APPLY: Nexus Fund’s Atrocity Prevention Small Grants Fund Nigeria

Applications will be accepted until June 10, 2017

The Atrocity Prevention Small Grants Fund aims to provide flexible support to local civil society organizations and community leaders for projects to improve their efforts in preventing mass atrocities (large-scale systematic violence against innocent civilians).

Goals of the program include:

• Supporting locally-driven projects focused on issues related to preventing mass atrocities
• Improving the understanding of the risks of mass atrocities in locally specific contexts
• Providing resources to local actors to reduce the risk of mass atrocities in their communities
• Strengthening both local and global communities working on preventing mass atrocities

ELIGABILITY AND CRITERIA

Applicants to the Atrocity Prevention Small Grants Program must clearly identify how their proposed project contributes to the prevention of mass atrocities (mass violence) in their communities. Applications that do not communicate this clearly will not make it past the initial stage of the approval process.

Applications can be for any type of projects and applicants can be both local organizations and individual activists. We are particularly interested in funding:

• Established Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that are underfunded
• Small, new and developing CSOs
• Individual community leaders and activists interested in developing projects and/or organizations to work on projects related to preventing mass atrocities

The ideal project funding request is N1,800,000 ($5,000 USD). Please submit your budget request in Naira. The Nexus Fund uses an exchange rate of N360 to $1 USD.

Funding requests ranging from N90,000 to N7,200,000 will be considered if a project is particularly compelling. However, it should be noted that few projects over N3,600,000 are funded. The project budget submitted can include staff time and overhead.

Eligibility requirements

• This program is open to all applicants of any age
• Applications can be submitted by individuals and organizations

Project areas eligible for funding

The fund is aimed at projects related to mass atrocity prevention broadly defined, and includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:

1. Accountability
2. Advocacy
3. Atrocity Prevention
4. Civilian Protection
5. Community empowerment
6. Conflict Mediation
7. Conflict Prevention
8. Conflict Resolution
9. Countering Violent Extremism
10. Crisis Mapping
11. Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR)
12. Displacement/Refugee/Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
13. Early Warning/Early Response
14. Genocide Prevention
15. Genocide Studies
16. Good Governance/Rule of Law
17. Hate Speech
18. Human Rights
19. Human Rights Documentation
20. International Criminal Justice
21. Interfaith or Intercommunal Dialogue
22. Peace and Security
23. Peacebuilding
24. Reconciliation
25. Reconstruction
26. Reporting
27. Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
28. Transitional Justice

This list is not comprehensive and we are always open to applications and ideas based on the needs of the community to prevent mass violence. We often support innovative and creative ideas.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Applications to the Atrocity Prevention Small Grants Fund are being accepted on a rolling basis until June 10, 2017. All applicants will be notified of the status of their application no later than August 1, 2017.

Applications should be submitted to The Nexus Fund’s Field Coordinator. Please send your application to:

• Michael Olufemi Sodipo for projects in North West Nigeria (michael@nexus-fund.org)

The Field Coordinator will confirm receipt of your application and inform you of next steps.

• Applicants are invited to reach out to The Nexus Fund with a brief description of their idea or project before submitting a full proposal. The Nexus Fund team is happy to provide feedback and guidance at this stage.
• Applicants can submit a proposal in their chosen format.
• Applicants are welcome to submit a proposal in their own language or in English.

Application Guidelines

• Applications should include a timeline for the proposed project and a brief outline of the monitoring and evaluation plan.
• Applications should clearly identify how the project will contribute to the long term prevention of atrocities (large scale systematic violence against civilians) in their communities.

Application Stages

• When an application is received, a Nexus Fund Field Coordinator will confirm receipt of the application.
• Nexus Fund Field Coordinators will liaise between the applicant and Nexus Fund Headquarters with further questions about the application. Please note that we typically send questions back to applicants several times – this is a normal part of our process and should be expected.
• Nexus Fund Headquarters will inform all applicants of the status of their application no later than August 1, 2017.
• If approved, Nexus Fund Headquarters will request appropriate documentation and distribute funds.
• Nexus Fund Field Coordinators will follow up on the progress of the project over time, including through regular site visits and meetings.

We fund

• Workshops and training which lead to projects and activities. Please note that we do not fund stand-alone trainings without a plan for sustainability and further community engagement.
• Projects that are actively engaging with communities/members of the community on an ongoing basis.
• Projects focused on building infrastructure to prevent large scale systematic violence against civilians.
• Staff time and overhead costs at a reasonable level.

We do not fund

• Stand-alone workshops
• Individual research projects or scholarships
• Per diems for participants
• Posters (unless this is part of a wider campaign)
• Handbills (unless this is part of a wider campaign)
• T-shirts and other clothing items (unless part of a wider campaign)

Please feel free to reach out to The Nexus Fund team (smallgrants@nexus-fund.org) or our local Field Coordinator (michael@nexus-fund.org) at any time with questions.