Request for Proposals: Developing Social Entrepreneurship in Armenia
Cluster Competition
Background
External funding to NGOs in Armenia has been growing thinner every year and it will continue to decrease. This program responds to the omnipresent issue of long-term sustainability of civil society organizations in the region by developing the potential of local NGOs to generate their own resources through a wide array of businesslike action and practice.
Social Entrepreneurship Development in Armenia is a pilot two-year program striving to gather momentum and to involve all stakeholders into a long-standing effort to build NGO entrepreneurial capacities.
In Armenia, the concept of social enterprise is poorly understood. In 2006, as part of a baseline assessment of corporate social investment practices, EPF found that only a small number of businesses regularly engage in philanthropic activities. Armenian legislation provides little incentive for businesses to pursue a double bottom line: companies that make charitable donations are only entitled to a tax break of 0.25% of profits donated.
Poverty reduction, employment generation and social protection are still an issue in Armenia. The Armenian economy relies heavily on imports transited through Georgia and Iran, and on remittances from migrants. But the August 2008 war in Georgia (which led to key imports such as oil and wheat being briefly cut off) and the global financial crisis have exposed Armenia’s vulnerability as a result of its isolation and limited domestic manufacturing capacity. Philanthropy and charitable social programs in Armenia are generally funded from two key sources: international aid and Diaspora donations. With both sources in decline as a result of the financial crisis, Armenia can stand to benefit greatly by turning to domestic sources – such as social enterprises – of both job creation and social benefit.
Competition Goal
The goal of the competition is to promote social enterprise in Armenia as a viable business model for organizations that are driven by both social objectives/mission and profit through grant support to a cluster of non-profits for concrete entrepreneurial projects.
Eligible Participants
•Current grant competition is intended for a limited cluster of NGOs (non-profit organizations with state registration) that have participated in the Social Entrepreneurship trainings conducted by EPF in November 2009.
•Organizations not involved in the training phase of the project are not eligible to apply.
•Applicants should satisfy EPF Grants Management criteria which will be assessed by EPF GM staff:
a.The strength of the organization’s internal control systems and
b.The competencies of its accounting staff.
•The paid staff under the project and/or project management cannot be representatives or leaders of state government, political parties or religious organizations.
Selection Process and Competition Schedule
The Foundation will provide limited support to interested organizations in the preparation of applications during a pre-bid consulting seminar to be held in Eurasia Partnership Foundation Office in Yerevan (56 Zarobyan Str.) at 4 pm, on February 16, 2010.
Competition schedule:
February 9, 2010Announcement of the competition
February 16, 2010Pre-bid seminar
March 1, 2010Deadline for proposals
March 9, 2010Announcement of awards
March 15, 2010Start of projects
The review and selection process will be done in three phases:
1.Initial screening of proposals;
2.Presentation of selected proposals to EPF’s Expert Panel for final approval.
3.A detailed grant agreement with all necessary attachments will be signed, and a grant management seminar will be provided to the project’s key personnel.
Proposal Format
In order to participate in the competition, the applicant organization should meet the eligibility requirements outlined above. Project proposals submitted to the Foundation should include:
Two hard copies of a project proposal (in Armenian or English), which has been developed in accordance with the guidelines provided in the current Request for Proposals; one electronic copy of the proposal in Word format to be presented along with the hard copies to EPF Armenia. The proposal should be approved and signed by the Executive Director and the Board President identifying the document as a “Developing Social Entrepreneurship in Armenia” project. Unsigned proposals will not be accepted. All of the materials and documents submitted as part of this competition will not be returned to the applicant.
The EPF Grant Management Questionnaire should be filled in and submitted along with all required documentation.
The project proposal should consist of the following sections:
1.Basic information on the applicant, describing current activities and strategy (copy of strategy if available), as well as personal resumes should be provided;
2.Brief project description including: (1) project goal, (2) project objectives, (3) project activities, and (4) expected project outputs and outcomes, (5) beneficiaries;
3.Business plan;
4.Project implementation timeline;
5.Project budget.
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Project duration may be for a maximum of 7 months (with possible extension), with a project budget of up to USD 6,000. Incomplete proposals will not be considered.
The Foundation makes every attempt to maintain the confidentiality of the information submitted by applicants. Eurasia Partnership Foundation only uses the information presented by its applicants for the purpose of grantee selection. This information is only reviewed by the Foundation’s own personnel (or in this case by the expert panel). Eurasia Partnership Foundation is not required to return documentation submitted as part of a grant application.
Submission of Proposals
Applications must be submitted to EPF Armenia’s office in Yerevan (56 Zarobyan Street, Tel: 58-60-95, Fax: 58-60-96) no later than 17:00 on March 1, 2010. For more information, please contact Marina Mkhitaryan at: mmkhitaryan@epfound.am or by telephone: 58-60-95 (ext. 203).
RFP_Social Entrepreneurship_ENG (100.5 KBytes)
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Request for Proposals:Developing Social Entrepreneurship in Armenia
