Empower to Plan Small Grants Programme

Deadline Date: May 17, 2024

Donor Name: Population Matters

Grant Size: $1000 to $10,000

The Population Matters is currently accepting applications for Empower to Plan Small Grants Programme to support initiatives that promote family planning, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and related themes.

They campaign for ethical, voluntary, and positive solutions to encourage smaller families, reduce excessive consumption, and help us to live within the planet’s natural limits. The mission is to drive large-scale action by promoting choices that support a sustainable human population and foster environmental regeneration.

Thematic Focus 

• They collaborate with organisations dedicated to enhancing the lives of girls and women and protecting the environment. 
• They support projects that incorporate two or more of the following thematic areas in their project design: 
  • Sexual and reproductive health and education 
  • Gender justice 
  • Environmental justice 
  • Family planning 
  • Youth, girls’, and women’s empowerment 
  • Environmental education and climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation 
  • Species and/or habitat conservation. 
• They encourage projects that adopt the Population/People, Health, and Environment (PHE) approach, which integrates these three key aspects for comprehensive impact. 
• Additionally, they recognise, support, and welcome applications from projects working with boys and men to achieve gender equality.

Funding Information

• They award grants of a maximum of £7,000 per application. 
• Typical grant amounts fall within the range of £4,000 to £6,000.
• They provide the full grant amount at the beginning of the funding period.
• They award 3 grants under the Empower to Plan Programme each year.
• They typically support projects with durations between 4 and 12 months.

Types of Projects 

• They consider applications for various types of projects, including but not limited to: 
  • Implementation of specific projects run by the organisation. 
  • Scaling up of existing projects to reach a wider audience. 
  • Seed funding for innovative solutions and/or new projects. 
  • Covering operational costs of ongoing initiatives.

Eligibility Criteria

• Essential criteria: 
  • Organisations should align with Population Matters’ mission and vision and share the commitment to human rights, women’s empowerment, and global justice. 
  • Organisations should incorporate two or more of the Empower to Plan thematic areas specified in the Thematic Focus. 
  • Organisations must be registered as a grassroot/non-profit/nongovernmental/trust/civil society organisation/community-based organisation in their country of operation. 
  • Organisations should have an annual income between £5,000 and £250,000, with preference given to those at the lower end of this range. 
  • To receive funds, organisations must have an internationally registered bank account. 
  • Organisations must be legally capable of receiving funds from an international organisation. 
  • Organisations must be able to provide a set of annual and/or management accounts and, ideally, audited accounts, when requested. 
  • Organisations must either possess or express a willingness to implement safeguarding, financial management, and anti-fraud, bribery, and corruption policies. Population Matters is happy to provide assistance to those organisations that do not currently have these policies in place.
• Desirable Criteria:
  • Organisations governed, directed, or led by members of the communities they serve. 
  • Organisations led by and representing women and those with lived experience of the issues the organisation seeks to address. 
  • Emerging and longstanding grassroots organisations, particularly those with little or no access to funding from larger donors.

For more information, visit Population Matters.