European Civic Micro-Grants

Context

The European Civic Forum is a framework partner within EU’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme. As such, we have the possibility to re-grant, i.e., distribute grants / provide small-scale financial support to our member organisations — civic groups, local initiatives, and movements in the European Union. With this, our aim is to provide a flexible response and to strengthen capacity of member organisations in responding to societal and political challenges but also build and sustain constituencies and engage in European network building and policies.

Objectives

• Support the European dimension of national and local organisations, and their capacity and alliance building, to engage with European policy processes (such as the Rule of Law annual assessment).
• Support organisations that reach out to community groups or (informal) social movements to capture and articulate their demands and/or build their capacities and expertise on specific issues and needs related to European policies.
• Strengthen smaller members’ capacity to engage with ECF’s advocacy and campaigning, especially members with difficulties to access big funding schemes and from countries that systematically receive less CERV funding

Selection and Award Criteria (and Scores)

Priorities / European Dimension (0-30):

Projects that have a clear European/trans-national dimension via engagement with ECF’s policy and advocacy processes, such as those that:

• Monitor civic space, report to the Early Warning and Alert System and implement the MACS scoring, capacity-building and awareness raising connecting the abovementioned at national and EU levels;
• Organise joint launch events and media actions to give visibility at national level to the ECF work, particularly the Civic space report;
• Organise national discussions and trainings on EU tools to foster civic space and democracy, such as the Civil Society Strategy, the recommendations on civic engagement, and the rule of law report;
• Organise events during EU Presidencies (Cyprus and Ireland), country visits of European civil society to observe shrinking or thriving civic space at national/local level, and/or advocacy visits to Brussels;
• Organise advocacy and campaigning actions on the Agora EU programme of the new Multiannual Financial Framework.

Relevance, Quality and Impact (0-20):

• General clarity and consistency of the action(s).
• Logical links between identified problems, needs and proposed solutions (logical frame concept).
• Urgency of the action(s).
• Feasibility of the project’s activities within the timeframe.

Sustainability (0-10):

• Potential for a positive multiplier effect and strategic reasoning of medium- and long-term outcomes, e.g., produced materials, civil society capacitation, trust and alliance building.
• Ambition and expected medium- and long-term results on target groups or general public.
• Financial feasibility, i.e. an appropriate budget for implementation.
• Cost-effectiveness (best value for money) and financial sustainability post-funding, via its fundraising strategy.

Bridging and Capacity Building (0-10):

• Projects including activities to enhance efficacy in activism and civic participation through trainings, workshops, activism academies, summer schools, etc.
• Projects including bridging activities between institutionalised Civil Society Organisations and informal movements, and between CSOs and trade unions.

Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion Mainstreaming (0-10):

• Proposed activities contribute to empowering all genders, in all their diversity, and reducing discrimination against groups, especially those at risk of multiple discrimination.
• Projects with an inclusive and intersectional approach regarding racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, (dis)ability, neurodivergence, age, gender identity or sexual orientation.
• Proposals including trainings and consultancies on the subjects above, namely inclusive organisational policy planning and implementation.

Resourcing organisations in countries less supported by CERV (5):

• Projects from organisations in countries ranked in the bottom half of the CERV cumulative funding table of 2021-2023, according to EU’s Funding and Tenders portal’s CERV statistics, will be granted 5 additional points: Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Portugal, Sweden, Cyprus, Denmark, Luxembourg, Ireland, Finland, Malta, Latvia, Estonia.

Eligible Organisations

• Full Members of the European Civic Forum.
• Established in a Member State of the European Union (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs).
• Be a legal entity, private non-profit organisation (private body).
• Respect EU values as laid down in Art.2 of the Treaty on European Union and the EU Charter of fundamental rights.

Eligible Activities

• Events, cooperation-building, awareness-raising, analytical, campaigning, communication (including translation / interpretation) and dissemination activities.
• We especially encourage applicants to propose activities that fall into areas of civil society work that are particularly underfunded, such as:
• Capacity building towards strengthening of democracy and civic participation through advocacy, monitoring and bridge building between civil society organizations, EU institutions, political parties, trade unions, informal movements, and other social actors.
• Rapid alert and crisis response activities.
• Strategy and foresight (including new fundraising techniques).
• Strategic litigation.
• Psychological support and safety.
• Peer-learning and peer-training.
• Activities that pay attention to a gender perspective, both at design and implementation phase, ensure an inclusive and intersectional approach with regards to for instance racial or ethnic origin, religion, or belief, (dis)ability, age, gender, sex, or sexual orientation.
• Project activities that contribute to the equal empowerment of women and men in all their diversity, to reduce levels of discrimination suffered by particular groups (as well as those at risk of multiple discrimination) and to improve equality outcomes for individuals.
• Activities that comply with principles of proportionality, sound financial management, prevention of conflicts of interest, equal treatment, and non-discrimination.
• Activities that comply with ethical principles and EU values based on Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union and Article 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights on non-discrimination. And other applicable EU, international and national law (including the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679).

Eligible Costs

The grant may be used to finance the proposed activities in line with the award criteria above. All planed costs must be necessary, proportional, and justified by the content of the application.

• Staff costs (employees or equivalent, natural persons under direct contract, seconded persons)
• Subcontracting costs (calculated on the basis of the costs actually incurred, fulfil the general eligibility conditions and are awarded using the beneficiary’s usual purchasing practices — provided these ensure subcontracts with best value for money (or if appropriate the lowest price) and that there is no conflict of interests. Subcontracting may cover only a limited part of the action.
• Purchase costs (travel, subsistence, accommodation calculated as unit costs in accordance with the method set out in the OG Grant Agreement.
• Other goods, works and services.

Ineligible costs

• Costs related to return on capital and dividends paid by a beneficiary
• Debt and debt service charges
• Provisions for future losses or debts
• Interest owed
• Currency exchange losses
• Bank costs charged by the beneficiary’s bank for transfers from the granting organisation
• Excessive or reckless expenditure
• Deductible or refundable VAT
• Costs incurred or contributions for activities implemented during grant agreement suspension
• In-kind contributions by third parties
• Costs or contributions declared under other EU grants (or grants awarded by an EU Member State, non-EU country or other body implementing the EU budget)
• Costs or contributions for staff of a national (or regional/local) administration, for activities that are part of the administration’s normal activities (i.e. not undertaken only because of the grant)
• Costs or contributions (especially travel and subsistence) for staff or representatives of EU institutions, bodies or agencies

Budget

• Total amount to be granted: €50,000

• Minimum grant per applicant: €1,000

• Maximum grant per applicant: €10,000

Evaluation procedure

• ECF’s Director of Administration and Network Development – DAND, will be responsible for all procedural support to applicants and to the jury
• The jury to review the applications will be composed of 3 to 9 ECF members of the Board of Directors (BD). A call for members of the jury will be launched to the BD, on a volunteer basis. If more than 9 apply for the jury, the Steering Committee will vote, by secret ballot, the jury composition. If less than 3 apply for the jury, the DAND will launch a new call, until the minimum places are filled.
• Applications will be submitted via an online form provided in ECF’s website.
• Before receiving the applications, members of the jury will convene in a preparatory meeting, where criteria and process to follow will be informed by the DAND.
• The DAND will then deliver the applications to the jury, that will fill in separate tables of scores for each “selection and award criteria”, send them to the DAND, who will sum them up and inform the selected projects.
• In the event of a tie, the DAND will convene a meeting of the jury to select the project via a secret ballot.
• There is no right of appeal against the results. However, any member – applicant or not – may address complaints to the DAND or to the ECF Co-Presidents and Steering Committee.

Quota

In alignment with CERV’s subgrating good practices, a quota will be implemented to guarantee that organisations with more difficulty in accessing big EU or private funding are granted:

• At least three of the selected projects must come from organisations which last closed annual budget was below €250,000 (excluding sub-grants).

Prevention of conflicts of interest

• Jury members’ organizations commit not to apply for the re-granting scheme.
• Juries will operate in total discretion, without contacting applicants for further information nor contacting other members of the jury after receiving the applications for evaluation.
• Jury members cannot receive any counterpart from project applicants.

Qualitative Impact assessment

The selected projects will be encouraged to implement methods of qualitative impact assessment for their activities, through surveys, interviews, and other tools to evaluate the increased capacity and willingness for civic participation, as well as engagement with the EU’s fundamental principles. In December, a public webinar will be organised to present the outcomes of this process, and the results will be shared via our social media channels and newsletters.

Timeline for applications

Information session for members: 17/02/2026 at 10h CET https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81399943038?pwd=AkmpDssKULX7Tbr1yfn6gHAk2agyrF.1

Deadline for applications: 08/03/2026, 23:59 CET

Starting date and project duration: 16/03/2026 until 31/12/2026

How to Apply

The applicants should fill in the application form (here).