Global Poverty Action Fund

The Global Poverty Action Fund (GPAF) is a demand-led fund supporting projects focused on poverty reduction and pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals through tangible changes to poor people’s lives including through: service delivery, empowerment and accountability and work on conflict, security and justice. Projects will be selected on the basis of demonstrable impact on poverty, clarity of outputs and outcomes, and value for money.

GPAF News

The Community Partnership Window opens for applications on Thursday 1 November 2012. The deadline for receipt of concept notes is 23:59 on Thursday 6 December 2012.

The Community Partnership Window replaces the Innovation Window – please refer to the ‘One Year On’ Review, which details the important changes that have been made to the GPAF.

The next Community Partnership Window will open on 1 May 2013.

Update on previous funding rounds

Provisional grants have been awarded for the 2nd Impact round, and provisional grantees are going through the due diligence process.
36 grants for the 1st Impact round have been issued, and the remainder are currently being finalised.
Applications received for the 4th Innovation round are now being assessed.
Provisional grants have been awarded for the 3rd Innovation round, and provisional grantees are going through the due diligence process.
Most grants have been awarded for the 2nd Innovation round, and the remainder are currently being finalised.
Six grants were awarded in the 1st Innovation round.

Criteria

There are 2 funding windows; the Community Partnership Window and the Impact Window. The summary criteria for the 2 windows are set out below. For full details see Community Partnership Guidelines and Impact Guidelines.

Global POVERTY action FUND
	Community Partnership Window	Impact Window
Proposed Value (estimated)	10% of GPAF (grants worth £4m agreed annually)	90% of GPAF (grants worth £36m agreed annually)
Purpose	Poverty reduction linked to MDGs. Projects focused on off-track MDGs prioritised. Initiatives focused on delivering results at community level. Innovative approaches considered suitable for scale up.	Poverty reduction linked to MDGs. Projects focused on off-track MDGs prioritised. Initiatives focused on delivering results at greater scale. Innovative approaches considered suitable for scale up.
Risk appetite	The GPAF balances higher risk for higher rewards from innovative work and lower risk for work to deliver tried and tested approaches.	The GPAF balances higher risk for higher rewards from innovative work and lower risk for work to deliver tried and tested approaches.
Geography (countries where projects can be set up)	Countries on the "Community Partnership Project Countries" list (see Documents section)	Countries on the “Impact Organisation and Project Countries” list (see Documents section)
Grant size	Up to £250,000. Max 2 grants per CSO (this includes grants from the Innovation Window/Community Partnership Window combined)	Min. £250,000 - max £4 million. Annual value of grant less than 40% of CSO’s annual income. Max 3 grants per CSO
Duration	Up to 3 years	Up to 3 years
Matched funding	Not required	At least 25%. Proposals deemed to be technically strong would stand an increased chance of being successful if they demonstrate a level of match funding above the minimum 25%.
Eligibility	‘Small’ UK-based not for profit organisations, with an average income of less than £1,000,000 p.a. for the past 3 years.	‘Medium’ sized UK-based not for profit organisations (but no fixed upper or lower limit). Organisations receiving PPAs excluded. Locally registered CSOs in countries on the “Organisation” section of the “Impact Organisation and Project Countries” list (see Documents section)
Funding rounds	Two per year	One per year