Our funding
We support high-impact organisations that seek lasting change to some of the world’s biggest problems.
We thereby focus on partners who are working at the intersection of innovation and evidence: They are systemically assessing their impact and are truly interested in understanding it, whilst willing to develop and try new solutions.
SELECTION CRITERIA
- Evidence-based & impact-drivenWe focus on approaches that indicate very good (early) impact evidence. We work with organisations that are intrinsically driven to base their work on sound theoretic frameworks and have a strong evidence-focus from the very beginning. We have very high expectations when it comes to this criterium. We only fund organisations that continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their work and have a strong motivation from day one to include ways to test and understand the impact of their work.
- Cause areasWe fund solutions in the fields of education and/or access to independent information.
- Geographic focusLow-income countries, with a specific focus on Africa. In specific circumstances we also fund organisations in lower to middle income countries. We base this on the World Bank's definition of LIC: a GNI per capita of $1,135 or less in 2022.
- CollaborativeWe are looking for partners who are actively working with others in order to create the most effective and long-lasting solutions.
- EntrepreneurialWe are interested in partners that are open to new approaches, curious and who will showcase concrete solutions.
- Systems change perspectiveOur funding goes beyond direct services and aims to create lasting change. By supporting long-term strategies we want to overcome structural barriers to injustice for good.
- LeadershipWe only fund organisations where at least 50% of the founders and leadership are people from low-income or lower to middle countries. In addition, our target is to have at least 50% female-led organisations within our portfolio.
- Locally embeddedThe organisations we fund work directly with local communities in the design and implementation of their strategies. Interventions must also be based on true local needs (and opportunities).
- Environmentally sustainableWe only fund approaches that are in line with protecting the environment.
- Our additionalityWe think a lot about our impact as a grantmaker and what our grants add to what would have happened anyway. We consider this in relation to our opportunities as a rather small but flexible organisation. Our additionality is strongest when funding young organisations that have difficulties securing funding from other sources. We hope our grants can be catalytic for our grantees as well as the development of new solutions. So laying the groundwork for future systems changers.
We offer 3 types of grants
- LABORATORYGrants for new endeavours in the initial phase that are ready to start their proof of concept. These should be research-based and focus on evidence in the proof-of-concept phase
- SCALINGProgressive approaches that are based on (early) evidence and are ready to grow and reach the next level
- RAPID RESPONSESmall grants for unforeseen opportunities or to work on new ideas (prior to proof of concept phase)
* Due to limited time resources, we don’t accept unsolicited grant proposals.