Frequently Asked Questions

For the ASANKA Fund, ISDAO will only fund groups and organizations led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and individual LGBTQI activists based in or from one of the ISDAO focal countries whose work is rooted in and connected to the local movement in the region or in one of the ISDAO focal countries and involves local partners may submit a creative project concept note.

ISDAO grants for ASANKA - Creative Initiatives Fund will be awarded:

● To organizations/groups/associations that are led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, intersex, and trans* (LGBTQI) people, where these communities play a decision-making role, including setting the organization's strategic and financial priorities and representing at least 75% of the staff, spokespersons, and members of the board of directors or other decision-making bodies; and based in at least one of the ISDAO focal countries.
● Individual LGBTQI activists based in one of the ISDAO focal countries or from one of the ISDAO focal countries whose work is rooted in and connected to the local movement in the region or one of the ISDAO focal countries and involving local partners may submit a concept note of a creative project.
Please note:
- ISDAO does not require that a group be legally registered to be eligible for funding.
- For this pilot fund, individual initiatives are accepted.
- Concept notes submitted from government institutions or political organizations are not eligible for funding.

ISDAO considers a group to be "led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, intersex and/or trans* people, people who use drugs and sex workers when at least 75% of the management and operational team is made up of people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, intersex and/or trans communities. People from these communities must play a key role in decision-making and must be able to define the organization's strategic and financial priorities.
* Decision-making bodies: Members of the decision-making bodies of groups/organizations must be or include lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, intersex and/or trans* people.
* Spokespersons: Spokespersons must be lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex and/or trans people.
* Staff/volunteers: Staff must be lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, intersex and/or trans people; they must enjoy the same contracts and working conditions as the organization's other staff members who are not members of the community, beyond their role as peer educators or volunteers.

For individual activists, people must identify themselves as coming from the LGBTQI community and be recognized by their peers as such.

ISDAO's funding comes from several institutional funders.

ISDAO works to make resources available to LGBTQI organisations across West Africa, with a particular focus in our early years of grant-making on the nine countries that participated in the community consultations and mapping research that informed the creation of the fund in its early years (2014-2016). These countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

Yes, however, if funding is granted by our activist panel for the Asanka Fund, the organisation will need to appoint a fiscal host to receive and administratively manage the grant for them.

Yes, you can apply for funding. ISDAO welcomes concept notes from any organisation/group that meets the criteria mentioned above and in the call for concept notes. We advise you to read the call for concept notes carefully before starting your application.

Yes, you can apply for a grant and if approved by our Asanka Fund panel, the grant funds can only be sent to the bank account of your designated fiscal host after all due diligence procedures have been completed.

Identifying and working with a fiscal host is a common strategy used by groups or organisations that do not or cannot legally register in their country, or that have more limited capacity and experience in grant management. A fiscal host (or fiscal sponsor) is a legally registered organisation that can support registered or unregistered organisations, and/or organisations with limited financial and grant management capacity, by hosting a grant on behalf of the organisation(s) and providing technical support and advice to the hosted organisation. The relationship should be governed by a collaboration agreement or contract between the two entities, which defines the roles and responsibilities of both entities and describes how the relationship will work. Sometimes a fiscal host may also provide coaching and capacity building in financial management to assist groups or organisations in this area. The fiscal host must be legally registered in its country. There are many ways to approach the fiscal host role. If you have any further questions about fiscal hosting or ISDAO's requirements for organisations with fiscal hosts, please email pilotfunds@isdao.org 

No, you cannot apply for this Asanka grant cycle if you have any grant (Regional grant or Love Alliance) with ISDAO that is currently ongoing or about to begin. However, if your only current/ongoing grant is the Asanka grant, you may submit a new application.

Grants from the Asanka Fund - Creative Initiatives are for LGBTQI-led groups/organisations/associations and individual activists. This includes groups and organisations that are led by and focused on the needs of LGBTQI people through creative initiatives and that advance the rights of the LGBTQI communities as a whole.

No, ISDAO only funds groups, organisations or initiatives led by LGBTQI people and individual activists who identify themselves as being from the LGBTQI community and are recognised by their peers as such. This is part of our vision and our political and strategic commitment to strengthening the leadership, vision and capacity of people from the community.

Our grants go to groups and networks led by LGBTQI people who are committed to defending their rights. This includes groups, organizations and networks of sex workers and people who use drugs that are led by and focused on LGBTQI sex workers and LGBTQI people who use drugs. For this call for concept notes, groups, organizations and networks of sex workers and people who use drugs that are not focused primarily on LGBTQI TS and/or UD communities are not eligible.

However, we recognize that at ISDAO we have launched a special initiative called the Love Alliance which includes groups/organizations/associations led by sex workers and people who use drugs. You can find out more about this initiative at: https://isdao.org/initiatives-speciales/

For the regional and annual call for proposals, ISDAO does not prescribe priority areas for grantee organisations. However, for the Asanka Fund, ISDAO is particularly interested in supporting creative initiatives that are other than those included in traditional forms of activism. This includes, but is not limited to, creative initiatives undertaken by LGBTQI groups/organisations or individual LGBTQI activists to support LGBTQI Activism in at least one of ISDAO's focal countries. This could be, for example, the production of a mini-documentary, the editing of a book, a comic book, the creation of a web radio, the realisation of a photo project, etc. To this end, ISDAO encourages organisations/groups/associations and individual activists/applicants to design creative and self-aligned programmes and activities that address the needs of community members in their immediate environment, while promoting the well-being and organisation/movement of community members

At ISDAO we understand that some organisations/groups/associations and individual activists work at different levels and therefore we want to ensure that we understand the level of your work. Please note that this is not a determining factor in the awarding of a grant, so we advise you to provide a precise answer. The level of work includes local (city or province), national (country-wide), sub-regional (in West Africa) or international. The level of work should correspond to the place where your work is focused and where you carry out your implementation. We, therefore, advise you to choose only accordingly.

ISDAO will give priority to associations, grassroots groups or collectives of LGBTQI people and to individual activists who identify themselves as coming from the LGBTQI community and are recognized as such by their peers:

- With little or no access to funding from major donors;
- Dedicated to new issues for which funding has not previously been available;
- Located in rural, remote and/or underserved areas;
- Have a diverse membership, including and/or working with marginalized LGBTQI people;
- Using PARTICULARLY AND PRIMARILY innovative and creative strategies to promote their activism and advocacy (including art, music, culture, poetry, film, etc.).

Groups/organizations led by and/or working specifically with LBQ women, trans and intersex people, youth and individual activists from LBQ women, trans* and intersex communities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Yes, all these different types of organisations can apply, as long as they meet our basic eligibility criteria for this Asanka fund. It is the same concept note form. If a group or consortium of organisations wants to apply, there must be a lead organisation that will submit the concept note and be the main contact and manager of the grant, if awarded. For groups applying together or in consortia, we encourage you to clearly describe the structure and decision-making processes of the consortium as a whole.

Yes, you can apply. However, a group submitting its own proposal can only participate in a group/organisation proposal submitted by a consortium of groups/organisations, provided that it is not the lead organisation in the consortium that will submit the concept note and manage the grant if approved.

The Asanka Creative Initiatives pilot fund is not dedicated as core funding. However, as ISDAO is opening its annual regional cycle of calls for proposals, core support funding is eligible and you can apply for it.

No, at ISDAO, all open calls for grants encourage the submission of concept notes or proposals developing innovative and creative initiatives that support advocacy, community mobilisation, movement building, etc. However, this pilot fund particularly encourages creative initiatives that are other than traditional forms of activism.

ISDAO grants for the Asanka Pilot Fund range from $3,000 to $5,000 for a period of one year, depending on the proposed creative project. It should be noted that the final grant amount awarded may differ from the amount initially requested.

ISDAO does not currently provide emergency funds outside of its annual grant-making system (national and regional grants). Currently, for our annual regional cycle, we provide additional resources to all our grantees ONLY for safety, security and emergencies through our RESPOND! Fund. We encourage you to contact the donors who all provide emergency support, including: Frontline Defenders, Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights-Africa, and Freedom House (Dignity for All programme) 

No, we only accept one concept note per group/organisation/association and per individual activist.

At ISDAO, we understand that movements organise differently and that much of LGBTIQ organising does not take place using the typical NGO structure. We recognise the importance of acknowledging the diversity of our movement organising, in particular the different structural approaches to organising and movement building in our communities. Therefore, you do not necessarily have to be an NGO, but you can be a group (formal or informal), an association, etc. ISDAO works with structures that have different forms, including organisations, groups, associations, etc.

We are currently accepting concept notes in English and French. The call for concept notes is open from 16th September to 7th October 2022. Any applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered for submission to the Asanka grant panel.

Download the Concept Note Application Form, available in French at isdao.org, and email the grant/concept note application form, budget, and additional documents to pilotfunds@isdao.org by the deadline indicated.

Please ensure that your application is complete, with answers to all questions. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that the application is complete before submitting it. After the deadline, ISDAO is not able to consider partially complete applications or applications with missing information, and we cannot accept any additional information or revisions after the deadline.

We cannot accept proposals/concept notes received after the deadline, nor can we honour requests for extensions to the deadline.

You should receive an email acknowledgement within 72 hours of the date of submission of the Concept Note. If you do not receive this acknowledgement, we have not received your email. You will be informed of the final selection by email.

Once your application is approved by the Panel, the grant-making process will take about 8 weeks from the date of receipt of your notification.

Yes, ISDAO aims to be as flexible as possible. Therefore, if an activity no longer meets the purpose for which you planned it, it is possible to make adjustments after receiving your pre-approval notification. As each situation varies, you should contact ISDAO to discuss changes and modifications. 

Inform us immediately upon the receipt of your pre-approval letter and we will discuss your new project/initiative before finalising your grant agreement.