Expression of Interest Call - IofC Trustbuilding Program

1. Describe the need for trustbuilding that you are proposing to address, including the acute social divide and the location(s) of the proposed project (max 250 words).
2. Please share your current IofC trustbuilding work in your country, the limitations you have faced and your contact with other stakeholders (max 300 words).
3. What do you expect could be achieved by collaborating with the Trustbuilding Program, including benefits to the target population, to your local team and the IofC work in your country? Please specify the proposed outcomes of the project (max 350 words).
4. Outline the size of your local team working in this area and their capacity, skills, and experience (maximum 250 words).
5. How confident are you that you can fundraise and/ or contribute to your project budget? What is your basis for that confidence (250 words)?
6. Name the key contact person/people for the project.

1. Describe the regional need for trustbuilding that you are proposing to address, including the acute divide and the countries of the proposed program (max 250 words).
2. Please share your current IofC trustbuilding work in the countries where the program will be delivered and your contact with other stakeholders (max 350 words).
3. Describe how the partnership between these two or more countries will work, including initial thinking on how decisions will be made, how finances will be handled, contracting details, etc (max 250 words).
4. What do you expect could be achieved by collaborating with the Trustbuilding Program, including benefits to the target population, to the local teams and the IofC work in your region? Please specify the proposed outcomes of the program (max 350 words).
5. Outline the size of your team working in this area and their capacity, skills, and experience in the region where the program will be delivered (maximum 350 words).
6. How confident are you that you can fundraise and/ or contribute to your program budget? What is your basis for that confidence (250 words)?
7. Please list which county teams in your region you have discussed this with and their response?
8. Name the key contact person/people from each team of the program.

Should you be successful according to the criteria for assessing your EOI, you will be invited to submit a full proposal (around early September). We will send you a Readiness Checklist to complete. Based on your responses to this and a two-year implementation plan and budget, the Selection Panel will assess your submission through a scoring system. They will provide feedback to assist you towards readiness to participate in the Program. As with previous years, we anticipate receiving more suitable EOIs than we will be able to support.

The TBP is on offer to IofC teams that want it and can meet the Readiness Criteria. The aim is to support financially and technically viable local Trustbuilding projects that become part of the TBP. Through the TBP, an international IofC team and the local IofC team(s) will work together to achieve locally determined objectives that are consistent with the Program’s aims. Therefore, it is important that the national teams see this as a boost to their work and an integral part of their national strategies for impact, growth, and sustainability. The national board, volunteers and staff must be united behind welcoming the TBP and making it work.

The TBP can support the work of a national team by providing people from IofC’s international network to work with the team in addressing a specific divide that has been identified such as racial, ethnic, linguistic, or religious divides. Working with IofCI can help in building up a track-record and improving the skills of trainers and facilitators in a country. Openness to new approaches and methods would enhance the benefits of the collaboration. The Program can provide a platform for reaching out to stakeholders, to raise the profile of IofC and act as a vehicle for outreach.

Your proposed project/ program will not be fully funded; there will be an allocation from the IofCI funds based on the need, the demonstrated ability of proposals to meet the need, and the availability of funds, including locally generated funds. The TBP is there, in part, to help teams increase their sustainability. We expect a joint fundraising effort with you to assist in raising the balance required, as well as in-kind support, as possible. Travel and accommodation of international support personnel will be covered by IofCI, except in the case of working with international trainers. We encourage you to build the latter costs into your budgets; we can advise on these costs.

We are grateful to the Fetzer Institute for its continued investment in the work of IofC and its expressed wish and commitment to help invigorate IofC local teams and enable us to make an impact on the world, as one global team with one global vision. We hope you’ll see this collaboration as an opportunity for your national team(s).

• Funds are available to cover part of your operating expenses, such as salaries, materials, Monitoring & Evaluation, communications, activity implementation, and travel costs. You will be allocated an amount of funding that you will decide how to use over two years. If invited to make a full proposal, you will be asked to submit a budget. You will be provided with budget guidelines with the invitation.
• The TBP is flexible - your project/program should be based on the specific local context and an acute social divide. Preference is given to existing trustbuilding initiatives that are in line with the TBP (see criteria below). We strongly recommend that teams choose one specific breakdown of trust to address. Teams that have focused on one issue are more likely to be selected and succeed.
• The TBP has a tried and tested methodology honed through decades of trustbuilding work developed by IofC USA which is expected to be incorporated into the proposed intervention and adapted to the local situation. A training manual outlining this methodology will be available.
• Please ensure safeguarding measurements exist (protecting, and ensuring, all stakeholders work in safety and are free from abuse/ harm) and there is gender equality in the team and in all activities.
• Sustainability: this is not a “one off” project/program, but one that needs to have a future beyond the first two years. The agreement between the national team and IofCI will be for two years to ensure support in moving towards sustainability continues after the funding period.
• There is an expectation that the national team(s) will contribute as much as possible to the costs of the proposed project/program, provide in-kind support (such as volunteer time, petrol, printing) where possible and raise funds. Fundraising efforts will be supported by the TBP team. Fundraising potential and success are critical.

Please note that applicants must meet all the following criteria to be eligible for funding. The Applicant must:

• Confirm that funding is available for a Trustbuilding Project, not simply existing work that loosely relates to trustbuilding. There is an expectation for teams to use the TBP Manual, take on the branding, etc.
• Be an active IofC team with a vision and commitment to transform society, starting with themselves;
• Welcome a collaboration with IofCI as an enhancement to its work;
• Demonstrate a commitment to accompaniment, training and outreach; and to inspiring and equipping stakeholders with the inner qualities and skills to build trust by healing historical wounds, bringing together diverse groups in honest and inclusive conversation, creating a shared commitment to sustained action and developing and sustaining multi-sector networks;
• Articulate a local and strategic need for ongoing trustbuilding work, showing how the TBP strengthens the team’s national strategy;
• Demonstrate a track record of IofC working in the area of the tension being addressed;
• Display a commitment to IofC’s essence and values;
• Show that the national team, including the IofC Board of Trustees where there is one, backs the proposed local trustbuilding initiative;
• Demonstrate an intention to engage non-IofC partners as appropriate, such as the sharing of human resources, knowledge, meeting spaces, etc;
• Show evidence of a keen intention to create and sustain an ongoing project/ program.