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| New Letter Of Inquiry guidelines will be available on July 1, 2006. Firelight Foundation Letter
of Inquiry for 2005
FUNDING CRITERIA The mission of the Firelight Foundation is to support and advocate for the needs and rights of children who are orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Firelight strives to increase the resources available to grassroots organizations that are strengthening the capacity of families and communities to care for children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. Every child, regardless of race, creed, or country, deserves the promise of a future. We give one-year grants of $500 to $10,000 to community-based initiatives that work directly and effectively to support the fundamental needs and rights of children (birth to 21 years) orphaned/affected by HIV/AIDS. We believe that grassroots programs arising in direct response to real needs within the local community are often the most effective. Firelight supports this vital work with initial one-year grants and regrants based on funding needs and opportunities for shared learning. In selecting the programs to support, the Firelight Foundation looks for:
The Firelight Foundation believes that children develop best when raised within families and communities; therefore, we rarely fund orphanages. In exceptional cases, there may be compelling reasons why institutional care is in the best interest of a child. If you believe this, please explain why. We are often asked for food aid, medical care and housing. We understand the urgency of these needs, but we are not a relief agency. If you request such assistance, please explain how the planned activities will be addressed in a sustainable and integrated way. Similarly, we receive many requests for school fees. Firelight rarely funds requests for school fees alone. If your organization seeks such assistance, please describe how your group plans to address children's other needs, and what will happen when this one year of funding for basic schooling is completed. ELIGIBLE COUNTRIES: The primary geographic focus of our grantmaking is sub-Saharan Africa, the current epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In order for us to focus our efforts in an effective and sustained manner, we will only accept letters of inquiry in 2005 from seven countries: Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. We will refuse inquiries from other countries unless you have already received a Firelight grant or we have asked you for a proposal. Areas of interest include the following programs supporting children affected by HIV/AIDS:
Firelight receives around 300 requests for funding from our seven
focus countries each year and awards just over 40 new grants annually. Firelight does NOT fund: individuals;
scholarships for individual use; government entities; organizations
or programs designed to influence legislation or elect public officials;
organizations or programs solely intended to generate income or
provide charity to individuals; academic or medical research; fundraising
drives; or endowments. Firelight believes strongly in non-discrimination
and does not fund programs that limit participation based on race,
religion, gender, or nationality. We rarely fund US-based organizations
or branches of international non-governmental organizations. LETTER OF INQUIRY If your organization is a charitable organization working with orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia or Zimbabwe we invite you to send a letter of inquiry and provide us with basic information about your organization. In your letter, please explain why your work meets Firelight's criteria by briefly answering the following questions:
Please also include full contact information for your organization, including:
We accept any kind of written submission. If
you intend to submit your proposal by computer, please choose US
letter size paper. Please limit your letter to three pages. THE DECISION PROCESS The deadline for receiving letters of inquiry is October 15, 2005. We will notify you by November 15, 2005 if we are interested in receiving a full proposal from your organization. Because we are a small foundation with limited resources, we cannot support all of the qualified organizations that submit inquiries. If we decline your request, we will try our best to explain why. Funding awards will be made in May 2006. FOR ORGANIZATIONS BASED IN THE UNITED STATES The Firelight Foundation receives many inquiries from organizations based in the United States that are partnering with individuals or groups in Africa to support vulnerable children. However, U.S.-based organizations very rarely receive funding from Firelight. As you may have read in our grantmaking guidelines, the Firelight Foundation seeks to support initiatives originating in Sub-Saharan Africa. We fund community-based organizations because these groups can best identify the needs of their own communities and come up with their own dynamic solutions. We have found that getting our dollars direct to the "ground," where communities know children's needs and are familiar with the caregivers, is the best use of our resources. We look for programs that have local leadership, engage the community in creating solutions to problems, and build on the capacity of a community to address its own needs. We have identified direct financial support from international donors as a significant yet underfunded opportunity to further the work of these grassroots organizations. For these reasons, we rarely fund U.S.-based organizations or branches of international non-governmental organizations. We suggest that you encourage your African partner to apply directly to Firelight for funding. We accept letters of inquiry from African community-based organizations at all stages of growth and levels of capacity. Though we most commonly work in English, French, Swahili, SeSotho, and Kinyarwanda, your African partner may submit materials in any national or indigenous language spoken in our seven focus countries. Please remember that the Firelight Foundation is able to fund only few of the many worthy requests that we receive each year. With this in mind, we encourage all applicants to continue to seek other sources of funding.
Please forward all letters of inquiry via mail,
fax, or e-mail to:
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