Dear colleagues,

Thank you for your interest in our request for application (RFA) and for your inquiries about it. Below are the answers to your questions.

What documents can confirm the financial capacity of the applicant?

As per the RFA guidelines, financial capacity may be demonstrated through either:

Copies of the applicant's audited financial reports for the past three (3) years, prepared by a certified public accountant or other auditor in compliance with the Ukraine Law "About accounting and financial reporting in Ukraine"

OR

Submission of alternative documentation pertaining to the applicant's financial viability and capability. This could include income statements and balance sheets, among other relevant financial documents. Therefore, you are encouraged to select the method that best suits your situation and provide the available documents accordingly.

Our NGO has no staff, everyone works as an individual entrepreneur. In the budget template, should we mention the engaged people as staff or as consultants? Are there any restrictions on expenditure items (wages, equipment, etc.)? Based on which standards should the salaries of consultants and stakeholders be calculated?

All the conditions for budgeting can be found in the RFA in-Section I. Ineligible Activities and Expenses and on the Budgeting Instructions page (Grant Budget Template).

Does the mentioned timeframe (one year) for grant implementation include: selection of participants, their mentoring/expert support, grant funding?

The grant's duration cannot exceed one year. That said, all the activities mentioned in section C. Program Description should be implemented during the mentioned timeframe (one year), including mentoring/coaching of selected businesses and monitoring for their business results.

Will all 12 expected business-participants receive $10,000 in funding or will only a certain number of the 12 eligible ones receive funding?

As per Activity 2: Support to Youth-led Businesses (RFA), once the 12 businesses are selected and onboarded, the successful applicant will assist them in navigating the current business landscape's challenges and opportunities. This assistance involves offering personalized mentoring/coaching support to refine or develop business plan, as well as providing support to the 12 selected businesses in preparing grant package for further applications to UNITY funding (each up to $10,000).

Which entrepreneurs and companies can participate and receive support? Does this need to be confirmed by documents? If so, what kind of documents?

In order to receive assistance and support, participants need to be registered and/or conduct their business activities in cities with a population of no more than 100,000. Therefore, participants will need to provide documents of their state registration.

At the same time, the organization that will implement this grant and provide support and mentoring to 12 businesses must be registered and operate exclusively in the government-controlled territory of Ukraine

See more details in Section 3 of the RFA.

Does the organization have to submit CVs for its employees all at once?

We emphasize the importance of carefully reviewing the selection criteria outlined for organizations to assess their capacity to implement the grant and achieve the main objectives. As stated in our application terms, we evaluate applicants based on the following key indicators:

Availability of a professional team: Therefore, we recommend submitting CVs (contracts, if applicable, staffing tables, etc.) of all experts and specialists who will be involved in the grant implementation.

Experience in implementing grants: Consequently, we require information on the organization's grant history in any form (details of all past and current grants, including donor names, grant amounts, implementation timelines, grant titles, purposes, and key achievements). Note: The winning organization will need to provide budgets of existing grants to prepare documentation for donor approval.

Legal documents: These include scanned copies of the organization's charter, an extract from the EDRPOU (Unified State Register of Legal Entities), a certificate of non-profit status (for NGOs and charitable organizations), an extract on the appointment of the organization's head, a bank certificate confirming the availability of an account, etc.

Other indicators: Further details can be found in the RFA (Request for Applications) in Section 5, titled "Application Evaluation."