Lebanon Solidarity Fund old

General Guidelines

Through an open call scheme, applicants will be requested to submit a “Letter of Interest” and a set of supporting documents (detailed below) and to send them via email to the address provided below. No electronic application is required.

• Deadline to submit the “Letter of Interest” and Supporting Documents is 15 June 2020 before midnight Beirut time.
• The maximum grant amount that can be requested is $80,000. While assessing your needs, please keep in mind that the Fund aims to support as many organizations as possible.
• Any registered or unregistered institutional or cooperative structure working in the field of culture and arts in any region of Lebanon and in any artistic or cultural field can apply to the Solidarity Fund. The structure should be in operation for at least two years.
• The “Letter of Interest” must be submitted in Arabic. An English or French version can be attached as well.
• The Supporting Documents can be submitted in Arabic, English, or French.
• The Letter of Interest and required Supporting Documents should be sent to the following addresses: [email protected]; [email protected]
• The name of the applying organization should appear in the subject field of the email.

Note: Applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria will be excluded and will not be submitted to the jury.

Letter of interest

Please fill out this form which includes:

• General information about your organization
• A set of guiding questions that you can refer to while drafting your Letter of Interest. Please consider those questions as a reference but make sure to also include further necessary information that clarifies the situation of the organization and allows the Solidarity Fund to clearly understand the status of the organization.
• The Letter of Interest should not exceed four pages.

Supporting documents

1. A copy of the organization’s registration (if available)
2. The current organigram of the organization: Please list all full-time and part-time employees
3. A file containing brief resumes of three active members of the organization
4. A narrative report (or equivalent) of the organization’s activities for 2018 and 2019
5. Actual budgets for 2018 and 2019 with funding sources (in US Dollars or Lebanese Lira)
6. A projected budget for 2020 with funding sources (US Dollars or Lebanese Lira)
7. List of funding sources (confirmed and anticipated) for 2021
8. Audited financial reports for 2018 and 2019 (if available)

You can download the budget template here.

The Selection Process

A jury of three professionals evaluates the applications and shortlists organizations. Shortlisted organizations might be called upon for an interview with the jury.

The selection criteria for assessing eligibility consist of the following parameters:

• The public value, role and effectiveness of the organization in cultural life and its contribution in its artistic and cultural spheres;
• The challenges faced by the organization and its ability to assess its needs and priorities;
• The organization’s ability to create new and adapting measures and its reflection on how to overcome challenges;
• Internal mechanisms and practices that reflect the ability and willingness of the organization to deal with challenges;
• The organization’s demonstrated good practices at the level of governance;
• Provision of the minimum (or the possibility to mobilize) resources to deal with the crisis.

The names of the grantees will remain confidential in respect to their privacy.

For your inquiries please contact the program team on the following email addresses: [email protected]; [email protected]

Fundraising Campaign for the Arts and Culture Community in Beirut

Following the devastating explosion that rocked Beirut on August 4, 2020 and the unprecedented loss of life, injury and damage to homes, offices and workspaces across the city, Culture Resource and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture – AFAC launch an international fundraising campaign to support the culture and the arts community within Beirut.

Both Culture Resource and AFAC will contribute to the fund with seed capital and handle its management and distribution to institutions and individuals in the arts and culture sector.

WE NEED THE SOLIDARITY OF PARTNERS AND FRIENDS AND WE THEREFORE CALL FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS.

The August 4 catastrophe has struck an astounding, unprecedented blow to all aspects of life including the arts and culture sector. The survival and sustainability of the once vibrant creative field is now in a critical condition. Recovering from the shock will require time, as will the reconvening as a community to identify priorities, articulate visions and bolster the myriad ways in which people will rebuild their lives from the ruins of devastation.

This campaign builds on the recent joint solidarity initiative, Solidarity Fund to Arts and Culture Structures in Lebanon, by the two regional organizations and supported by three generous donors – Drosos Foundation, Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundations – to respond to cumulative pressures related to an economic collapse, restrictions on financial transactions, and uncontrolled inflation. Subsequently, the thorough mapping of arts and culture entities in Lebanon and the experience with an existing funding mechanism can effectively respond to the latest emergency needs.

An early recovery is as critical as an immediate response to the impact of this disaster. Sustaining a viable arts and culture fabric requires a medium- and longer-term accompaniment which is only possible through diverse, consistent and recurring support.

The raised funds will be channeled to support affected arts and culture organizations and spaces based on identification of urgent needs. Our preliminary assessment of organizations damaged by the explosion includes the following:

• Emergency reconstruction to ensure safety of premises and assets or rental in the case of temporary relocations when property is lost or severely damaged;
• Protection, housing and transfer of invaluable collections (images, films, and musical archives);
• Rehabilitation of premises (mainly furniture and other assets owned by the organizations including mechanical and electrical networks);
• Repair and/or replacement of equipment (computers, monitors, external drives, specialized libraries

The fund will also support individual artists who lost their homes, instruments and equipment and who need to fix them or replace the equipment/relocate to new homes or workspaces in order to continue.

You can make your donations online through this link or through bank transfer.

Note: If donors wish to remain anonymous, kindly inform us via email ([email protected] and [email protected]), otherwise your name/institution will be mentioned among the generous supporters in all communications related to this initiative.

In support of arts and culture practitioners in Beirut 

The Lebanon Solidarity Fund, jointly managed by Culture Resource and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture – AFAC, launches an exceptional emergency initiative to support practitioners in the arts and cultural sector in Beirut, who were directly affected by the disaster of the  port explosion.

Three weeks have passed since the catastrophe, and the assessment of damages and losses from physical and psychological injuries, destruction of homes and properties, loss of safety and dreams is still in its early stages. In light of the economic and health crises on one hand, and society’s refusal to treat the catastrophe as an accident the effects of which will soon dissipate on the other hand, a return to “normal life” is hingent on attempts that link rebuilding with the accountability of those responsible for the disaster

While this initiative builds on the efforts launched by Culture Resource and AFAC earlier this year to support artistic and cultural institutions in Lebanon in the face of the strenuous economic situation, and to support practitioners and artists in the Arab region in light of the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic, the main drive of the present initiative is to preserve some form of cohesion in the sector – in the absence of any role or action by the public sector – that would allow the sector’s members to continue to play their vital role in formulating critical discourses, documentation, questioning, challenging the status-quos, casting light on marginalized narratives, and broaching urgent issues with approaches that reshape our relation with the present and the past, and with politics and the public realm

In its first phase, the support will focus on individuals, including artists, technicians, and practitioners in the cultural and artistic sector who were directly affected by the explosion, whether through injuries, the destruction of their homes, or the loss of their equipment and their workplaces, through grants that range between $2000 and $5000.

Submission Guidelines

• Applicants must be residing in Lebanon and must hold the Lebanese nationality or the nationality of any other Arab country
• The submission procedure is through an open call, submissions can be registered through this link
• The submission deadline is 9 September, 2020 at 17:00 Beirut time.

Selection Process

Given the limited financial resources, support will be based on specific priorities, reviewed by an independent committee of cultural practitioners. The priorities are as follows:

Priorities in terms of damages

1. Those who were physically injured; 
2. Those affected by the demolition of their homes (partially or completely);
3. Those affected by loss of equipment and workplaces; 
4. Those affected by other damages (highlighted in the submission form)

Priorities in terms of nature of work and/or opportunities:

The support program will give priority to self-employed individuals (freelancers). Affected persons who work part-time or full-time can apply for support. These requests will be considered in light of the total number of submissions and available resources. Alternatively, they will be transferred to a second round of support as soon as additional resources become available. Beneficiaries of other emergency support initiatives can apply for support, but their access to additional support will remain dependent on the number of requests and the availability of resources. This will be taken into account when determining the value of the grant.

The names of the grantees will remain confidential in respect to their privacy.

For inquiries, kindly contact us on the following two email addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]