CGP: Opportunity & Innovation Grants

CGP: Opportunity & Innovation Grants is sponsored by European Fund for the Balkans. This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

The Opportunity and Innovation Grants are designed to enable CSOs to leverage modest funding into larger impacts, and to incubate promising new approaches — topics, methodologies, and formats for fostering dialogue between local communities in the Western Balkans. Applicants will be asked to specify the local community and type of divide they would like to address.

The latter may include identities such as national, ethnic, racial, religious, gender, or sexual orientation. Civil society organizations working on peace, dialogue, and social cohesion in the Western Balkans registered in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia or Serbia.

Informal (unregistered) organizations, collectives, or ad hoc groups may apply in a coalition with a registered organization, or with a fiscal host. The maximum grant amount is **€4. 500,00**.

There will be a total of 20 grants available in 2026. ### Application and Implementation Deadline The Opportunity and Innovation Grants will be available on a rolling basis, subject to the maximum number available grants. The deadline for activity implementation will be November 1st 2026.

Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis internally by at least two EFB staff members based on the following criteria: * **1. Strategic & Values Fit (30%)**Successful applicants will be small and medium local organizations, collectives, or ad hoc groups working on bridging divides within a local context, or on topics that have the potential to unite communities and build trust. * **2.

Opportunity or Innovation Argumentation (30%)**Applicants will be asked to provide a brief description of the context they would like to address, their proposed intervention, an activity description, and a clear, well-argued rationale as to why these constitute an innovative or promising approach to the problem. * **3.

Estimated Impact (25%)**This criterion is based on the evaluators’ estimation of the intervention’s impact; in other words, how likely it is to produce the social results represented by the applicant. * **4.

Feasibility & Proportionality (15%)**While all types of costs are admissible, applicants will be asked to briefly argue as to how each budget line specifically contributes to the opportunity or innovation being applied for, rather than the applicant’s everyday work.

### Required Documentation In addition to the application form, applicants will be required to submit the following documentation: * Valid registration documentation of the applicant or fiscal host; * Statute of the applicant or fiscal host; * A list of staff members and their roles within the applicant or fiscal host; * For coalitions or entities using fiscal hosts: a duly signed Memorandum of Understanding between the relevant parties on the distribution of roles and responsibilities and the use of funds.

In principle, decisions should be communicated within five working days of the application submission. If there is a delay in processing the applications, applicants will be notified. Grant recipients or their fiscal hosts will be asked to submit a narrative report on their activities with a special focus on the specific opportunity or innovation, along with a basic financial report.

The deadline for final narrative and financial reporting will be December 1st, 2026.