Institutional grant support is a grant type that is provided to the CSOs for making them sustain their existence and perform their objectives and this type aims to support CSOs as a whole to make them actualize their mission without seeking any condition for developing a project or program. Institutional grant support enables the CSOs to focus on their primary objectives. It provides a flexibility that the financial resources provided for CSOs can be directed to the most needed areas.
The Difference Between Institutional Grant and Project Grant
Project grants are the most common form of financial support in civil society. Unlike project grants, institutional grant support is provided without the condition of developing a project.
From the perspective of donor organizations and institutions that fund civil society, institutional grant is more complicated and labor-intensive in terms of program design, management, and monitoring and evaluation of results than funding a project proposal, whose boundaries and expected outcomes can be more clearly defined. Although donor institutions prefer project grant to institutional grant, the number of donors including institutional grant in their portfolios is increasing worldwide.
Expanding institutional grant opportunities for civil society in Turkey is critical to meeting the basic expenses of CSOs, such as rent, staff, etc., that are necessary to sustain their existence.
BİRLİKTE Support Program Institutional Grant Support
The institutional grant under the BİRLİKTE Support Program is the first institutional grant provided by the European Union to civil society in Turkey. STGM is aware of the pioneering role it has taken in the dissemination of similar programs and has carefully carried out the entire program design, preparation of application documents, application procedures, monitoring and reporting starting from the application process of the BİRLİKTE Support Program, which is a first example supported by the EU. It provides technical support and experience sharing for other CSOs' attempts in this field. Widespread experience with previous grant programs we have implemented, as well as other work in the field, has shown that cumbersome application processes reduce work productivity of CSOs. Thus, institutional grant support is designed to provide flexibility to be able to make program beneficiary CSOs direct the financial resource provided to areas of greatest need. Application rules are regulated, to the extent permitted by EU procedures and national legislations, for providing a wide mobility area to the CSOs and meet their needs quickly. This support has been elaborated to create mechanisms to use financial resources created with limited funds in the most effective and fruitful way and to help CSOs focus on their main objectives.
With the institutional grant support provided in scope of BİRLİKTE Support Program, BİRLİKTE program beneficiary CSOs have the chance of meeting the costs of staff salaries, office rents, general office expenses, equipment costs necessary for activities and the office, institutional press and other communication expenses, national/international civil membership fees and costs for basic activities for two years with BİRLİKTE institutional grant support.