St Stephen's Green Trust: Civil Society Grant Programme

Overview

As part of this work, SSGT is launching a new funding programme in 2023 that aims to contribute to a ‘high energy democracy’ by supporting civil society groups to:

• Engage in participative and deliberative democracy initiatives that harness the power of civil society to transform democratic decision-making processes
• Develop progressive platforms for collective power and influence which use values-based approaches to identify elements of transformative change
• Create spaces for participation and voice, particularly among those who are most marginalised

Applicant groups should design approaches which: focus on learning; ensure the voice of those most affected are included in the design and delivery of the outcomes; seek to build relationships that last beyond the funded work, including the strengthening of relationships at both a horizontal and vertical level and have a clear idea about what they want to achieve.

This is a one-off grant programme to fund groups on the island of Ireland up to £12,500/ €15,000 for work taking place over 12 to 18 months. The programme and its ambition emerged from a detailed Context Paper,. While they do not want to be prescriptive about the initiatives to be funded, this paper gives insights into their strategy and how they expect change to happen. As such, they strongly encourage applicants to read it before completing your application.

As an all island funder, they consider it important that progress should take account of both the North-South
dimension with due attention to the East-West dynamic.

They encourage collaborative approaches to build collective power across geography and themes to advance transformative change.

Eligibility - organisation & costs

SSGT will accept applications from non-profit groups across the island. Groups do not have to be registered charities, but a minimum level of governance is required. Networks may apply but a lead group must be nominated to apply for and manage the grant.

They will fund activities which build on the current work of an organisation, network or community, but which are targeted at the areas specified in the programme outcomes.

They are not excluding particular types of expenditure as they recognise that the resources needed to test new approaches, convene, mobilise and organise will be different for different organisations and communities. However, they are unlikely to fund salaries for additional staff due to the limitations of the programme.

Outcomes

Applicant groups should design approaches which: focus on learning; ensure the voice of those most affected are included in the design and delivery of the outcomes; seek to build relationships that last beyond the funded work, including the strengthening of relationships at both a horizontal and vertical level1 and have a clear idea about what they want to achieve.

This is a one-off grant programme to fund groups on the island of Ireland up to £12,500/€15,000 for work taking place over 12 to 18 months.

Grantees are required to participate in two Learning Network meetings which have an objective to gather and share learning among grantees and other stakeholders and drive the impact of the programme. There will be opportunities to participate in convenings with partner organisations of SSGT. There will be a focus on learning and funded groups will be supported by SSGT to report on progress over the project period – exploring enablers and barriers to project activities and impact.