DFID funding
The Department for International Development (DFID) funds civil society organisations through the streams listed below. Please follow the links to the DFID website for the latest news and deadlines for applications.
Civil Society Challenge Fund
Aimed at UK-based not-for-profit organisations working to provide lasting benefits to poor communities and under-represented people in the developing world.
Conflict and Humanitarian Funding
DFID's Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department (CHASE) works with other DFID departments, other UK Government Departments and international partners to tackle humanitarian, conflict, security and justice issues that underpin poverty in some of the most vulnerable communities around the world. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have a critical role to play in meeting these aims.
Development Awareness Fund and the Mini Grants Scheme
Aimed at UK-based not-for-profit organisations or networks which share our commitment to raising awareness and understanding of development issues.
Governance and Transparency Fund
Targeted principally at not-for-profit organisations, the GTF was, and remains, a one-off Fund. Therefore there are no plans to issue any further calls for proposals.
Bond's Review of the DFID Governance and Transparency Fund, January 2009.
Partnership Programme Agreements (PPAs)
PPAs provide unrestricted funding to 27 civil society organisations with which DFID has a significant working relationship, a common ethos and vision and a strong match in priority areas.
In-Country Funding
DFID has decentralised country offices around the world which also distribute funding, some of which is available for international NGOs. A full list of countries in which DFID works can be found on their website and contact details for country offices can be found by clicking on a particular country profile.
It is generally not possible to find out about funding opportunities from DFID country offices here in the UK but is possible to work out what kind of activities are being funded or planned by searching the Accessible Information on Development Activities (AiDA) database on the World Bank's Development Gateway website. AiDA is an online repository of development activities by various major donors, including DFID, and you can use the DFID advanced search function to search for all projects currently being funded in a particular country or sector, for example.
Further Reading
DFID's 1999 Strategy Paper on Building Support for Development (pdf, 105kb)
Civil Society and Development: How DFID works in partnership with civil society to deliver the Millennium Development Goals (pdf, 380kb) sets out DFID's approach to working in partnership with civil society.
DFID Funding Schemes gives more information about the ways in which DFID works with a range of different organisations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
