PROJECT CIRCLES

Giving Women makes an impact on the lives of women and girls in need through project support. We work in many different areas depending on the needs of our projects. These areas may include

  • Capacity building (e.g. transfer of knowledge, skills or technical procedures to reinforce staff capacity to reach project goals)
  • Technical support (e.g. collaboration with the Project Owner to develop business or communication strategies, to design promotional or other communication materials, to review or to develop M&E tools or systems, etc.)
  • Practical advise (e.g. governance issues, legal queries, networking support, etc.)
  • Other forms of non-monetary support such as developing a fundraising strategy.

As a member of Giving Women, you have the opportunity to actively contribute to a project by joining a Project Circle (PC). A Project Circle is made of a Giving Women Coordinator and Giving Women members, who are interested in working towards specific objectives for approximately one year.

We invite organisations to submit their projects. Eligible projects will undergo a screening process in accordance with Giving Women’s selection and evaluation criteria. The selected projects are then presented to our members at a Project Evening, where Project Circles are formed.
Giving Women is not a grant maker. Although many of our Project Circles have raised funds for the projects they support, we give priority to projects to which our members can contribute their time, expertise and skills.


SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT

Organisations are invited to submit their projects, if they would like to receive professional support from Giving Women. We organise two selections rounds per year – in May and November. Please read our project selection  criteria below and if you think your project meets our selection criteria, please send a one-page motivation letter with a description of the project and how you think Giving Women members can help to contactinfo@givingwomen.ch. 

Once our Project Selection Committee has evaluated the letters of motivation and they feel the project fits into our criteria, we will then invite you to send in a full application form.

Application deadlines letters of motivation for 2020 are:

03 February 2021  We have placed our Spring Project Selection round on a pause to consolidate all our current projects

03 August 2021

 

Project Selection Criteria

 

PLEASE NOTE: The membership of Giving Women offers its time, expertise and skills to the selected projects. It also provides an access to networks of philanthropists and funders but, at the present time, does not make direct grants.

To be eligible to present a project for review by the Giving Women project selection subcommittee, the organisation and project should meet the following selection criteria:

The Project:

  1. The project has a direct impact on the lives of women and/or girls in need.
  2. The project has been implemented for a minimum of 12 months and aims at financial sustainability.
  3. Possible project themes include:
    1. empowerment of women and/girls through education (including vocational training)
    2. empowerment of women through technology
    3. livelihood creation for women leading to women’s economic empowerment
    4. improved access to health for women and girls
    5. innovative project outside themes 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4.
  4. The project is looking for input or support from GW members in the following ways:
    1. capacity building (transfer of knowledge, skills or technical procedures to reinforce staff capacity to reach project goals),
    2. technical support (e.g. collaboration with the Project Owner to develop business or communication strategies, to design promotional or other communication materials, to review or to develop M&E tools or systems, etc.),
    3. practical advice (e.g. governance issues, legal queries, networking support, etc.), or
    4. other forms of non-monetary support and/or (reasonable and feasible) fundraising support (e.g. advise or collaboration on grant application writing, events or sales).

The Organisation:

  1. The organisation has been legally registered for a minimum of two years.
  2. The organisation is non-denominational and non-political
  3. The organisation is open to a constructive debate around the pre-mentioned areas as well as medium and long-term vision and strategy.
  4. Availability of the founder/director to respond to the Giving Women evaluator, present the project at the Giving Women Project Evening (May or November) and represent the project in the Project Circle that would be formed.

Download the GIVING WOMEN’S PROJECT SELECTION PROCESS

SELECTION PROCESS
Discover our past project circles