Application
Propose your solution to improve maternal and infant health outcomes.
Thank you for participating in the Maternal & Infant Health Award.
We recommend reading all requirements for this application before you begin. We encourage you to review the Scoring Rubric that will be used to assess all valid applications. Applications must be submitted in English. We acknowledge and understand the barrier this places on those for whom English is not a first language. However, because of the multiple review processes, peer reviews, and expert panel reviews, English was chosen to provide a consistency across all entries, and reduce the risk of translation error or misinterpreting an application. We have been intentional in the recruitment of expert reviewers to ensure representation of global perspectives and knowledge. We appreciate your accommodation and understanding. Your application may be published online and will be shared with others during the evaluation process.
Please visit the Bold Solutions Network to see what information may be displayed from previous Lever for Change Awards.
Be sure to review your application as it will appear after it’s been submitted (link at the bottom of the page) and confirm your changes have been saved. When you have completed all of the requirements, a message will be displayed on the screen. At that point, you can submit your final application. Once you have submitted the application, you will no longer be able to make changes and the status on your dashboard will confirm submission (you will not receive an automated email confirmation).
You must submit your application no later than Thursday, June 30, 2022 at 5:00 PM Pacific.
This is your opportunity to make a strong first impression. Offer a brief and compelling overview of your proposal. Avoid using jargon, abbreviations, or language that a layperson may not understand. The information in this section is likely to be made publicly available in a variety of online settings and will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Project Title (10 words)
Provide the title of your project. Choose a name that easily identifies your solution and distinguishes it from any other project.
Project Description (25 words)
Provide a short description of your project in one sentence using language that can be easily understood by non-experts and avoiding jargon and acronyms.
For example: “Village Enterprise, in partnership with Mercy Corps and IDinsight, plans to scale and evaluate ‘DREAMS for Refugees,’ a program to equip refugees in Uganda and Ethiopia with the skills, supports, resources, and connections they need to become successful entrepreneurs.”
Executive Summary (150 words)
Write an overview of your project that answers the following three questions:
Your Executive Summary should be a stand-alone statement of the problem and solution and will be used to introduce readers (including peer and expert reviewers, potential donors, and the public) to your project. It should not require any other context to clearly explain what you are seeking to accomplish. Please use language that can be easily understood by non-experts and avoid jargon, acronyms, and use of the first-person where possible.
You are required to submit a video that captures your project and describes why it should be funded. The video is an opportunity to showcase your passion and to pitch your story in a succinct format. We want you to share your vision with the judges in a way that is different from the written proposal format. This does not need to be a professionally produced video; a video shot on a smartphone is acceptable.
In order to complete this part of your application, your team will upload a short digital film using YouTube.
Set the Privacy Settings on your video to Public or Unlisted – do not set them to Private. This will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Your video may be extracted from your submission and made available to the public and other donors. Appeal to a broad audience. Video submissions should follow these guidelines or else it will render the application ineligible:
Here are general suggestions for delivering a high-quality video pitch:
Now that you’ve provided a brief overview of your project, focus on the talent and management of your team. This section will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Lead Organization
During registration, you identified the Lead Organization responsible for receiving and taking accountability for any grant funds, as well as providing the direction, control, and supervision for the project. If the Lead Organization has changed, please Edit Registration Form from the Profile menu to update this information.
Project Website or Social Media Page (5 words)
Provide us with a URL to your project website or social media page of choice if one exists. Having a project website or preferred social media page is not a requirement for the Award and will not impact your eligibility. If you have not created a project website or a social media page, insert “Not Applicable.”
Primary Area of Expertise for the Lead Organization
Please select the primary area of expertise for the Lead Organization.
Team Collaboration: Partnership Status
Does your team consist of two or more organizations?
Partners
If your team consists of two or more organizations, please list them using the legal name of each partner. If your team does not consist of two or more organizations, please enter “Not Applicable.”
Team Collaboration: MOU Status
If your team consists of two or more organizations, do you have an executed memorandum of understanding (MOU) (signed and dated by all parties, including the lead organization submitting this proposal)?
Why Your Team (250 words)
Describe your team’s leadership, its members, and its collaborators or partners. If relevant, include details about how and why the collaboration was formed. Explain how your team is uniquely positioned to deliver results and why you are the best choice to solve this problem. Emphasize that you have the right capabilities, experience, and commitment to execute your project.
Biographies of Key Staff
For each of the top three managers responsible for the success of the project, please provide a name (First/Last), the name of the organization the manager is affiliated with, and a brief biographical statement of up to 100 words. The biographical statement should include the title of the manager and emphasize those credentials and experiences which are most relevant to the project.
This section provides the opportunity for you to more fully explain the challenge you intend to solve and show that you understand the nuances of the challenge that have informed your strategy. This section will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Challenge Statement (300 words)
Describe the specific challenges that your solution will address, using non-expert language. Focus on setting the stage for your solution (versus describing how you intend to solve it) and discuss who is impacted by the problem and why the problem exists.
The Maternal and Infant Health Award will empower all communities and drive health equity. This section provides the opportunity for you to more fully explain how you to intend to solve the challenge you have outlined above. This section will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Solution Overview (500 words)
Describe what your solution is or does, how it meaningfully contributes to solving the problem, and the short and long-term impact that your solution will have.
Theory of Change (250 words)
State your project’s theory of change and the underlying evidence that supports the results you want to achieve. Emphasize the methodologies that you intend to employ and how they create a causal link to your shorter-term, intermediate, and longer-term goals. As you develop your response, consider these Theory of Change resources.
Innovation (150 words)
Share how your approach will more efficiently and/or more effectively lead to the intended outcomes for your target beneficiaries, and how it differs from, improves upon, and/or bolsters existing methods/practices. Highlight any unique features and any other information demonstrating creativity and innovation in your approach and proposed solution.
Community Ownership (200 words)
In order to be effective, solutions need support from the impacted community including funders, local leaders, decision-makers, residents, media, and others. How does your solution center local communities and prioritize those most proximate to the challenges being addressed? A strong solution demonstrates deep understanding of the community and key stakeholders, and shares plans to engage and work with them throughout the process to ensure sustainable and durable outcomes.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (250 words)
Compelling proposals will fully demonstrate a commitment to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Not only do we expect teams to be thoughtful about working with a range of beneficiaries, but we also expect teams to think carefully about how to actively plan for and include the most marginalized and/or vulnerable from within those populations in solutions design, program planning, and ongoing work. Explain how you will ensure, or have ensured, that the design and implementation of your solution authentically embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion across all aspects, including persons with disabilities, religious or ethnic minorities, people of color, native/Indigenous peoples, women, gender identity and sexual orientation. Provide additional details on how you will provide opportunities and reasonable accommodations for those populations to either engage with and/or benefit from your solution, including as staff, advisors, partners, et al.
Priority Populations
Select the priority population(s) as the primary beneficiaries for your solution. You must select at least one priority population, and you are welcome to provide up to three.
This section provides the opportunity for you to provide evidence that supports your solution. This section will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Affirmation of Approach (250 words)
What gives you confidence that your project will work? Provide information and examples that support your thinking. These can include formal or informal studies, observations, and other indicators of change as defined by your community. If necessary, you may reference external sources. Use brackets and numbers to indicate relevant references [#], which you can clarify below.
External References (250 words)
If you included external references [#s] in the Affirmation of Approach section of your application, provide more detail here. If not applicable, please insert “Not Applicable.”
Timeline and Milestones (250 words)
What is your expected timeline for project completion and what outcomes or milestones will you track to know if you are successful or on track to be successful? You may find these evaluation resources helpful.
Measurement of Results (250 words)
How will you know that you are making progress? How do you plan to measure the effectiveness of your proposed project? How will you incorporate your learnings into future work? You may find these evaluation resources helpful.
Barrier Assessment and Risk Mitigation (250 words)
How will you ensure your solution is feasible and will work as you hope it will? Describe any barriers to success of your strategy, as well as any unintended consequences, and your plan to address those barriers. Discuss your experience and capacity to manage technical or logistical barriers.
Other Considerations (150 words)
This is your final opportunity to raise any other considerations. Here, you may emphasize or expand upon a previous point or provide new information, as necessary.
Indicate and describe the financial resources required to successfully implement your project. This section will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Total Projected Costs
Share the total cost to implement your team’s project (in US dollars); this can include costs beyond the total amount of the grant.
Budget Narrative (250 words)
Offer a general overview for how your team would use the $10 million (USD), including the projected needs by category. You may include any explanations of existing resources you have already secured. Please explain what portion of the budget, if any, is expected to be spent on capacity building (a perfectly acceptable use of funds) to ensure effective execution on the project. Please also specify what portion of the budget is expected to be spent on measurement and evaluation of results.
Budget
Provide specific line items from the budget narrative (above) for your work. To help us understand your priorities, please provide a detailed budget for how the $10 million (USD) grant would be spent. Please make sure that any funds identified in this table reflect and clarify your general explanations provided in the budget narrative above. Budget should follow these guidelines or risk ineligibility:
Total Resource Requirements (100 words)
If your total projected costs exceed $10 million (USD), explain how you have secured (or plan to secure) the balance of any necessary funds and provide an overview of how those funds will be used. You may find financial sustainability resources helpful.
If your total projected costs do not exceed $10 million (USD), insert “Not Applicable.”
We will use primary subject area, locations of current work, and key words to tag your project in the Bold Solutions Network, making it possible for other funders to identify projects they might find interesting to support. This section will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Primary Subject Area
Select the primary subject area of the solution that you and your team are proposing.
Key Words and Phrases
Provide a list of up to 5 key words or phrases that can best be used to describe your project [ex. Social-enterprise, vocation, internship, training]. Choose key words that capture the essence of your project and its intended outcomes. The key words should be different from the selected “primary subject area.”
Location of Current Work
Where are you currently implementing your solution? Select up to five locations that apply. If your work is national or regional, please select locations that best represent the work your organization does. If you are not currently implementing your project, you may select NOT APPLICABLE.
Location of Future Work
Where do you plan to implement your solution if awarded this grant? Select up to five locations that apply. These locations may or may not be the same as the locations where you are currently implementing your solution.
The following information is required for due diligence purposes. This section will not be shared with peers and judges. [NOT VISIBLE TO PEER AND JUDGE REVIEWERS.]
Current/Previous Funders
Has this project received support from any other funders?
If your project has received support from any other funders, then provide the following information for up to three of the top other funders. For each funder, provide the legal name of the entity responsible for funding your project. Provide the period of funding (in months to date) for the funding. Last, provide the amount of funding within the prescribed period.
If your project has not received any support from other funders, then please enter “Not Applicable” in the first box for Funder #1.
In this section, please provide additional information about the Lead Organization. Before answering, use the Organizational Readiness Tool to understand your ability to be competitive according to the size of your annual operating budget. This section will be viewed by peers and judges of the Award.
Applicant Organization Identification Number
The Applicant must be organized and in good standing in an appropriate jurisdiction. Please provide any identification number provided by Applicant’s jurisdiction upon incorporation/organization (e.g. by the Secretary of State).
Annual Operating Budget
What is the annual operating budget in United States Dollars (USD) of the Lead Organization? If the Lead Organization is a program, center, or department within a larger institution (e.g., college or university), please indicate the annual operating budget that the specific program, center, or department has at its disposal.
Number of Employees
How many full-time employees does the Lead Organization employ? If the Lead Organization is a program, center, or department within a larger institution (e.g., college or university), please indicate the number of full-time employees that the specific program, center, or department employs.
If your team is invited to participate in any future phases of this Award, you will be supported by a strategic advisor and you may be required to provide additional information (refer to the Rules and Timeline), including but not limited to:
A fully revised proposal based on feedback received and a comprehensive set of questions that will be provided. This will include:
Additional documents:
If you’re interested in funding or learning more about any of the awardees or finalists, please contact us.
