As part of its efforts to foster the growth of independent, effective and accountable civil society organizations across the Broader MENA region, the Foundation has been offering financial assistance to CSOs through its Grants Program since 2007. The Foundation usually opens one to two unrestricted calls for proposals (CfP) each year, thus developing a demand-driven approach to grant-making. As of June 2011, the Foundation had received over 900 applications under its Grants Program, and has approved 140 projects in 14 countries of the BMENA.


As part of this program, project-specific funding and support is provided to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) including:


 Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other non-for-profit organizations
 Academic and research institutions  
 Professional associations and unions
 Community-based organizations (CBOs)
 Not for profit private companies (where allowed by local legislation and if implementing activities which are entirely of a not for profit nature, and similar to NGO-implemented ones)
 Networks formed by the above-mentioned institutions


The projects are all related to one of the six programmatic areas of the Foundation, and primarily focus on civic engagement, youth participation, civic education, civil society capacity development, women empowerment, gender equality, human rights, democratic and participatory governance, independent media, and the rule of law.

To review the Visibility Guidlines click here.

For more information about the Grant application process, click here.

Please note that the Foundation is currently not accepting any new grant applications. Organizations who would be interested in applying for the Grants Program are invited to check the Foundation’s website regularly for future CfP announcements.