About the fund

On 12th February 2013 the second NGO Fund of the EEA/Norway Grants in Hungary was officially launched at a grand opening event.  This year, in the first round the calls will support micro and macro projects in various thematic areas as well as internships in the Donor States.

The overall objective of the Hungarian NGO Fund is “strengthened civil society development and enhanced contribution to social justice, democracy and sustainable development”. Based on the donors’ decision, throughout the Fund special attention is given to human rights of minorities (including minorities on grounds of ethnic origin, religious affiliation, language use and sexual orientation), good governance and transparency, combating racism and xenophobia (including hate speech and hate crimes) combating discrimination, social exclusion, gender inequalities and gender-based violence.

To this end the Fund supports projects developed in the following thematic areas:

  • democracy and human rights
  • gender and equal opportunities
  • community and organizational development
  • youth and children issues
  • environment and sustainable development
  • provision of welfare and basic service to vulnerable groups
  • empowerment of vulnerable groups, including Roma

The Fund is operated by the Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation - Ökotárs Alapítvány (HEPF) in cooperation with Autonomia Foundation, Foundation for Development of Democratic Rights (DemNet) and the Carpathian Foundation-Hungary.

Call for proposals are planned to be announced in three rounds - in the first one the following calls will be opened:

1. Macro projects

Proposals may be submitted in the following two thematic areas:

  • Thematic area One: to strengthen nationwide Hungarian advocacy and watchdog NGOs on the long run, develop their capacity and strategy AND to transfer their know-how, experience and skills to other organizations of the civil sector in the areas of (1) human rights and democracy, (2) gender and equal opportunities, (3) youth and children rights. 
  • Thematic area Two: to strengthen nationwide and regional Hungarian community and organizational development NGOs on the long run, develop their capacity and strategy AND to transfer their know-how, experience and skills to other organizations of the sector.

In both areas, applicants have to undertake to transfer their knowledge and experience to other, smaller local and regional organizations/groups and to this end they have to provide training, mentoring, coaching, etc servives. Applicants must provide this support to at least 10 organizations in  Thematic are One and to 15 organizations in Thematic area Two.
Size of grants in thematic area One: minimum 50,000, maximum 120,000 €
Size of grants in thematic area Two: minimum 50,000, maximum 140,000 €.
The amount to be distributed for the macro projects is maximum 3,8 million €.

Projects must be at least 24 and maximum 33 months long.
Macro projects must be submitted in a two-phase process, deadline of the first phase is 6 p.m. 29 March 2013.

2. Micro projects

The general objective of micro-projects is to support smaller and medium-size Hungarian NGOs to work for the development of their own smaller and larger communities, mobilizing local sources for achieving local and general common goals, and enhance contribution to social justice, democracy and sustainable development.

Proposals shall be developed in one of the areas mentioned above: (1) democracy and human rights, (2) gender and equal opportunities, (3) community and organizational development, (4) youth and children issues, (5) environment and sustainable development, (6) provision of welfare and basic service to vulnerable groups, (7) empowerment of vulnerable groups, including Roma.

The maximum amount of a grant is 10,000 €, minimum amount 1500 €.
The amount to be distributed for the micro projects is maximum 1 050 000 €.
The duration of a project can be maximum 12 months while there is no minimum duration defined.
The application process is one-phase, deadline is 6 p.m. 29 April 2013 (Monday).

3. Internships

The aim of the internship grant is to support Hungarian NGO professionals to visit and learn from the practical experience of NGOs working in the Donor States (Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein). Interns should “import” and adapt good practices of the host countries’ NGOs in the fields of advocacy, community participation, constituency building and fundraising and also to contribute to strengthening bilateral relations between Hungary and the Donor States.

Internships must be minimum 3 month and maximum 6 month long.

Selected interns receive 1500 €/person/month + 1000 €/person/trip as scholarship.
The amount to be distributed for the internships is 150 000 € which includes the budget to cover costs of the host organizations. 
The application process is one-phase, deadline is 6 p.m. 15 April 2013 (Monday).

Beyond this first call for proposals, two more rounds are expected to be announced along the same goals and principles in the above mentioned 7 thematic areas. The second call is expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2014, when micro and medium projects may be submitted (with an upper limit of 20 and 50 thousand Euros, respectively). The third call is expected to be announced in the third quarter of 2014 when again micro and medium projects may be submitted as well (with an upper limit of 15 and 40 thousand Euros).

Calls for proposals and other documents may be downloaded from the program webpage, www.norvegcivilalap.hu

For more information please contact the Operator foundations:

During March 2013 the Operator foundations will hold information days around the country – dates and locations will be available under the news section.