Call for Grants Applications: Advancing the Evidence Base for Youth Civic Engagement in Effective Peace-building for Mitigating Violent Extremism

Deadline: 13 April 2017

Making Cents International under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is currently seeking applications for YouthPower Learning Grants for Advancing the Evidence Base for Youth Civic Engagement in Effective Peacebuilding for Mitigating Violent Extremism.

The objective of the YouthPower Learning’s grant program is to engage US and developing country youth-serving and youth-led non-profit and for-profit organizations in efforts to further assess, evaluate, document, and disseminate innovative work in positive youth development (PYD) and cross-sectoral youth programming.

Positive Youth Development engages youth, along with their families, communities and/or governments, so that youth are empowered to reach their full potential. PYD approaches build skills, assets and competencies; foster healthy relationships; strengthen the environment; and transform systems.

Programme Activities

YouthPower Learning’s main activities include:

Creating and managing YouthPower.org – the premier learning hub for enhanced knowledge sharing on PYD and cross-sectoral programming;
Fostering an inclusive, demand-driven learning network and communities of practice (CoPs) to improve skills, practices, and partnerships around international cross-sectoral PYD;
Developing indicators and related tools to bridge gaps across sectors and establish common measures to contribute to a comprehensive PYD framework;
Producing the definitive global meta-review of PYD literature to expand on the existing evidence base; and
Providing evidence and evaluation support through buy-ins to USAID using assessment, evaluation, research, learning, and project design technical assistance.

Award Information

Making Cents anticipates awarding up to US$240,000 through up to six individual grant awards of up to US$40,000 each (or local currency equivalent for non-US organizations).
The final amount will be dependent upon grant activities and final negotiation and may not be lower than $15,000 and not higher than US$40,000 each (or local currency equivalent for non-US organizations).
The duration of any grant award under this solicitation is expected to be no more than twelve months.
The estimated start date of grants awarded under this solicitation is June, 2017.

Eligibility Criteria

This RFA is issued to ensure that all interested and qualified organizations have a fair opportunity to submit applications for funding. Making Cents will not accept applications from individuals. Foreign governments, state and local governments and US Government departments and agencies may also not apply for funding under this RFA. All applicants must be legally recognized organizational entities under applicable law.

Making Cents reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted.

The following types of organizations located in the United States and developing countries (Geographic Code 935 see 22 CFR 228.03) may apply for funding under this RFA:

US and non-US non-profit organizations.
Institutions of higher education.
Charitable or private foundations.
Privately owned enterprises or firms.
Research or policy institutes.
Making Cents encourages: applications from new organizations who meet the above eligibility criteria; youth-led organizations to apply as lead applicants; and youth engagement in the research effort.

Ineligible organizations include:

Private enterprises and firms who propose fees.
Private foundations established for estate managing purposes.
YouthPower Learning subcontractors that have a full subcontract, so as to prevent any potential conflict of interest.
Government entities or officers.
Political parties, groupings, or institutions or their subsidiaries and affiliates.
Organizations that advocate, espouse, or promote anti-democratic policies or illegal activities.
Faith-based organizations whose objectives are for discriminatory and religious purposes, and whose main objective of the grant is of a religious nature.
Any entity whose name appears on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Non-procurement Programs.

How to Apply

The interested applicants who meet the eligibility criteria should prepare and submit an application accompanied by a budget, in English of not more than fifteen (15) pages, excluding required attachments.

The interested applicants who meet the eligibility criteria should prepare and submit an application (Annex A) in English of not more than fifteen (15) pages, excluding required attachments. The application should be accompanied by a budget (Annex B).

In addition to the application and the budget documents, applicants should submit the following:

An implementation plan, using Annex C as the template;
Signed and dated Required Certifications (Annex D);
Applicant Self-Assessment (Annex E);
A copy of their latest audited financial statements (or NICRA, if applicable); and
A copy of the applicant’s valid legal registration.

Grant applications must be submitted to the Point of Contact in Section 4.E in electronic copy in

Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat format. Budget documents should be submitted in Microsoft Excel.

This RFA will remain open until April 13, 2017, 21:00 GMT. Applications must reach the designated Point of Contact (grants@youthpower.org) on or before the above mentioned deadline. Applications received after the closure date/time above will not be considered.

Making Cents will record the date formal grant applications are received, the name of the organization, and the signature of the organization’s representative who is delivering the proposal.

Resources

Download the RFA and necessary documents below:

If you have difficulty accessing this document, please contact the Grants Manager via email at grants@youthpower.org.

For more information, please visit YouthPower Learning Grants.