Rapid response grant making is the provision of immediate small grants within a short period of time to support
interventions that are strategic and urgent which may not be part of planned program activities and are not covered
by long term funding.
We are only able to support interventions that are
- Time Urgent
- Unanticipated
- Sustainable
- Strategic
- Supported
- Strategic – the action is related to a pre-determined plan to create structural change that will advance women’s human rights and address some the fundamental or root challenges that pre-empted the situation.
- Unanticipated- the situation or opportunity could not have been foreseen and therefore could not have been planned for.
- Time Urgent- the initiative must take place quickly (during a period of less than three months) for it to be effective or the opportunity will be lost.
- Sustainable — the group is able to carry out the proposed action effectively and can secure funding for its future sustainability.
- Supported –the group has the support of others involved in women’s human rights or related fields, locally or globally who must also be familiar with the situation.
The grantmaking team goes through each individual request and carries out due diligence including consulting our advisors and the endorsers you provide. We look at each application on a case by case basis. It is possible that despite meeting all the criteria, you may be asked further clarifying questions on your intervention and budget.
A number of factors can lead to your application being unsuccessful, one of them could be that the application did not meet the criteria. Other factors may include but are not limited to; discrepancies and misrepresentation in the application and if your intervention was on activities that we do not support or activities that could be planned or programmed for within an organization’s normal work.
- Humanitarian interventions (e.g. food, clothing, medical supplies, shelter)
- Individual participation at conferences
- Travel grants
- Education scholarships, trainings and capacity building workshops
- Income generating activities
- Capital expenditures (vehicles, computers, office furniture) or for ongoing office running costs i.e. overheads, salaries, rent, telephone bills
- Initiatives that are not women led or women centric
- Partisan initiatives or political campaigns
- Furthering of religious agenda
- Provision of social or health care services such as medical care.
- Program activities or activities that can be programmed for.
- Furthering of a religious or political agenda
- Rapid Response Grants- 12,000USD
- Defending the Defenders Grants- 5,000USD
- Advocacy and Alliance Building Grants- 20,000USD
We review the budget and do our own due diligence concerning the amounts indicated. We are only able to support budgetary items that fall within our mandate. Please refer above for expenses that we are not able to support.
We are only able to provide grants through organizations. If applying on behalf of an individual, one would still need to apply through an organization who would act as fiscal sponsor. We do not transfer funds to individual bank accounts.
Yes, we do support organizations to come together to apply for funding as this leverages on collective capacities and resources. We will require a Memorandum of Understanding to indicate which roles each of the collective members will play.
No, you do not need to be a legally registered organisation or collective in order to apply. We accept and encourage applications from non-registered collectives or groups. We fund both informal and formal organisations. For non-registered groups, it is important to have a registered group that can be a fiscal sponsor (taking care of your finances and reporting obligations).
You are only eligible to apply if a majority of the members of your group (at least 70%) identify as women and the organisation/collective must be women-led with women holding decision making positions.
We fund women’s right organizations across the African continent.
We review applications in the 5 African Union Official Languages; English, Swahili, French, Portuguese and Arabic.
No, part of UAF-Africa’s commitment is to encourage locally-led initiatives.
There are four Urgent Action Fund sisters who operate autonomously covering the entire globe. Urgent Action Fund- Africa covers the African continent. If yours is an African based organization seeking to intervene within an African country, then you should submit to Urgent Action Fund- Africa.
All applications are acknowledged within 24 hours and the review process conducted within 72 hours. How fast we review your application ultimately depends on the information you provide us and how fast we can verify this. We usually request that you prompt your endorsers so that they too can provide us with information as soon as possible.
Yes, you can apply for another grant if the circumstances require urgent intervention and you have met all your reporting obligations. However, there are limitations that would affect your ability to receive funding more than once within the year such as if the request relates to an existing situation for which you have already received funding for.
No, we do not review two or more applications from one organisation at the same time.
