Empowering Women Program

For women's emancipation and rights

Agir pour les femmes – Habitat Cité — Habitat Cité

Taking action for gender equality and the independence of all women

Since 2006, the RAJA-Danièle Marcovici Foundation supports associations that carry out projects promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in France and around the world through its annual call for projects Empowering Women, which covers our four areas of action:

Defending Rights & Fighting Violence: the Foundation defends women’s rights and fights against discrimination and physical, sexual, or psychological violence against women. Through the projects it supports, it combats attacks on women’s integrity and dignity through prevention, support, and reconstruction.
Education & Social Action: in order to facilitate girls’ access to school and encourage women’s leadership, the Foundation supports projects aimed at combating the exclusion and discrimination suffered by women, promoting access to essential social services and thus creating conditions conducive to the fulfillment of their aspirations.
Training & Professional Integration: the Foundation supports associations that help women achieve financial independence. It enables them to be independent, provide for their families, and integrate into society by accessing vocational training, employment, or starting their own businesses.
Women’s Action for the Environment: the Foundation supports projects that promote women’s actions in protecting the environment and combating climate change. This includes projects involving women in sustainable agriculture, natural resource management, waste management, and renewable energy production. Special attention is given to projects that present innovative approaches and adaptation strategies that enable the preservation of natural resources and biodiversity.

Eligibility Criteria

For your grant application to be considered by the Foundation:

The project must be led by a French non-profit organization (association loi 1901) that is actively involved in France (the French administrative offices of foreign associations are not eligible), unless an express exemption is obtained from the Foundation prior to submitting the project. Projects supported abroad are generally led by a French association in partnership with a local organization; direct funding of foreign associations remains exceptional.
The project must specifically target women and/or girls, contributing to their empowerment, improving their living conditions, and promoting equal rights.
The project must fall within one of the Foundation’s four areas of action.
Only one application may be submitted to the Foundation per organization per year (excluding awards organized by the Foundation).
The application may cover an entire project or a specific component of a larger program, whether ongoing or new. The project may have started before the application is submitted, but the majority of activities and expenses must be incurred after the Foundation’s decision to provide support.

Selection Process

Project selection takes place in five stages:

1. Eligibility check: project leaders are invited to check the eligibility of their project by consulting the eligibility criteria of the funding program. 

2. Submission of a grant application form: associations are invited to complete an online grant application form, which is only accessible when a call for projects is open.

3. Selection of projects for the assessment phase: based on these applications, the Foundation’s team conducts an initial analysis to identify projects that are eligible and correspond to the Foundation’s priorities. The selected associations then have one month to submit a more detailed application. Once these have been received, a second selection is made.

4. Assessment: the operational team meets with all the selected associations to evaluate the project and ensure the association’s soundness.

5. Presentation to the Executive Committee: projects that have passed the review stage are then presented to the Executive Committee of the RAJA-Danièle Marcovici Foundation, which will decide on the funding to be granted by the Foundation.