Information for grant seekers

We very rarely consider unsolicited proposals. The vast majority of our new projects are undertaken with organisations we ourselves have identified through our existing partners and work in the field.

Because we very rarely consider unsolicited proposals, we do not have specific grant guidelines or application forms. If you would like to apply for funding, please read about the foundation and the work we fund, noting our three issue areas of Care, Transitions and Diversity, and consider carefully whether your project is a good fit for us.

We consider new projects only in certain countries - and not for every issue area in every country. We can consider your proposal only if it addresses an eligible issue area in an eligible country. These are:

Brazil - Transitions
Caribbean - Care
Colombia - Care, Diversity
Germany - Diversity
Greece - Diversity
India - Transitions
Indonesia - Care
Israel - Diversity
Kenya - Care, Transitions
Mexico - Care, Diversity
Morocco - Transitions
Netherlands - Diversity
Peru - Transitions
Poland - Diversity
South Africa - Care, Diversity
Tanzania - Transitions
Thailand - Transitions
Turkey - Diversity
Uganda - Care, Transitions
United States - Transitions
Zimbabwe - Care

You may be aware that we are still supporting some projects in other countries. However, as the Board of Trustees have decided to focus our future grantmaking on fewer countries, only those in the list above are eligible for consideration for future grants. The foundation has no plans to expand the list of eligible countries.

Please note that we do not provide grants for the following:

• applications for support to individual children
• projects that concentrate solely on one aspect of children's development or learning, such as health care or special educational needs
• projects that focus on youth or children older than the age of eight;
• proposals for the construction and maintenance of buildings, the purchase of equipment and materials, or occasional recreational activities such as holiday camps
• requests for scholarships, conferences, media or theatre events
• general organisational support or requests to cover recurrent costs or deficits

If you would like to enquire about funding for a project, please do not prepare a detailed submission - instead email a brief outline of your organisation and proposal to proposal.administration@bvleerf.nl or use the form on the contact page. Please do not contact us by telephone; we will contact you if we require further information.

In your email, please state which of our eligible countries you will work in and which of our issue areas your project falls under, and explain why you think you are a good fit for BvLF support, with reference to our existing work. We will always reply to applicants who have taken the trouble to personalise their enquiry to us. We regret that we cannot guarantee to reply to standardised appeals for funds.