In November 2019, we launched a pilot fund to support civil society organisations to implement successful litigation which seeks to tackle discrimination and disadvantage. The fund is specifically for organisations who were involved in the litigation and are already doing the work to implement the outcome to bring about tangible changes in people’s lives.
Here are the top five things you need to know about the fund.
A note on eligibility
The eligibility criteria for this funding round are a bit tighter than they sometimes are – the guidelines should be helpful in the first instance, but please do get in touch if you’re unsure. It’s worth noting now that there are some things we definitely can’t fund like a new piece of litigation, for example, and we are also unable to support organisations who undertake litigation as part of their core business on this occasion.
Your case should have exhausted all means
In this pilot fund, we are only able to support work which is implementing a successful piece of litigation, not work still in motion with no set legal precedent. For example, if you’re still in an appeal process and need further funding to support that, we can’t support you through this fund. If you win your case in the highest court or the other side announces they won’t be appealing or challenging you, then hurrah, you can apply (we have three application deadlines for this fund, with the last one in August).
Continuing work, not new projects
We want to support organisations with additional funding for implementation work that you are already doing on a piece of litigation you were directly involved in. Unfortunately we aren’t able to support implementation work you are yet to get off the ground or work you want to do around litigation you were not involved in.
Learning!
We are interested in understanding how you plan on learning from your implementation work, for example: how you will develop your understanding of the impact of your activities, how you will share what you learn with others, and how your activities might help you decide whether to use legal tactics in the future. We don’t need a monitoring and evaluation plan, but in your application you should demonstrate that you’ve given this some thought.
It’s a pilot…
We’re learning too! We are trialling this fund after numerous conversations with people about the lack of support for work post successful litigation. This is a new funding focus for us, and we are learning a lot from each conversation we’re having with a potential grantee! We have three deadlines for applications in 2020 (29 January, 20 May and 12 August) and while we don’t plan on making any changes to the rounds at the moment, what we learn from conversations with interested organisations (both successful or not) and from the projects as they develop will inform our decisions about future funding rounds.
You can read the full application guidelines here. We have tried to keep them brief while still making sure you have all the information you need. Please read them in full and if your implementation work fits the criteria, get in touch to chat before writing your proposal. We look forward to hearing from you!
