Call for Proposal for Montenegro and Serbia – Transform Together Fund
Deadline for submitting the application is 29 February 2024, at 17:00 CET.
Are you passionate about driving positive change in the areas of green and digital technology?
This is a call for proposals (CfP) organized by MFC and Cerise+SPTF within the project TRANSFORM TOGETHER FUND (TTF): Green and digital transition fund for social finance actors and microentrepreneurs. TTF is an active project running from August 2023 to July 2025. The project is funded by the European Commission under the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) strand of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).
We invite financial inclusion organizations from Serbia and Montenegro passionate about green and digital technology to be part of a groundbreaking initiative. Through our Call for Proposal, we are offering grants ranging from €20,000 to €40,000 to support projects that empower vulnerable microentrepreneurs. If you’re a legal entity in Serbia or Montenegro and you’re focused on social finance, this is your opportunity to make a meaningful impact. Join us in shaping a greener, more digitally inclusive future.
These innovative approaches should be something new in the market where your organization operates, new for a specific target group (even if similar solutions exist, as long as they haven’t been used by this group), or new for your institution. If it’s something new for your institution, we’ll ask for an explanation of how it’s similar to and different from what other social economy players are doing in the market.
The applicant may choose to focus on one of the themes: green or digital in their application (it is not necessary to work on both themes).
Join us in a transformative journey to empower the most vulnerable in Europe's social economy.
Project Focus
We are on a mission to bridge the green and digital gap for vulnerable microentrepreneurs groups such as low income, women, farmers, migrants, and refugees. They lack the knowledge and resources to embrace digital and green solutions. This is where you come in!
Grant Opportunities
Each applicant can apply for a grant ranging from €20,000 to €40,000. With your innovative solutions, we aim to enhance the knowledge and practices of our target groups in the green or digital domain. The program provides up to 90% co-financing for approved projects.
What’s In It for You?
Beyond grants, we offer a range of opportunities:
- Participation in training and peer exchange programs.
- Access to expert mentoring and capacity-building.
- The chance to positively contribute to reaching up to 10,000 beneficiaries.
Eligible participants (applicants)
In order to be eligible, the applicant must:
- Be a legal entity;
- Be established in Montenegro or Serbia;
- Be a social finance actor: microfinance institution (any legal entity providing microfinance), national microfinance association, non-governmental organization or regional network working on financial inclusion.
Eligible costs
- Incurred during the project duration.
- Relevant for proposed activities; examples:
- Staff costs
- External experts’ costs
- Software / equipment relevant for project activities
- Travel costs
- Rental
- Subcontracting
- Banking fees (related to the project activities)
Examples of activities that can be funded
- Capacity building activities (e.g. trainings) for beneficiaries or applicant organization (if the capacity building activity is for the applicant staff, it must clearly demonstrate how the beneficiary will benefit from knowledge gained by the organization staff).
- Actions that lead to developing and testing new social innovation approaches/solutions related to green and/or digital from which beneficiary will benefit (e.g., their business will introduce new digital/green solutions).
- Developing and testing solutions which will help to reach beneficiaries to offer already developed educational activities or products which will make them more digital/green.
- Research activities that lead to developing and testing a solution (though research results cannot be the outcome of the project).
- Creating ecosystem (partnerships) that will help beneficiaries apply green or digital practices (i.e. ecosystem to utilize business waste that destroys the environment).
- Activities related to innovative green/digital product development.
- Promoting green/digital microentrepreneurs and their relevant practices.
Be a Catalyst for Change
We envision at least 10 social finance actors successfully testing new digital and green solutions, ultimately benefiting micro-entrepreneurs, low-income individuals, migrants, and women. Together, let’s shape a greener, responsible digital world where businesses thrive responsibly, and income opportunities flourish!
Important Dates & Information
Deadline for grant application submission: 29 February 2024at 17.00 CET. Applications must be submitted before the call deadline, must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes stated in the grant application form.
Please submit only via e-mail at ttfgrants[at}mfc.org.pl including the reference to TRANSFORM TOGETHER FUND and applicant entity name in the subject line.
Evaluation results: March 2024
Contract signing: Within 30 days from results announcement
Expected project starting date: May 1st, 2024
Project should last a maximum of 12 months
FAQ
One organization can submit only one proposal. One proposal can focus on both digital and green topics or can focus on just one topic.
The organization applying for the grant has to be registered in Montenegro or Serbia.
The end clients (final beneficiary of the project) need to live in one of the EU countries, or Montenegro, or Serbia, however their origin may be outside EU countries. Please note that one of the potential target groups is migrants/refugees.
No, consulting company is not an eligible organization nor a research organization. However, the potential applicant may hire a consulting company or research organization to conduct some of the work within the project.
No, the maximum grant amount is €40,000 by organization no matter if applicant propose a project covering one theme or both.
TTF does not have any minimum requirements regarding the length of time organization should be registered prior to applying for a grant. It is important to describe in the proposal that the organization has capacities and resources to implement the project.
It can be in other language, however, we kindly request to provide working translation to English specifying what year organization has been registered, by whom (name of the authority institution), and what is the legal status (e.g non for profit, profit company etc.)
It means being a non-governmental organization (e.g. association, foundation) and either 1) providing loans (or other financial instruments) directly to the target group defined in the call for proposal, or 2) supporting the target group with various non– financial services activities (e.g. capacity building, financial education, technical support), which leads directly to financial inclusion (help accessing funding, managing funding). The organization strategy on improving financial inclusion should be clearly defined. The proposed project should be included in a sustainable strategy.
Join the Green and Digital Revolution!
Project Partner- Cerise+SPTF
Contact Us
For more information, reach out to us at ttfgrants[at]mfc.org.pl
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.