Applying for Grants

Grant Applications

Through OCE, you can receive grants from institutional and philanthropic organisations in Europe and the US. The process involves several steps, including OCE signing the grant agreement on your initiative's behalf and placing your collective under an appropriate profile on OCE.

Please inform us as soon as possible if your initiative is applying for a grant or public subsidy.

Initial steps:

• Contact us: Ensure OCE's social goals align with the state funding you are targeting.

• Verify funder’s acceptance: Check if the funder accepts applications from "fiscally hosted projects" (what OCE calls 'Initiatives'). Although fiscal hosting is common in the nonprofit world, some funders do not allow it. Contact the funder directly to clarify their guidelines if needed.

If you are interested in an EU grant, contact us early in the process at [e-mail] to determine eligibility.

For grants from US-based donors, inform them that Open Collective Europe has a 501(c)(3) equivalency determination, making it a legitimate recipient of grants from American foundations or donor-advised funds.

Grant applications can be time-consuming. Please let us know well before the due date about what you need to avoid missing deadlines.

Possible Restrictions

Be aware that some public subsidy programs do not accept fiscally hosted projects or require the host to be based in their country of residence. Additionally, some EU programs have complex application processes and deployment, requiring significant work from you and our staff. Due to these restrictions, it is not possible to submit applications for certain types of funding (e.g., Horizon Europe as a consortium partner).

Grant Agreements and Receiving Funds

Congratulations if your grant application is approved!

The next steps involve:

1. Grant agreement: The funder will provide a grant agreement that an OCE representative must sign. Please send the grant agreement to [e-mail] or ask the funder to send it directly to us.

2. Service agreement: Your initiative must sign a Service Agreement with OCE to validate our relationship with your funders. We need at least two signatories from your side.

3. Bank coordinates: OCE will provide its bank coordinates to the funders during the signing process.

4. Your initiative's OCE balance: As soon as the funds arrive in the OCE's bank account, we will upload them to your initiative's balance.

Funder Relationships

Maintaining strong relationships with funders is crucial. Always thank your funders.

The Open Collective platform automates some acknowledgments by displaying financial contributors on your page and sending transaction-related email notifications. Automated thank-you tweets and mentions in activity updates are also available.

Admins can download a file of their contributors (donors) from the Settings Menu > Export.

Grant Reports

Ensure you meet all funder requirements during the grant period, including:

• Grant reports: Submit annual, interim, and/or final reports punctually as requested. Posting these reports as Updates on your Open Collective page is recommended to keep your community informed.

• Funder communication: Since OCE is technically the grant recipient, funders may send report information to our staff. We will forward any such information to you.