Bulgarian Fund for Women’s (BFW) “Mission: Possible” open call – the only donor program in the country that provides flexible and long-term funding for covering administrative and organizational needs of civil society organizations attracted a record number of applications.

The full list of organizations that submitted a concept form can be found HERE (in Bulgarian).

All applicants will go through an administrative compliance check stage. In case of missing documents or errors in the system, they will receive automatic notifications.

After passing the assessment of eligibility and administrative compliance, each application will be allocated to an evaluation commission consisting of two independent experts who work separately, form an evaluation according to a set scale and give a reasoned opinion. In order to form a final evaluation, the arithmetic mean value of the aggregate of the two evaluation protocols of the members of the committee evaluating one proposal will be taken. Full details of the assessment stages are described in the Application Guidelines (in Bulgarian, page 13).

Concepts submitted in Phase I will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• An integrated approach to gender mainstreaming and non-discrimination
• The organization has an annual budget of less than BGN 100,000 (one hundred thousand)
• The organization was established in the last 3 years (2020 – 2023)
• Structure of the organization and team representation
• Geographical location of the organization
• Priority target groups
• Assessment of priority topics

Full criteria information is described HERE (in Bulgarian, page 14).

Applicants with one or more of the following characteristics will receive priority in assessment:

• Organizations that have as their main mission (and not just a partial focus in their programs) to affirm the rights of women, girls, LGBTIQ+ people and vulnerable groups;
• Organizations whose work focuses on issues that are undervalued, contested and/or under-addressed;
• Organizations that are managed by or whose teams include women, girls, people with disabilities, LGBTIQ+ people and the groups whose needs and rights they work for;
• Organizations that have an integrated approach to gender mainstreaming, non-discrimination and work from a feminist and/or human rights perspective;
• Organizations that have the potential to achieve social and systemic change;
• Organizations whose activities are carried out outside Sofia, especially in rural or underprivileged areas;
• Newly registered organizations and those whose activity has been carried out for less than 3 years;
• Organizations whose annual budget is less than BGN 100,000 (one hundred thousand).

In accordance with BFW’s values – reducing the burden on applicants and making the procedures easier, reducing competition and a real chance to access funding, etc., to the second phase of the competition, it is planned to admit about 50% more applications compared to the requested funding.

APPROVED APPLICANTS FROM PHASE I WILL BE NOTIFIED IN THE SYSTEM AND VIA THE ASSOCIATED EMAIL AND ANNOUNCED ON BFW’s WEBSITE BY JULY 28, 2023. They will be invited to complete and submit a Full Proposal under Phase II of the “Mission: Possible” open call.

“Mission: Possible” program aims to contribute to the building of an inclusive, sustainable and pro-democratic civil society in Bulgaria by providing financial support to civil society organizations whose main mission and activities are to protect, promote and raise awareness about fundamental rights, EU values, the rule of law and democracy and who work on contested and often neglected topics such as the rights of women, the LGBTIQ+ community and other vulnerable groups, including issues related to the systemic root causes of poverty and inequality in our country.

“Mission: Possible” is part of the BIRDS in BG project to provide 360-degree support to the civil society sector in Bulgaria, which BFW is implementing alongside its partners from the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL) and Impact Drive Foundation.

BIRDS in BG project is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.