Feminist Response and Recovery Fund call for proposals: Eligibility

2. Eligibility

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• Applicants
• Funding amounts
• Duration
• Activities
• Expenditures

Applicants

All applicants under this call for proposals must be Canadian, legally constituted organizations and be one of the following:

• Not-for-profit women’s organizations and other not-for-profit organizations with experience in advancing equality for women
• Not-for-profit Indigenous organizations (that represent First Nations, Inuit or Métis interests and is controlled by members of the population it serves)
  • Where there are no Indigenous not-for-profit organizations, Indigenous governments (including band councils, tribal councils and self-government entities) and their agencies
• Research organizations, institutes and centres of expertise
• Educational institutions

For the purpose of this call for proposals:

• A women’s organization has as its primary mandate and objectives to promote equality for women in Canadian society. The use of the word “women” is inclusive of both cisgender and trans individuals. Women’s organizations include those advocating for women’s equality and promoting broader societal awareness, engagement and action on advancing gender equality.
• An Indigenous organization represents First Nations, Inuit, or Métis interests; is representative of the members of the population it serves; and its work includes advancing gender equality for Indigenous women in Canada. The use of the word “women” is inclusive of Two-spirited, cisgender and trans individuals.
• An educational institution is an entity that provides instructional services or education-related services. Examples include: universities, colleges and CEGEPs, secondary schools, school boards and school districts.
• Research institutes or research centres are establishments founded for doing research. They have a research mandate and qualified research staff or research facilities.
• Centres of expertise or centres of excellence are organizations that aim to provide leadership, best practices, research, support or training in a given field.

Funding amounts

Organizations can apply for funding for the following maximum amounts (per project):

• Up to $300,000 in total for projects with a local reach, where project activities cover at least one community, such as a town, city or regional municipality

• Up to $500,000 in total for projects with a regional reach, provincial/territorial reach or interprovincial/interterritorial reach, where project activities cover multiple cities; a region of a province or territory; an entire province or territory; or a few adjacent provinces and territories. In the context of this call, projects that cover one of Canada’s three largest municipalities would qualify as regional: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

• Up to $700,000 in total for projects with a pan-Canadian reach, where project activities must have impact in at least four WAGE regions and be carried-out in both official languages (both official languages not required for Indigenous organizations). Pan-Canadian projects are encouraged to include engagement or partnerships with Indigenous organizations and communities.

The Government of Canada recognizes the additional costs of living and travelling in northern or remote areas. Consequently, you may be eligible to apply for an additional 25% whenever activities are delivered in these areas (see question 30 for definitions). Should you be eligible, the maximum funding amounts would be up to $875,000 per project for projects with a pan-Canadian reach, up to $625,000 per project for projects with a regional or provincial/territorial reach, and up to $375,000 per project for projects with a local reach.

Eligible organizations may submit only one application for funding in this call for proposals.

Duration

Projects should aim to start no earlier than early Summer 2021 and must be completed by March 31, 2024.

Activities

The proposed activities must be clearly linked to the call for proposals’ objective. Projects must focus on accelerating progress on women’s equality and tackle persistent or emerging barriers for women amplified by COVID-19 by:

• Undertaking a new project for systemic change
• Scaling up a past initiative that has led to demonstrable systemic change, including:
  • Building on past successful initiatives to accelerate change
  • Growing a past initiative to increase impact and the number of women who benefit
  • Replicating or adapting a past successful initiative in a new context to achieve change for a different target population

Eligible activities must seek to alter, reorient or connect the elements of a system in order to accelerate systemic change. The following are examples of eligible project activities:

• Address discriminatory legislation, policies, and practices that prevent women and girls from fully participating in the social, political and economic spheres
• Design and implement policies and practices to increase women’s labour market participation and opportunities;
• Develop and implement community-based approaches to address intersectional barriers to equality for diverse women, such as anti-oppression and anti-racism initiatives focused on barriers faced by women and girls
• Engage men and boys to combat harmful gender norms and advance gender equality beyond awareness-raising
• Develop and implement prevention focused initiatives to combat gender-based violence
• Design and implement policies and practices to increase women’s leadership in democratic, civic, public or private sectors
• Engage women and girls with lived experience to influence pandemic recovery responses
• Enhance reconciliation and approaches for Indigenous women and girls’ safety, economic security and leadership opportunities that recognize the unique rights, interests and circumstances of the First Nations, the Métis Nation and Inuit as distinct groups
• Convene and strengthen the feminist movement to collaboratively advance gender equality
• Build relationships between equality-seeking organizations and other stakeholders to collaborate across sectors to advance gender equality
• Develop and implement a funding partnership to amplify funding for the women’s movement

The following are project examples to address different elements of a system. These are only provided to help illustrate the type of project the Department could support:

• Advance inclusive policies and practices: An organization proposes to improve immigrant women’s economic security by working with community partners to implement family-friendly work policies to address the increase of unpaid care work women face due to the pandemic.
• Encourage more equitable and effective sharing of resources: An organization proposes to work with municipal partners to develop and implement a community plan to address economic barriers for rural women. The plan would focus on embedding gender considerations into community resource planning, which could include increasing transportation services and access to child and adult care.
• Increase networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change: An organization proposes to work with an existing network of industry partners to identify and implement collective strategies to recruit, advance and retain Indigenous women in male-dominated sectors such as construction or new economic growth sectors such as clean energy.
• Support positive distribution of authority, voices and decision making power: An organization proposes to replicate or adapt a model that has been successful and implemented in another organization, community, province or country to increase racialized women’s representation in political and civic leadership roles to support an inclusive recovery.
• Address persistent harmful gender norms and attitudes: An organization proposes to work with media outlets to implement guidelines for journalists to ensure reporting on gender-based violence and the shadow pandemic take into consideration how systemic gender biases and messaging can affect the portrayal of Indigenous women and girls.

The following types of activities are ineligible:

• Activities addressing a related issue abroad such as the development of promising practices for women in a country other than Canada
• Activities solely for the purpose of building organizational capacity
• Activities related to direct service delivery such as the ongoing implementation of programming and services

Priority will be given to proposals which:

• Propose systemic change projects that will address barriers for underrepresented women including those who are: Indigenous, racialized, newcomers, members of official language minority communities (OLMCs), seniors, young women and girls, women who are members of LGBTQ2 communities, low income, live with a disability and in a rural, remote or northern community
• Are submitted by organizations representative of the population they serve; including Indigenous organizations that propose distinction-based solutions to reflect the unique cultures and experiences of the First Nations, the Métis Nation and Inuit (initiatives that are culturally safe, relevant and appropriate)
• Address any other gap, such as geography, as deemed a priority by the Department

Expenditures

As per Treasury Board’s Transfer Payment Policy, total government funding for the project shall not exceed 100% of eligible expenditures. This includes federal, provincial, territorial and municipal assistance for the same purpose. In the event that it exceeds 100%, Women and Gender Equality Canada will adjust its level of assistance and seek reimbursement if necessary.

Eligible expenditures are those considered necessary to support the purpose of the project and are costs incurred after the signature of the agreement. Please consult the Guidelines on Eligible Expenditures for Funding Programs for more detailed information.

There are two categories of eligible expenditures:

• Direct delivery expenditures: expenses related to the implementation of the project, which are easily traced to specific activities.
• Administrative expenditures: expenses related to an organization’s ability to administer and support project activities; in other words, expenditures that are important to organization's operations as part of the delivery of a project.

The Department reserves the right to make the final determination on the value of funding and to exclude expenditures that are ineligible, unnecessary or outside the range of the project.

Eligible expenditures

Eligible expenditures are costs considered necessary to deliver the project. For this call for proposals, eligible expenditures include, but are not limited to:

Direct delivery expenditures (considered necessary to deliver the project):

• Travel expenses within Canada: Travel expenses shall not exceed the rates for civil servants set out in the National Joint Council Travel Directive including Travel Directive for Kilometric Rates and Meals Allowances
• Salaries and benefits for staff for the duration of the project and that are directly related to project delivery
• Honoraria and professional fees
• Materials and supplies
• Facilities that are project specific such as room rental for activities
• Translation
• Professional development
• Engagement of Indigenous Elders
• Publicity and promotion
• Other expenses not included in other budget items, such as costs for refreshments/meals served during key project activities

Administrative expenditures (related to central administrative functions of the organization receiving funding that support project activities):

• Project oversight
• Project staff office space
• Telephones
• Computer equipment
• IT maintenance
• Accounting

Administrative expenditures will not be approved where they are higher than 20% of the total funding requested from the Department.

Ineligible expenditures

Ineligible expenditures include, but are not limited to:

• General operating costs of your organization that are not related to this project, such as regular telephone and heating costs, rent, utilities, property taxes, insurance, equipment for staff, and audit costs that are not required for this project
• Capital expenditures, such as land, buildings, vehicles and other major capital costs, with the exception of computer equipment such as desktops, portables, and small peripherals required to carry out the project
• Salaries, allowances, and benefits for members of a board of directors or other decision-making body
• Budget deficits, debt reduction, organizational reserves or endowment funds
• Unexpected costs or contingency costs, which are costs added to a project over and above the actual estimated project value to cover unexpected costs, including those used in planning for potential cost overruns in projects
• Costs incurred before a funding decision is made

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