EFN Rapid Response Fund

Currently closed for applications Active citizenship Buildings and built environment environment Natural environment and climate Policy, advocacy and campaigning Recycling and waste management Sustainable development Sustainable energy volunteering World issues Africa Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Asia and Middle East Australia Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Europe and Russia Fermanagh and Omagh Great Britain International Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down North America Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland Scotland South and Central America Wales Medium (up to £60,000)

Track grant Notes

Overview

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed by a small advisory group of funders.

Applications that meet the criteria set out in the application guidelines are shared with all participating funders. The funders are encouraged to respond quickly, funding the applicants directly but letting the other funders know how much they have awarded (which they can do anonymously if they wish) so that the total amount outstanding can be tracked.

The maximum amount that can currently be requested is £25,000, and funders can make donations of any size towards the total amount requested. Note: the average amount requested is around £15,000 and the average amount raised is £10,000.

Criteria

Urgency:

EFN welcomes applications for work that will help your organisation, collaboration or initiative seize an unexpected opportunity or react to an unexpected crisis, allowing you to secure a significant environmental ‘win’ that would not otherwise be possible. The specific event or situation to which your organization is responding must not have been possible to anticipate, and it must be the case that action needs to happen quickly in order to be effective. Actions must be implemented within three months of securing funding.

Location/applying organisations:

Work can be anywhere in the world, but the applicant organisation must be UK-based.

Issues:

They welcome applications for work on all environmental issues, but will give preference to work on less well-funded thematic issues, such as a) trade and finance, b) consumption and waste, c) toxics and pollution, d) transport, and e) fresh water.

Approaches:

EFN research has indicated that the UK environment sector thinks more resources are needed for a) policy and advocacy work, b) ‘movement-building’ involving work engaging with the grassroots and civil society coordination and c) communications work with a greater focus on attitudes, behaviours and values. In addition, their conversations with sector leaders have indicated that funds are often needed urgently for work related to legal action. They will give preference to proposals for work using these approaches.

Organisations that receive funding through the Rapid Response Fund are asked to submit a short report after six months, detailing what they did with the funding, what they achieved, any learnings, and what will happen next. These reports are submitted to EFN, which then passes them on to funders in order to simplify and streamline the reporting process.