Van Tienhoven Foundation

Organizational profile:
Van Tienhoven Foundation (VTF) is a nonprofit organization based in the Netherlands. VTF is concerned about life on earth, the well-being and maintenance of the variety of living organisms and their living environment. VTF makes small grants available to finance direct actions on species, ecosystem, and community-managed nature protection that lead to a change in policy and practice through an annual call for proposals. VTF promotes knowledge of the causes of threats and pressures on nature, in order to generate concrete actions that halt, counteract or mitigate these causes. And, VTF strives to influence and collaborate with governmental, non-governmental organizations, communities, individuals, and other relevant stakeholders for the sake of the conservation of nature.

VTF regards ecosystems as crucial in enabling life on earth to thrive. Key ecosystems, such as forests, provide living conditions for groups of species. VTF’s past ecosystem protection projects have included Cloud Forest Conservation in Colombia, Community Conservation and Sustainable Use of Tropical Upland Forests in Cambodia, Ecosystem Restoration in Nyungwe National Park, where exotic plant species constitute a serious threat to native biodiversity and system, etc.

Financing Instrument: Grants

Project scale:
Up to 10,000 euro

Recipient countries regions/country groups: Global (except the Netherlands)

Recipient categories: not-for-profit organizations that are registered as legal bodies (NGOs and scientific institutions)

Eligibility Criteria:
VTF does not accept applications from government bodies, private companies or individuals.
Only one application per organization will be taken into consideration for each call for proposals. If an organization has been given a grant before, a final report must have been submitted for any project previously supported by the Van Tienhoven Foundation. An organization can be supported for a maximum of three times within eight years.
VTF only accepts applications:

• From organizations with a track record in species protection, ecosystem protection and/or community-managed nature protection, that can be demonstrated by background documentation (e.g. websites, social media, annual and/or final project delivery reports).
• Implemented in developing countries, predominantly following the most recent DAC list of ODA Recipients.
• With costs based on local rates. Costs of salaries and consultancy fees based on rates outside the countries of implementation are not covered. Travel costs (from) outside the countries of implementation are not covered. The purchase of vehicles (e.g. cars, boats) is not supported. VTF does not support overhead costs.
• Where actions are not part of a study leading to any academic title and/or aimed at delivering a book.
• Of projects that have not started yet at the time of submission and with a project time span of two years maximum.
• Projects requesting a maximum budget of €10,000 euro from the Van Tienhoven Foundation and a total project budget of no more than €50,000 euro. Applicants have to indicate co-funding in the budget if applicable. If projects are to be co-sponsored by the Van Tienhoven Foundation, a financing plan has to be added which includes incontestable evidence of subsidies already applied for and awarded by other organizations.
• That are submitted before the designated submission deadline and that contain a completely filled out online application form of the Van Tienhoven Foundation.

Application guidelines:
Grantseekers start the application process by submitting a project proposal through the online application form on the VTF website within the set time frame for the specific call for proposals. Only completed application forms in English will be accepted.

All applications will be checked with respect to the eligibility criteria. Applications that do not meet these criteria will not be proceeding to the assessment phase.

All applications that pass the eligibility criteria will be assessed based on assessment criteria (see the VTF website for more details). The Board of the Van Tienhoven Foundation performs these assessments unremunerated and may involve unremunerated external specialists in these assessments. After the assessment of applications, the Board may form a set of shortlisted applications.

The shortlisted applications will be contacted by the Board. Additional information is requested from each applicant at this stage. Applicants are requested to supply the names of two independent referees. The Board may at this stage also seek additional unremunerated referees to appraise applications.

Based on all the information provided the Board makes a final selection of projects to be funded.

Applicants will receive a decision from the Board within twelve weeks after the submission deadline. Decisions are at the discretion of the Board and arguments will not be given for positive or negative decisions.