Individual project — submit funding request

Somaha Foun­da­tion is curr­ently accep­ting new pro­ject ideas. At this time, we are only accep­ting appli­ca­ti­ons for fun­ding in the field of nature pro­tec­tion. 

Preliminary clarification

Before you cont­act us, please fami­lia­rise yours­elf with the fol­lo­wing con­tent:  

Funding criteria for individual nature protection projects

Eli­gi­ble for fun­ding:

  • Pro­jects that focus on prac­ti­cal nature con­ser­va­tion or require start-up fun­ding. 
  • Pro­jects that meet Soma­ha’s fun­ding cri­te­ria and prin­ci­ples.  
  • Pro­jects with an inter­di­sci­pli­nary cha­rac­ter and that pur­sue ori­gi­nal approa­ches.
  • Pro­jects whose impact bene­fits the pro­mo­tion of bio­di­ver­sity by at least 80%. 
  • Pro­jects that are finan­ced with less than 50% of public funds. 
  • Pro­jects that are pre­fer­a­bly imple­men­ted in Switz­er­land. 
  • Pro­jects that have ide­ally not yet star­ted at the time of appli­ca­tion. 
  • A maxi­mum of one pro­ject per orga­niza­tion will be fun­ded at any one time. 

Exclusion criteria for individual nature conservation projects

Not eli­gi­ble for fun­ding: 

  • Orga­ni­sa­ti­ons that are not tax-exempt. 
  • Orga­ni­sa­ti­ons that do not have their legal domic­ile in Switz­er­land. 
  • Pro­jects whose impact does not bene­fit bio­di­ver­sity by at least 80%. 
  • Pro­jects that are 50% or more finan­ced by public funds. 
  • Pro­jects whose fun­ding con­tri­bu­tion is out­side the range of CHF 20,000 to CHF 80,000. 
  • Pro­jects that have been run­ning for more than one year (new pro­jects are favored). 

Two-stage submission process

After com­pleting the preli­mi­nary cla­ri­fi­ca­tion, you can sub­mit an A) Project out­line in a first step. If sui­ta­ble, you will be invi­ted to sub­mit a B) Project appli­ca­tion in a second step. 

A. Project outline

Please send us a brief pro­ject descrip­tion and con­fir­ma­tion of your orga­ni­sa­ti­on’s tax exemp­tion via the Sphe­riq plat­form (for­mer Stif­tung­S­chweiz).

Your pro­ject out­line should con­tain the fol­lo­wing infor­ma­tion:  

 Pro­ject descrip­tion (max. 2 pages) with the most important infor­ma­tion:  

  • Sum­mary  
  • Needs / Rele­vance 
  • Objec­ti­ves (incl. impact objec­tive, tar­get group)  
  • Rough time­ta­ble (incl. mile­sto­nes) 
  • Pro­ject orga­niser (and any part­ners)  
  • Con­sis­tency of the pro­ject with the Somaha Theory of Change/nature pro­tec­tion  
  • Budget/financing (incl. amount reques­ted) 

Please do not attach any addi­tio­nal docu­ments or anne­xes. 

If you have any ques­ti­ons, please do not hesi­tate to cont­act us by tele­phone on Tues­days or Thurs­days (044 545 18 10). 

We will check the pro­ject out­line against the Somaha fun­ding cri­te­ria and give you feed­back as soon as pos­si­ble. 

B. Project application

If the pro­ject out­line is asses­sed favor­ably, you will receive a link to the Somaha online form. At this point you can sub­mit your detailed pro­ject appli­ca­tion.   

You can use your own tem­pla­tes to prepare the appli­ca­tion, bud­get and finan­cing plan. Alter­na­tively, you can use the Somaha tem­pla­tes: 

Your fun­ding appli­ca­tion will be carefully exami­ned by the Somaha office. The decis­ion to accept or reject your pro­ject appli­ca­tion is made by the Somaha Foun­da­tion Board. We will inform you of the fun­ding decis­ion. 

If fun­ding is gran­ted by Somaha Foun­da­tion, report­ing will take the form of an annual pro­ject report and a final pro­ject report at the end of the pro­ject. These reports do not have to be pre­pared spe­ci­fi­cally for Somaha Foun­da­tion, but should con­tain at least the fol­lo­wing ele­ments: Sum­mary, pro­ject progress/achievement of objec­ti­ves, finan­cial report, les­sons learnt, out­look, sup­port­ing docu­ments (e.g. published artic­les). 

Deadlines

Appli­ca­ti­ons for fun­ding can be sub­mit­ted on an ongo­ing basis. Please note that it can take up to four months for the Foun­da­tion Board to make a final fun­ding decis­ion. 

We look for­ward to recei­ving your fun­ding appli­ca­tion!