Spring 2022 Grant

For this call, we are focusing on the following areas:

Creating direct pathways to formal education

This encompasses the creation of exceptional opportunities for accessing formal and alternative education as well as employment-focused vocational training, answering specific needs and presenting realistic solutions for refugee and displaced children and youths.  It is the preference of AMF that education takes place in-person where possible, rather than through remote learning solutions.

Our focus on innovation means that while we would consider supporting a project offering, for example, language classes to vulnerable children to better integrate into formal school, we will also expect the applicant to provide a reasoned connection between the proposed intervention and overcoming existing challenges hampering similar projects. 

Social work and child protection in education

AMF would like to place a particular focus on child protection provision in non-formal education and on addressing the need for funders to integrate as standard a social work/protection element into all projects involving direct contact with children, youth, and vulnerable groups. Potential projects could range from full child protection implementation plans, to training to hiring a child protection officer, to projects that support better integration of child protection practices into the daily workings of organisations and institutions.

Pupil tracking

AMF are interested in exploring means to accurately track pupil integration into, and monitor their outcomes within, the formal education system. This could include the development of technology to combat lack of administrative capacity in schools, or projects examining the efficacy of current tools and ways to improve them.  As mentioned above, their innovation elements must specifically target ways to overcome existing and well-known challenges to this type of work.

Research into impact

This topic should focus specifically on past and current education schemes implemented with refugee and vulnerable host community children, examining and evaluating the extent of their impact.  Consideration should be given to new local realities, the needs of learners, and the capacity of their families, and evidence based suggestions should be made as to the future of such programmes.  AMF are particularly interested in studies looking at the effectiveness and outcomes of distance learning as presented as the main (if not the only) solution to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic.

The proposed project:

• Must show clear innovation and therefore cannot be an existing project unless it is entering a markedly new phase of development; AMF will consider incorporating existing costs (if applicable) during the implementation of the new project if there is a demonstrably necessary link between the two

• Must propose AMF as the exclusive donor of the project covered by your proposal (AMF should be the sole donor of the new project or ‘innovation’, however, it is understood that if the innovation is an addition to an existing project the latter may require involvement from other donors)

• Must clearly illustrate the organisation’s ability to effectively implement the project, and that it would provide value for money, constitute added value in the field and contain a clear monitoring process

• Must not have as an aim the promotion one religion or faith

• Must not duplicate work already in practice in the field

• Must be for children or youths: AMF will consider projects for youths (defined by the UN as 15-24), however, our focus is on ‘children’ (defined by the UN as aged under 18) so we would expect a significant proportion of any project targeting youths to include the 15-18 age-group. We cannot be more specific about the exact proportion and would look at the whole project on its merits on the basis of our usual criteria. In short, we would not rule out a project that included beneficiaries/service-users aged over 18, particularly as one of our special interests is using vocational training to help young refugees into work.

The following will be favoured:

• Projects that are sustainable*, or have sustainable elements, beyond the period of AMF’s involvement OR projects which have a natural, defined end-point

*By ‘sustainable’ we mean the continuation and longevity of the project outputs rather than the outcomes (e.g. if the project is reading lessons, we are asking whether or not the reading lessons will continue rather than about the long-term benefits to young readers who participated)

• Projects in which staff are able to commit to regular contact with AMF in order to communicate progress

• Projects that have ‘built in’ methods of obtaining service-user feedback

A special note on non-formal education:

Each grant cycle we receive around 50% applications from organisations seeking funding for non-formal education. Generally speaking, this is an area of interest for us but we will only contribute towards projects that are a new aspect of an existing programme which promotes integration into formal education or a career. Some examples might be: language training for pupils who require this to attend public school, or vocational training with a clear pathway into a career.

If the innovation is attached to an existing non-formal education programme, there should be an existing path into formal education or a career. If the intention is to go into formal education, it is absolutely essential that pupils are eligible to attend a formal education system within the locality of the project and that this is a feasible pathway for them (i.e. they have fulfilled necessary criteria, they have received tuition in the necessary language(s), travel is possible). Where the project is an innovation added to an existing centre we will be looking for statistics on the number of children who have successfully made the transition to formal education and without this information it is unlikely that funding will be granted. Likewise, for existing vocational training we will ask about pupils who successfully moved into a career.

Criteria and eligibility

Organisations can submit one application for any amount up to £250,000 for a defined project of up to three years’ duration.

While the full amount allocated to this call is £250,000, more than one organisation may be selected for funding, and only truly exceptional proposals are likely to be awarded the funding in its entirety.  AMF will look favourably on proposals that show real commitment to being cost-effective and demonstrate a high level of value for money.

In order to be considered eligible, organisations must:

• Be a registered charity in the country in which they are headquartered; individuals who wish to apply can only do so in conjunction with a registered organisation (e.g. an academic researcher might apply with the backing of their university)

• Be able to meet our reporting requirements which will ultimately be decided between AMF and the grant recipient after a thorough review of the Full Application Form

• Have a Child Protection Policy in place that conforms to the laws of the country in which they operate and a clear methodology that demonstrates that it is appropriately and consistently applied

Submitting a Concept Note (opens 25 January 2022)

From 25 January 2022, complete the Concept Note form on our website https://www.almadadfoundation.org/spring-2022-grant before the deadline of 11pm BST Tuesday 22^nd February

Successful applicants will be contacted mid-March when they will be asked to submit a Full Application Form.

Successful applications will be selected based on their creativity and ability to add value to the efforts of Al Madad Foundation in providing the best possible foundation from which refugee and displaced children can begin to rebuild their futures.

Kindly note that meeting all eligibility criteria does not automatically determine the success of an application; unfortunately, we expect to receive many more submissions than we are able to fund.

We acknowledge all applications within 48 hours of receipt Mon-Fri (and on Monday morning if received Friday). For those applications sent 48 hours before the deadline, these will be acknowledged by 9am the working day after the deadline. If you have not received an acknowledgement of your application having been received please chase us immediately after these time periods have elapsed. We will not be able to accept any late applications which were not chased in this way and can be proven to have originally been sent before the deadline (through an email log check).