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Funding Fairer Futures: calls for proposals open now! 

Funding Fairer Futures is an initiative dedicated to strengthening the climate movement and building capacities for an inclusive, just transformation, by ensuring that the needs and perspectives of diverse stakeholders, including often marginalised communities, are heard and reflected in climate action.

We are officially launching the first calls for proposals across five different funds dedicated to supporting civil society organisations and groups in delivering impactful awareness-raising, campaigning, advocacy, and community engagement projects that create more just and sustainable futures for all. ECOLISE is coordinating the Regenerative Communities Fund. 

Key focus: 

  • ECOLISE will fund National Hubs with an established track record in supporting grassroots and community-led initiatives ideally at national level. Ideal applicants are organisations already embedded within these communities, providing resources, peer-to-peer knowledge or other forms of support that drive sustainable change at a community level. We welcome applications from any organisation who align with ECOLISE’s values and objectives in community-led support and the FFF sub-granting and campaigning objectives.
  • We are looking for 5 National Hubs in 10 European countries (Croatia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain) to engage in the following activities:
  1. Support the design and promote the subgranting calls for Demonstrator and Pathfinder Communities (in 2025/2026).
  2. Support the selection of the final Demonstrator and Pathfinder Communities and act as a national-level contact point during the project period (Jun 2025 – Oct 2027).
  3. Help coordinate training and capacity building for Demonstrator and Pathfinder Communities.
  4. Build and support inter-community exchange and collaboration among Pathfinder Communities, Demonstrators and the wider ecosystem of stakeholders.
  5. Work towards securing longer term support for Community-Led Initiatives and collect and publish stories of CLIs.
  6. Host national level policy dialogues as part of the European Day of Sustainable Communities – aligned with ECOLISE / FFF campaign priorities.
  7. Engagement in the Just Transition FFF campaign by contributing to the design of the campaign, attending key meetings when needed, supporting campaign outreach and dissemination through their communication channels and networks using a communications toolkit.

Campaigning on Just Transition

We are looking for partners that will actively shape and engage in a joint campaign for a Just Transition.

How do we understand the Just Transition? A systemic shift towards an equitable, sustainable, and inclusive society that tackles the root causes of social and environmental injustices within economic, political, and social structures.

This campaign will work on advancing the justice dimension through efforts such as ending reliance on fossil fuels while promoting the green transition; leveraging this transformative process to create better lives for communities; rethinking food systems and agriculture to ensure sustainability; and securing the financial resources necessary to drive these critical changes.

We welcome your project ideas that can enrich this ongoing initiative, whether they support the above examples of areas of work, explore other innovative approaches to advancing a Just Transition, or contribute to strengthening civil society and challenging systemic inequalities in any other way.

Funding:

  • Each hub will receive 40,000€ for 30 months of contribution to the fund development.

Eligibility: 

Applicants must:

  • be a non-profit legal person: a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) or an association of CSOs constituted in accordance with the legislation in force in the country. CSOs constituted in accordance with the legislation in force in the country
  • be established in a country listed in this CfP: Croatia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain.
  • not be a beneficiary of a grant (neither lead, nor co-applicant, or affiliated entity, nor associates or contractors) in the frame of the European Commission’s DEAR programme
  • not have the financial, administrative or operational capacity to compete directly for EU funding under the EC DEAR 2022 CfP EuropeAid/173998/DH/ACT/Mul
  • declare that they have not received and are not expecting to receive financial support from another project resulting from the EC DEAR 2022 CfP EuropeAid/173998/DH/ACT/Multi
  • National Hubs should be organisations that are already providing support  to sustainable community-led initiatives and capable of doing network outreach, coordination and engagement at national level.
  • The financial support is beneficial for the Action, i.e. the project aligns with the thematic priorities (climate action, just transition, youth, disability, gender, participation, community empowerment) // The financial support is identified in the budget of the Action

Application process:

  • Applications must be submitted by March 7, 2025 by 23:59 CET.
  • Applicants must provide forms and budget proposals in English.
  • An information session will be held online on January 22, 2025. Register here to attend.

Selection criteria: 

  • Proposals will be evaluated based on relevance and connection with objectives of the call, potential impact, project design, organisational capacity, and added value.

Additional support for subgrantees: 

  • Training in project management, advocacy, fundraising, and visibility.
  • Opportunities to engage with the ECOLISE network and cooperate with global partners.
  • Support for campaign participation, fundraising, and communication strategies.

How to apply? 

To apply to the Regenerative Communities Fund led by ECOLISE, please read this document carefully, fill in the required documents listed below, and submit the completed application to this submission form by 7 March 2025, by 23:59 CET.

You will need to fill in the following documents included in the Call for Proposals:

Additionally, you can find a PDF and Word document version of the Submission Form to help support your application as you work on it offline prior to submission.

Any questions? 

You will find many answers to your questions in our FAQ. You can also join our information session which will take place online on 22 January 2025, 11:00 AM – 01:00 PM CET.

Additionally, you can join our open office hour on Wednesday 29 January 16-17 CET (zoom registration) and/or Tuesday 11 February 11-12 CET (zoom registration) to ask your questions to the ECOLISE FFF team.

Do not hesitate to contact us at rcf@ecolise.eu, we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

If you would like to stay updated on upcoming news related to the Funding Fairer Futures project, sign up to our mailing list.

The Regenerative Communities Fund is one of 5 funds running under the Funding Fairer Futures project. To learn more about the other funds, please visit the following websites: 

This project is co-funded by the European Union. These contents are the sole responsibility of ECOLISE and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

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