Update: 23 September 2020 – this funding round is now closed to applicants.
The new UK Aid Direct funding round opened to applicants on Monday 18 May 2020 at 10:00 (UK time).
This funding round closed to concept notes on Tuesday 30 June 2020 at 17:00 and opened to full applications on Tuesday 25 August 2020 at 14:00 (UK time).
All organisations invited to submit a full application would have received an email inviting them to the next stage of the process. They should have submitted their full applications via the UK Aid Direct applications portal (opens in a new window).
The deadline for submitting full applications was Tuesday 22 September 2020 at 17:00 (UK time).
The UK Aid Direct team hosted a full application guidance webinar on Wednesday 2 September and a copy of the FAQs is available to download (opens in a new window). A recording of the event is available to re-listen to on YouTube (opens in a new window).
This funding round will support small to medium-sized organisations who can demonstrate how they will help achieve the Global Goals (opens in a new window), whilst also addressing the longer term impact of COVID-19. Further information can be found in the ‘Community Partnership full application’ section below.
Update: 23 September 2020 – this funding round is now closed to applicants.
Community Partnership grants are for small, non-governmental organisations.
Registration
To be eligible you must either have:
It is important to note that when assessing where an organisation is based, the UK Aid Direct team look beyond legal registration. It will consider:
To help demonstrate this:
If successful, further verification in this area will be undertaken during full due diligence. Please note that the organisation implementing the project in the country of delivery must be registered with the appropriate body(ies) in that country.
Income
To be eligible to apply, your organisational average income must be under £1m, over the past three years. There is no minimum income level.
Considerations
In deciding the final shortlist of grants, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) (from 2 September 2020) will also consider:
Financial stability
If your organisation has any of the following, you will not be eligible to apply:
The above will be verified with figures from your latest set of annual accounts.
Update: 23 September 2020 – this funding round is now closed to applicants.
Applicants can apply for funding for up to £250,000 per Community Partnership grant, for projects lasting three years or less. There is no minimum value that can be requested.
The average annual grant value must be less than 50% of your organisation’s average annual expenditure. If it is above 50%, unfortunately your application will be deemed ineligible.
To help demonstrate this, here is an example:
Number of grants
A live grant is a project with more than nine months left to run from the start date of the UK Aid Direct call for proposals.
Update: 23 September 2020 – this funding round is now closed to applicants.
Projects can be set up in one or more eligible country. These are:
UK Aid Direct funds cannot be used for poverty alleviation work or awareness raising activities in the UK.
Note: Projects based in Kenya: to ensure an even spread of projects across different countries, the number of UK Aid Direct projects already operating in the local area will be considered during the application assessment process. UK Aid Direct currently receives a particularly high volume of proposals for projects in Kenya. For Kenya, priority will be given to projects delivering in areas with high levels of poverty (for example, the North, East and urban slums) and addressing issues such as basic health, girls’ education, family planning, and youth employment.
Please refer to the eligible countries page for more detail.
Update: 23 September 2020 – this funding round is now closed to applicants.
All applicants will need to demonstrate how they are working with national level implementing partners to create and build partnerships that can drive relevant sustainable development results.
There is no set prescription for the number of partners you might need, it depends on your organisation and the project you are proposing to deliver.
Downstream Partners
Downstream partners must be identified in advance.
Whilst there is no eligibility criteria in relation to the number, size or location of downstream partners, all partners involved must be justifiable, along with any associated budgeted costs. In the spirit of the partnership, the main grant holder will need to be able to demonstrate the longer term benefit of working with the proposed implementing partners in strengthening local and national civil society. The downstream delivery approach taken will be reviewed and considered as part of the application process.
To note, whilst we encourage collaboration with Government entities, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office funding cannot flow through them.
The grant holder will be required to perform a due diligence assessment on all downstream partners.
Please refer to the partnerships and consortiums page for further information.
We cannot fund certain types of organisations or projects.
Organisations that:
Projects/grants that would:
Please refer to the what will not be funded page for further information.
UK Aid Direct Community Partnership grants can be only be used to fund new, time-limited projects of up to 36 months (three years) duration.
The length of your project must be three years (36 months) or less in duration.
UK Aid Direct Community Partnership grants cannot be used to fund the extension of an existing project.
No match-funding is required for Community Partnership grants. It is however, welcome, and should be included in budgets where appropriate.
For the purpose of the UK Aid Direct programme, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) defines consortium applications as those submitted by formal consortia only; that is where two or more organisations come together to create a new, formally constituted organisation, with its own organisational accounts.
Informal consortia – where two or more organisations work together on a specific project or initiative only – will be considered as partnerships, as defined in the partnerships and consortiums page.
All formal consortium members must meet the UK Aid Direct Community Partnership applicant organisation eligibility criteria.
To be eligible:
If the formal consortium does not have its own management structure, one member of the consortium will need to be elected as the ‘lead’ organisation; that is the organisation through which all funding would be channelled and who would operate as the main point of contact for the duration of the project.
Organisations may apply both as an individual organisation and as a member of a consortium at the same time. If successful, the consortium grant would be counted as a grant held by each of the consortium members and would count towards the maximum combined grant model allowance of five live UK Aid Direct grants of different type types.
This funding round closed for concept notes on Tuesday 30 June 2020 at 17:00 (UK time). It opened for full applications on Tuesday 25 August 2020 at 11:00.
Applying for a Community Partnership grant is a two-stage process and all eligible applications are assessed by a team of independent reviewers through:
The concept note stage is now complete and all shortlisted full applicants will have received an email inviting them to submit a full application via the UK Aid Direct applications portal (opens in a new window).
All applications must be submitted via the online portal reached from this website. Applications sent via email or post will not be accepted.
Before starting a application, please:
Following submission of the full application (on the online portal), all full applications are reviewed by an independent technical panel and fiduciary risk experts. They are also shared with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) for feedback and moderation, including from DFID country office and policy teams.
Following review, it is anticipated that applicants will be notified of the outcome in December 2020. Please note that this timeframe could change and applicants will be notified in such circumstances.
For applicants that are awarded a provisional grant, the organisation will be required to undergo a financial management assessment (FMA), also known as a due diligence assessment. This will be conducted by an experienced member of the fiduciary risk team at UK Aid Direct and must take place before grants are approved or any funds are released. Further information about the due diligence process and the requirements of UK Aid Direct grants are available in the grant holder guidance section of this website.
This funding round closed for concept notes on Tuesday 30 June 2020 at 17:00 (UK time) and opened for full applications on Tuesday 25 August 2020 at 11:00.
All full applicants will have received an email inviting them to submit a full application via the UK Aid Direct applications portal (opens in a new window).This round will support small to medium-sized organisations who can demonstrate how they help achieve the Global Goals (opens in a new window) whilst also addressing the longer term impact of COVD-19.
COVID-19 will have impacts over and above the above the immediate consequences of the pandemic. In the longer term, these impacts may affect the quality of the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalised more than COVID-19 itself. The long-term impacts of the virus will be experienced across many sectors and any interventions that contribute towards the achievement of the Global Goals should be considering how these impacts can be addressed in the project design.
We anticipate that potential longer-term impacts could relate to the full range of Global Goals, including impacts on the most vulnerable and marginalised, delays to education outcomes and access to basic services.
COVID-19 considerations
Applicants are expected to outline the anticipated impact and consequences of COVID-19 throughout their applications. Consider the current context in the proposed country of implementation, highlight the challenges and how you plan to address them throughout each element of your application.
We appreciate that the context may be significantly different between now and when projects are planned to start and ask that applicants outline the anticipated consequences of COVID-19 when providing the rationale for the proposed interventions.
We will work with successful applicants during the grant set-up process to review the project design and agree appropriate adaptations that reflect the change in context.
Proposed project
A concept note must:
Project context
A concept note must:
Approach and delivery
A concept note must:
Capacity
A concept note must:
Risk
A concept note must:
Financial
The concept note requires the submission of:
Please ensure the figure you provide in your concept note application is converted into pounds sterling (£) otherwise your application may be deemed ineligible. Always double check the decimal point in your application. A missed or incorrect decimal point could mean that your project budget reads as £198,000,39 (ineligible) rather than £198,000.39 (eligible).
Non-project attributable costs (NPAC/overheads)
Non-project attributable costs (NPAC or overheads), are the costs incurred by an organisation that cannot be directly attributed to a specific project. These can include items such as annual audit fees, trustee meeting expenses, and general office costs. The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office recognise that this type of overhead expenditure supports the overall cost of delivering organisational activities and therefore, allows a proportion of these costs to be included in your budget. The amount that can be included will be proportional to the amount of funding requested and is calculated by using the ‘support’ costs, as identified in your annual financial statements, as a percentage of total organisational expenditure.
These costs will need to be calculated as part of your overall project budget and within the budget allocation. You do not need to calculate this for the application itself as we will calculate appropriate NPAC with you – should you be successful – during your grant set-up stage. However, you should bear these costs in mind whilst you are developing the budget for your application.
For guidance in preparing a proposed budget refer to the UK Aid Direct budget classification and management guidance document.
Update: 23 September 2020 – this funding round is now closed to applicants.
If your concept note application was successful you will have been invited to submit a full application for a Community Partnership grant.
COVID-19 will have impacts over and above the above the immediate consequences of the pandemic. In the longer term, these impacts may affect the quality of the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalised more than COVID-19 itself. The long-term impacts of the virus will be experienced across many sectors and any interventions that contribute towards the achievement of the Global Goals (opens in a new window) should be considering how these impacts can be addressed in the project design.
We anticipate that potential longer-term impacts could relate to the full range of Global Goals, including impacts on the most vulnerable and marginalised, delays to education outcomes and access to basic services.
COVID-19 considerations
Applicants are expected to outline the anticipated impact and consequences of COVID-19 throughout their applications. Consider the current context in the proposed country of implementation, highlight the challenges and how you plan to address them throughout each element of your application.
We appreciate that the context may be significantly different between now and when projects are planned to start and ask that applicants outline the anticipated consequences of COVID-19 when providing the rationale for the proposed interventions.
We will work with successful applicants during the grant set-up process to review the project design and agree appropriate adaptations that reflect the change in context.
Full application will be assessed against key criteria related to:
Contextual analysis
Applicants must demonstrate clear analysis of the project context and justification as to why the project is needed. Within this, it is important to consider the root causes and drivers of the problem, and use credible facts and figures which demonstrate the scale of the problem in the local context.
Project approach and design
Gender equality and disability inclusion
Monitoring, evaluation and learning, and value for money
Organisational capacity to deliver
Risk management and safeguarding
Financial
Required documentation
All organisations invited to submit a full application for a Community Partnership grant are asked to upload several documents, in addition to completing the application form on the online portal, SMILE.
A list of the fiduciary documents required are listed below. All required documents must be submitted via the online application portal:
Applicants must also provide the names and designations of the following individuals involved in the management of the organisation, along with their identity documents (for example, passport):
At concept note stage, applicants were required to upload copies of the three most recent sets of audited accounts. If a more up-to-date copy is now available, please upload it against this question alongside the rest of the requested documentation.
A list of the project-related documents required for the full application is listed below:
Please ensure the figure you provide in your full application is converted into pounds sterling (£) otherwise your application may be deemed ineligible. Always double check the decimal point in your application. A missed or incorrect decimal point could mean that your project budget reads as £198,000,39 (ineligible) rather than £198,000.39 (eligible).
Non-project attributable costs (NPAC/overheads)
Non-project attributable costs (NPAC or overheads), are the costs incurred by an organisation that cannot be directly attributed to a specific project. These can include items such as annual audit fees, trustee meeting expenses, and general office costs. The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) recognise that this type of overhead expenditure supports the overall cost of delivering organisational activities and therefore, allows a proportion of these costs to be included in your budget. The amount that can be included will be proportional to the amount of funding requested and is calculated by using the ‘support’ costs, as identified in your annual financial statements, as a percentage of total organisational expenditure.
These costs will need to be calculated as part of your overall project budget and within the budget allocation. You do not need to calculate this for the application itself as we will calculate appropriate NPAC with you – should you be successful – during your grant set-up stage. However, you should bear these costs in mind whilst you are developing the budget for your application.
For guidance in preparing a proposed budget refer to the UK Aid Direct budget classification and management guidance document.
Here you will find some further guidance and templates you may need when considering a UK Aid Direct grant. These are designed for you to read and share with your colleagues and partners before completing and submitting a UK Aid Direct grant.
Simply select the + sign on the right hand side to expand the sections and read further.