ACTIF’s Emerging Opportunities Fund is a complementary fund meant to provide a mechanism to respond to emerging opportunities or risks related to advancing the human rights of LGBTQ2I people.
It can also respond to gaps relating to inclusion, geographies or other priorities, as identified by the Advisory Committee whether in reference to the Canadian or Southern context. The Emergent Opportunities Fund can also be a useful stepping stone for organizations who are new to funding from Global Affairs Canada and lacking the capacity to manage funding from ACTIF’s main fund. Periodically, the Advisory Committee will be called upon to identify priorities for the fund based on an analysis of the current global and Canadian context and according to the gaps identified in the ACTIF portfolio and applicant pool.
The Emerging Opportunities Fund has no organized call for proposals and is structured with great flexibility to be responsive to emergent needs and opportunities, within certain set parameters. It provides grants in the amount of $25,000 – $50,000 per project, for a duration of 3 – 12 months and can fund partnerships between Canadian and Southern organizations or fund projects directly in the Global South. Project selection will be provided by an ad-hoc committee composed of Equitas, DNC, and members of the Project Selection Committee and Advisory Committee.
The Advisory Committee has decided that for the first few years, inclusion would be the main focus of the Emerging Opportunities Fund. In parallel, Equitas and DNC are piloting an inclusion strategy with two priority groups: Indigenous / Two-Spirit communities and transgender communities. In following years, this work would be continued to outreach to other communities, such as Intersex or LBQ women. In its first call, ACTIF did not receive any applications from indigenous / Two-Spirit-led organizations or trans-led organizations. As ACTIF is designed to enhance solidarity between communities, it is important to engage Canadian Queer Indigenous & Two-Spirit communities and trans communities. A first step of the inclusion strategy is to reach out to these communities to explore the reasons for this and to look at possible solutions.
The Advisory Committee will periodically reassess the priorities of the Emerging Opportunities Fund, according to the evaluation of each call for proposals and the gaps identified by the Project Selection Committee. In this way, the priorities and strategies of the Emerging Opportunities Fund will evolve over time.