LGBTI FUND CALLS FOR PROPOSALS

UPDATE: Both the grant and peer reviewer application deadlines have been extended to Monday 10 February 2014.

An exciting new Southern African LGBTI funding programme – planning to distribute almost R4 million this year- has launched its first request for proposals.

The creation of the Other Foundation was announced in September 2012 after Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) – the massive international funder of many gay and lesbian projects in South Africa – ended its LGBTI funding cycle in the country.

Fearing that the region’s LGBTI community would be left with a massive funding gap, AP helped form and provided seeding money for the Other Foundation for five years.

The foundation says that it aims to offer “an opportunity for organisations and individuals in Southern Africa to submit their ideas about work that they would like to do to advance the rights and/or well-being of LGBTI people in the region”.

There are four different grant categories available – ranging in size from R10,000 to R500,000 – depending on wether the applicant is an individual, a small organisation or a national or regional group.

The deadline for submission of applications is 10 February 2014. Applicants must be based in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia or Zimbabwe.

The applications will be reviewed by a team of ‘peer reviewers’ and applicants will be informed in March if their submission was successful.

Under the ‘peer review’ system, activists, researchers and artists who are eligible for applying for grants will also be the ones recommending to the foundation’s board which grants should be awarded. The opportunity to be a peer reviewer is open to anyone who is eligible to apply for funding.

The Other Foundation is not only a grant-making entity but also aims to raise funds itself to become a sustainable funder of LGBT projects and organisations in the region.

Visit the Other Foundation’s website here, which contains details on applying for a grant and for becoming a peer reviewer.