Deadline: 31-May-24
The Adidas Foundation is currently accepting applications for United by Sport Program to support organizations working to combat, through sports and at different levels in the sports sector, all forms of hate and discrimination such as on the grounds of religion or belief, racial or ethnic origin, gender, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, among others.
Objectives
- United by Sport provides funding to support projects and programs that through sport work towards at least one of the following objectives:
- Increasing access to coaches that practice anti-discrimination approaches and techniques in their sessions and/or increasing access to facilities where anti-discrimination approaches and techniques are implemented.
- Strengthening leadership and capacity to use sport as an instrument in the community to educate and tackle systemic discrimination.
- Increasing access to and uptake of community-based sports programs that combat the effects and root causes of hate and discrimination.
- Improving equity outcomes and reducing community-based indicators of hate and discrimination.
Funding Information
- Organizations can explore two categories of funding opportunities as outlined below. However, it is important to note that organizations can not submit applications for both categories.
- Categories1: Project Specific Funding. Organizations have the opportunity to submit applications for new projects seeking funding ranging from a minimum amount of 150,000 EUR to a maximum amount of 700,000 EUR.
- Categories2: General Programming Funding. Alternatively, organizations whose regular programming is fully aligned with the criteria outlined in this document can opt to apply for general operational support of up to 50,000 EUR per year for a maximum of three years (minimum amount 10,000 EUR, maximum amount 150,000 EUR).
- The funds can be utilized over a maximum of three years. All projects should indicate a clear start and end date. For larger projects, the implementation can be extended for maximum of six additional months, subject to approval from the adidas Foundation. Applications will be assessed on whether the length of time being proposed for implementation is sufficient to achieve the intended outcomes. For all projects, progress reports and a final report will be required to demonstrate the development of the project.
Eligible Activities
- The Program will support projects that use sport as a tool (either as a core activity adapted to achieve specific goals, as an entry point, or as additional component for development objectives) for responding to the vulnerabilities of specific groups and communities particularly affected by intolerance, racism, xenophobia, and discrimination listed in the previous section. The Program also intends to support projects designed to tackle discrimination and hate at different levels within the sports sector.
- Organizations have the opportunity to apply for funding to support one or more of the core activities listed below:
- Using sports sessions as a vehicle to provide training of professionals on raising awareness of the phenomenon and the impact of all forms of hate and discrimination and/or psychosocial support for victims of (multiple and intersectional) discrimination, hate speech, and hate crimes.
- Designing and implementing sport-related strategies or action plans to combat all forms of hate and discrimination, with a particular emphasis on specific groups (e.g., antisemitism or other specific forms of intolerance) and initiated at the local level.
- Providing access to coaches trained to understand and implement anti-discrimination approaches and techniques and/or providing access to facilities where those approaches and techniques are implemented.
- Carrying out sports activities and events that bring communities vulnerable to fragmentation, discrimination, and all other forms of intolerance together around a common goal.
- Developing, implementing, and testing knowledge products such as tools, standards, guidelines, training/learning materials, anti-racism and anti-discrimination resources, and other cultural safety and inclusion competency products that tackle systematic discrimination across the professional and grassroots sport industry.
- Training and education, including initiatives designed to increase awareness and understanding of the impacts of individual, systemic, and structural discrimination.
- Capacity building within community organizations and across various systems and structures through activities that share anti-discrimination and anti-hate practices, research, and information.
Ineligible Activities
- This Fund does not provide support to causes such as:
- Benefitting private interests of any individual
- Cultural projects, e.g., film, music, theater
- Promoting a religion or any form of Proselytism
- Political campaigns that promote a particular party or candidate, or
- Unduly influencing public officials
- Causes or projects not aligned with the purpose of this Program
- Projects that only include mass awareness raising without any community engagement
Expected Outcomes
- All projects should contribute to at least one of the below expected outcomes: Increasing access to coaches that practice anti-discrimination approaches and techniques in their sessions and/or increasing access to facilities where anti-discrimination approaches and techniques are implemented.
- Strengthening leadership and capacity to use sport as an instrument in the community to educate and tackle systemic discrimination.
- Increasing access to and uptake of community-based sports programs that combat the effects and root causes of hate and discrimination.
- Improving equity outcomes and reducing community-based in indicators of hate and discrimination
Eligibility Criteria
- To apply for funding, organizations must fulfil the below requirements:
- Be willing to submit requested information for vetting purposes, including answers to questions as well as documentation on organizational set-up and financial processes.
- Be financially sustainable: The requested funds should not represent the sole or major source of income for the organization and should not exceed 50% of the last audited annual turnover.
- Have transparent practices in place (accounting, administration, and governance).
- Be able to demonstrate how safeguarding is mainstreamed within programs and operations.
- Not be discriminatory in any way, based on a person’s race, ethnicity, color, beliefs, social, political background, caste, creed, origin, disability, family status, gender, among others.
- Be direct implementers of activities that use sport to address discrimination and hate.
- Organizations that have religious or political affiliations are welcome to apply but must demonstrate how their activities are independent of those affiliations (e.g. the organization does not promote political or religious ideals, participate in political or religious activism, aim to convert people they work with, restrict services only to those members of the community who support their views, etc.).
- Be a legal and registered entity with non-profit or non-governmental status (NGO, NPO, CBO, charity, or similar) in the country where the proposed activities are implemented (any subgrantees would also be required to meet these criteria).
- Be a Sport for Good organization, or another type of social impact organization that tackles hate and discrimination through the purposeful use of sport or within the sports sector itself.