Resourcing Lesbian* Movements in Europe - 2025

Projects which contribute to increasing/ developing/ strengthening one or more of the below, in order to benefit lesbian* communities:

• NGO capacity to protect and promote the rights of lesbians*, especially in the field of rights protection, monitoring, implementation and advocacy;
• NGO advocacy and watchdog role;
• NGO involvement in policy and decision-making processes with local, regional and national governments;
• awareness raising about EU rights and values regarding lesbians* in support of NGOs watchdog and advocacy work.

Activities listed below may receive funding. Please note that activities not listed below cannot be funded.

• Desk research (research cannot be the main purpose of the action), baseline studies
• Training actions, study visits, field trips and internships
• Facilitation of contacts, consultations and discussions between different stakeholders
• Communication and information activities
• Organization of conferences, roundtables, workshops and seminars
• Promotion of the implementation of adopted laws and regulations
• Advocacy for the revision of existing legislation and adoption of new legislation in accordance with EU standards and requirements
• Establishment of dialogue with political parties, groups of parliamentarians or legislative bodies
• Documentation and monitoring activities, as well as monitoring international commitments
• Publication of monitoring reports
• Drafting policy or legislation recommendations
• Public awareness raising campaigns
• Publication of leaflets, manuals on best practice
• Testing of innovative approaches
• Community building activities in support of NGOs watchdog and advocacy work,
• Internal/organizational capacity development activities
• Service provision to community members, in support of NGOs documentation and monitoring activities

Other activities not listed above cannot be included in the project; for example, regranting cannot   be included.

General principles for admissible costs are the following:

• they must be actually incurred by the applicant
• they must be incurred in the grant period
• they must be declared under one of the budget categories included in the application forms
• they must be incurred in connection with the planned actions
• they must be identifiable and verifiable, in particular recorded in the applicant’s accounts in accordance with the accounting standards applicable in the country where the applicant is established and with the applicant’s usual cost accounting practices
• they must comply with the applicable national law on taxes, labor and social security
• they must be reasonable, justified and must comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular, regarding economy and

Categories of costs that can be included are the following:

• Personnel costs
• Subcontracting costs
• Travel and subsistence costs
• Equipment costs (must be declared as depreciation costs)
• Other goods, works and services

Costs that are not allowed are the following:

• costs or contributions that do not comply with the conditions set out above
• costs related to return on capital and dividends paid by a beneficiary
• debt and debt service charges
• provisions for future losses or debts
• interest owed
• currency exchange losses
• bank costs charged by the beneficiary’s bank for transfers from EL*C
• excessive or reckless expenditure
• deductible or refundable VAT (including VAT paid by public bodies acting as public authority)
• costs incurred or contributions for activities implemented during grant agreement suspension in-kind contributions by third parties
• costs or contributions declared under other EU grants (or grants awarded by an EU Member State, non- EU country or other body implementing the EU budget)
• costs or contributions for staff of a national (or regional/local) administration, for activities that are part of the administration’s normal activities (i.e. not undertaken only because of the grant)

As for specific guidance for the various budget categories included in the application forms, we will add more information in the Q&A document on this page, and we will talk about these in the information sessions.

Eligible proposals will be assessed along the below selection criteria:

1. Operational capacity (20 points)
   • How complex is the project as compared with the applicant’s prior experience? Has the applicant managed other similar projects in the past? Based on the application, does the applicant have the capacity to implement the project?
2. Relevance of the project for the lesbian* community (20 points)
   • Is the project’s goal/ objective relevant from the perspective of the call for proposals; in particular, is there a focus on rights protection, monitoring, implementation and advocacy? Based on the information provided in the application, is the project relevant for lesbians*, in the applicant’s context?
3. Design of the action and Implementation Approach (15 points)
   • Do the planned activities contribute to the objectives? Are the activities realistic and doable within the project period? Are the activities well-planned? Does the application only include activities that are listed in the call for proposals? What methods are they planning to use? Do the methodologies serve the project’s objectives and the values that the CFP is serving, in particular, do they serve rights protection, monitoring, implementation and advocacy work? Are the methodologies well-chosen, doable and effective?
4. Sustainability of the action (15 points)
   • Is the project’s impact going to influence the life of the community beyond short-term gains? What are the mid-term and long-term impacts that the project will contribute to, especially in the field of rights protection, monitoring, implementation and advocacy? Is there a vision for potential long-term sustainability?
5. Budget and cost effectiveness of the action (15 points)
   • Are the planned budget items reasonable, detailed, and in line with the planned activities/ objectives? Are they under-planned or possibly overestimated?
6. Intersectionality (lesbians* facing multiple hardship, exclusion, discrimination) (15 points)
   • Is the applicant/ project working with lesbians* facing multiple hardships, exclusion, discrimination, including those living in rural areas?

Priority will be given to applicants not yet funded by EL*C in 2023 and 2024, and to those without funding. In addition, funding requests from small grassroots CSOs will be prioritized over well-established groups with significant budgets.

A Selection Committee comprising of EL*C Board Members – thus persons elected by the community – will assess eligible proposals and will make funding decisions. Only a select number of EL*C Board Members will take part in this work, in particular those who do not have any conflict of interest in relation to potential applicants.

We will acknowledge the receipt of the application. It is possible that EL*C will be in touch with you with clarifying questions regarding the application. It is also possible that the Selection Committee will suggest changes to the project.

Eligible applicants will be informed about the grant decision as soon as possible. Awarded projects will be also announced on this webpage.

Please note that applicants with awarded projects will be required to express their commitment to upholding European values and standards. Also, in rare cases they may be requested to undergo a due diligence check prior to signing the grant agreement.

You need to submit the completed application form, including the budget, before 23:59 CET on May 12-th, 2025, to the following email address: grants@lesbiangenius.org

Please make sure not to send it last minute, as it may take a few minutes for different mail servers to send the emails.

You can download the application form in several languages down below.
Please note that we used e-translation when preparing the application forms. If something is not clear in the translated texts, please reach out to grants@lesbiangenius.org.