Grantmaking Program

Grantee partners

Because we believe that many of the most creative, effective, and sustainable projects are generated at the community level, our grantmaking specifically targets grassroots organizations. Their programs are rooted in community initiative and driven by entrepreneurial leaders. Supporting community-based groups at a relatively early stage in their development also maximizes the value and impact of GFC’s investment.

Each grantee partner organization is selected based on its potential to grow in effectiveness and to become a valuable resource or model for others. Selection criteria include exceptional leadership, sound management, strong community participation, innovative and effective programs, and direct engagement with the most vulnerable children.

Portfolios

Organized according children's basic needs for growth and development, our grantmaking portfolios include Learning, Enterprise, Safety, and Healthy Minds and Bodies. A fifth portfolio, called Creative Opportunities, allows GFC to support promising new approaches that do not readily fall into the other four categories. Because we recognize that poor health is detrimental to a child's overall development, we also provide supplementary health grants that allow grantee partners to respond to children's health-related needs.

Boys’ and girls’ distinct needs

Boys and girls have different needs and face different challenges as they navigate early childhood, school age, and adolescence. Throughout its programs, GFC recognizes the importance of each community’s social and cultural context, particularly regarding gender. When relevant, grantee partners are encouraged to design their programs in ways that address the gender-specific needs and concerns of the children and youth they serve.

“Grants plus”

In addition to program support grants, GFC provides various value-added services that help grantee partners strengthen their institutional capacity and increase the impact of their programs, and that also maximize GFC’s grant investment. GFC also promotes various knowledge generation and dissemination initiatives that allow grantee partners, technical experts, donors, and practitioners to share their experience and expertise and to learn from others.

Balancing the scope and scale of an international funder with the focus and accessibility of a community-oriented grantmaker, GFC forges an open, collaborative relationship with each of its grantee partners, a collaboration characterized by the continual exchange of experiences, practices, and ideas. Throughout the funding relationship with a grantee partner, GFC strives to tailor a program for capacity building that includes a mix of direct grant support, value-added services, and knowledge that fosters and strengthens the organization’s growth, effectiveness, and visibility. This “grants-plus” approach to building emerging, promising, and innovative organizations and models maximizes and complements GFC’s core grant investment.

Goals and expectations

GFC believes that small grants can have a big impact. The goal of GFC’s grantmaking program is to build the capacity of community-based organizations, individually and collectively, to serve and advocate for the rights and needs of vulnerable children and youth in their communities and beyond. GFC does not expect its relatively small grants to alter national-level indicators. Rather, GFC incrementally strengthens the social fabric that envelops and supports the next generation, child by child, organization by organization, and community by community.

For more information on our grantmaking program, click on one of the links above, or read some of our grantee profiles.