“Fruits of Change” Seed Fund Initiative Launches

PSYDEH’s ongoing “Fruits of Change” project includes our first equity-based funding initiative, the “Fruits of Change” seed fund (Seed Fund).

Here, global donors investing in PSYDEH’s GlobalGiving crowdfunding campaign, in effect, incentivize indigenous women working with the four local-focused NGOs in our nascent network of women-led organizations (Network) to produce their inaugural projects and thus engage in:

(1) experiential learning (these are their organizations’ inaugural projects submitted pursuant to a PSYDEH call for proposals simulating the normal experience when applying for government funding),

(2) capacity building and information sharing as tool for creating gender equity in their communities (all projects must focus on capacity building and information sharing), and

(3) building the organizational memory needed to make Network proposals competitive in 2019 (organizations must have some history producing projects in order to maximize the chances of success when applying for government funding).

In practice, PSYDEH offers a seed fund of up-to-$50,000 MXN to each of the four local NGOs in the Network, where a maximum of $35,000 MXN can be delivered in two installments for project production. We say “up to” because the women’s proposals must be based on realistic costs; they could propose a project valued at much less. Regardless, a minimum of $15,000 MXN is allocated to support and incentivize the women to creatively invest their own resources into their seed fund projects:

• a minimum of $5000 MXN underwrites PSYDEH support of project production.

• $5000 MXN fund regional transportation of women leaders from Acaxochitlán to the 2019 5th regional forum (if the NGO secures regional transport from a 3rd party funder, they can retain these $5000 pesos for project production).

• $5000 MXN fund legal changes to the organizations’ legal charters needed to fundraise from Mexican and foreign funders (if the NGO’s leaders fully participate in PSYDEH’s Embroidery Initiative during 2019, they can retain these $5000 pesos for project production).

To this end, PSYDEH published the SEED FUND call for proposals on October 1 using the Mexican government call protocol as our model. The deadline for the delivery of the four proposals was November 15 with exceptions made. This is action-learning after all. The organizations discussed their proposals in public with PSYDEH staff and friends at Lemonaid & ChariTea Foundation on November 22. PSYDEH now finishes the evaluation of proposal strengths and weaknesses with an eye to adjusting planning and then beginning project production in quarters 1-2, 2019.