes about the account. They must be signed off by the organisation’s Board or its principal executive officer. Audited or annual accounts must not be older than December 2022.

No. The required financial documentation must be submitted together with the application form. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

For applications that have more than one partner, the lead applicant must be registered in the country where the project will be implemented. Partner organisations can be registered or operating in a different Commonwealth Foundation member country to where the project will be implemented (please refer to the full list of eligible countries above).

No. Applicants do not need to nominate a partner. The Foundation does however encourage applicants to consider carefully how they can leverage partnerships (nominated or not) to enhance the scale, depth, and breadth of their work.

Where partners are nominated, the Foundation expects to include them in conversations, discussions, and capacity development activities once projects are approved. (Note that if any proposed partners are registered organisations in the country of implementation, their registration certificates should also be provided as part of the application.)

Partners do not need to be registered or to fulfil the other formal requirements set out above. They can be not-for-profit community-based organisations/groups, informal alliances, social movements, individual activists, as well as artists, such as musicians, writers, poets, or performers whose contribution to the project will strengthen its impact.

Yes, two or more organisations may apply for funding. However, one organisation must be nominated as the lead applicant and the other(s) must be identified as partner(s). The lead applicant will conclude the grant agreement with the Commonwealth Foundation and will accrue all relevant rights and responsibilities under that agreement.

No. An organisation can only be included in one application (see more below).

No. An organisation can only apply for one grant under this call.

Organisations that have previously received a grant from the Foundation may apply for a grant under this call provided the project that they were a lead applicant or partner in has come to an end. This means that all final reports have been received and approved by the Foundation at the time of submission of the application for a new grant. As the Foundation is seeking to support as many organisations as possible across the Commonwealth, priority is generally given to organisations that have not previously received a grant.

No. The income requirement relates to the lead applicant only.

No. Partners nominated by an applicant should not be government or business entities. However, the Foundation does welcome informal collaborations–including with government and the private sector–that might enhance the project’s effectiveness and impact.

No. While the Foundation is seeking to support constructive engagement with Government, project funds cannot be used to provide training to government officials. If such training is considered necessary for project aims, an alternative source of funding for those costs should be secured and this should be explained clearly in the application.

Once a grant is awarded, the Foundation requires grantees to develop a monitoring plan for their project. We work with grantees to develop such a plan using simplified versions of the Results Based Management and Outcome Harvesting methodologies that we use for all our work. 

For projects of one year duration, grantees are required to provide an end of project report and a corresponding financial report. For projects of more than one year duration, grantees are required to provide an annual report and financial report and, at the end of the project, an end of project report and corresponding financial report. 

Reporting schedules will be agreed between the grant partner and the Foundation and set out in the grant agreement.

The Foundation’s Member States have agreed that this call is restricted to civil society organisations in countries that are members of the Foundation in good financial standing and further, to those countries where the need for civil society support is the greatest.

See our map of eligible countries for more information. 

This is a call for specific project proposals. It means that the budget which is submitted must relate to the costs that will be incurred in implementing the proposed project.

The Foundation does appreciate the importance of strengthening organisational capacity. Those applicants whose projects are shortlisted will therefore be invited to propose capacity strengthening initiatives as part of their project’s budget, costed at up to 5% of the grant amount requested. These funds can be used to cover organisational needs that are broader than the project but that help to enhance organisational effectiveness. 

Note there is no need to include capacity development proposals in the first stage application.

Past and current projects funded by the Commonwealth Foundation can be found on our website: commonwealthfoundation.com/projects  

While these provide a good overview, applicants should be aware that requirements and focus areas differ from year to year, and it is important to carefully consider the specificities of this call. 

To apply you will first need to login into your SurveyMonkey Apply account and complete and submit an online application form. Only completed applications that have been submitted using the online application system will be considered.

No. Only applications submitted using the online application system will be considered.

Survey Monkey Apply are the providers of the online platform we are using for grant applications.

You can find out how to register for an account here.

No. You should already have an account. Please log in using your email address and password. If you have forgotten your password, follow the guidance provided on screen to set a new one.

If you have login problems, please send an email to: cfgrants@commonwealth.int.

This is the email address from SurveyMonkey Apply, the providers of the grants online application system. All emails relating to the submission of your grant application will be sent from this email address. Please do not reply to this email address as it’s not monitored. Send any queries to cfgrants@commonwealth.int and a staff member of the Foundation will get back to you.

If you have problems with your application, please contact cfgrants@commonwealth.int and a staff member of the Foundation will assist you.

We strongly advise that applicants requiring help reach out to us as soon as possible. Last-minute requests for help may not be responded to in time, and you could miss the deadline. Submission after the deadline is not possible and you should not rely on people being available to assist in the final days.

Filling in the application form does not automatically submit it. Please make sure that after you fill in the application form you go back to the main application screen and click on the submit button to submit your application.

You will receive an email from noreply@mail.smapply.io acknowledging receipt of your application soon after it is submitted. If you do not receive this acknowledgement email one of three things may have happened:

1. your application was not successfully submitted
2. the email was sent to a different email that was provided in the form
3. your email is in your spam box

Please check out all these options and if you are still experiencing problems contact the grants team at cfgrants@commonwealth.int.

Shortlisted applicants will be contacted by Foundation staff by the end of February 2025. These applicants will be invited to provide further information in support of their application, including a detailed project budget.

Shortlisted applicants will be informed of the result of their application by the end of June 2025, and it is expected that grant agreements will be concluded soon thereafter, allowing for implementation to begin as soon as possible in the third quarter of 2025 (August-September).

You can find out more information by downloading our application guidance documents which include:

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Grant Application Form
• Guidlines for Applicants
• Logic Model Template
• How to Submit an Online Application
• What is Constructive Engagement?

Shortlisted applicants will be contacted by Foundation staff by the end of February 2025. These applicants will be invited to provide further information in support of their application, including a detailed project budget.

If you have not been contacted by the end of February 2025, it means that your application has not been shortlisted.

Shortlisted applicants will be informed of the result of their application by the end of June 2025, and it is expected that grant agreements will be concluded soon thereafter, allowing for implementation to begin in the third quarter of 2025 (August- September).

Successful applicants will be asked to develop a monitoring plan for their project. The Foundation will provide guidance and support to grant partners with their monitoring plan.

Grant partners who are implementing a one-year project will be asked to provide an end of project narrative report, along with a financial report. Grant partners who are implementing a two-year project will submit a narrative and financial report at the end of the first year as well as an end-of-project narrative and financial report. Reporting schedules will be agreed between the grant partner and the Foundation and set out in the grant agreement.