WINNERS ANNOUNCED: 2019 European Leadership Summit (ELS) Civic Ignition Grant

March 1, 2019

Congratulations to our 2019 European Leadership Summit Civic Ignition Grant Winners! We received 19 submissions and had 17 participants join us to judge the cycle at our meet up and workshop.  It was a great conversation and the workshop took about 90 minutes to complete. Thank you to all of our applicants and participants for an engaged civic impact experience.

Special thank you to the German Burner Association (non-profit) for donating funds on top the of the initial grant and putting our total to 1,450€.
The audience of the conference also felt strongly that we should leave a positive trace in Aarhus, and decided to crowd-fund for a third grant.  This opportunity to help us still hit our goal is still live and we welcome you to join us!  The runner up was the Aarhus Community Kitchen. Our goal is €1,300 and Burning Man Project is matching what comes in from the community.   If you’d like to donate- 100% of funds will go to the project. You can donate here: https://donate.burningman.org with a note on the donation ‘BwB- Aarhus Kitchen
This years ELS granting committee!

A big congratulations to this years grant recipients:

Thé Dansant  ‘Don’t you dare call us old’

by The Belgian and Dutch Burners

A monthly social club geared towards senior citizens (70+)– but this isn’t your typical seniors event!  We’re going to be holding a monthly (these are the prototype events) glamorous extravaganza for about 100 participants in the heart of their community in an elegantly decorated space.  This 4 hours afternoon “event” is ran as a classy burlesque english afternoon tea with live shows, volunteer waiters in black tie and silver crockery, dancing classes and many other burning man inspired booths or activities.  All of this is geared to help heal the divide between senior citizens and the rest of the population, to ease the feeling of aloneness and boredom that often comes from the state of being elderly in the modern world.

Refugees Kids: Support through Yoga, Mindfulness and Emotional Literacy

in Barcelona, Spain

We believe everyone deserves a chance to thrive. We want to provide refugee children a safe space to build emotional resilience and develop emotional literacy, improve psychological and physical well being through sessions of yoga and mindfulness. Many children who have been affected by being a refugee have PTSD, and PTSD can be described as “a disease of not being able to be present”.  By providing these mindfulness practices and classes we can begin to help move towards healing.

Runner Up/ Crowdfunded: Association “Focal Point”   

in Aarhus Denmark

The runner up was the Aarhus Community Kitchen which the audience this morning decided to crowd-fund to support. Our goal is €1,300 and Burning Man Project is donating too! If you’d like to donate- 100% of funds will go to the project. You can donate here: https://donate.burningman.org with a note on the donation ‘BwB- Aarhus Kitchen’

Our mission is to transform a local square formerly known as the ugliest square in Aarhus to a nice place where people want to meet up and socialize with others, across the usual social and ethnic borders.

Until recently, the place was characterized by a dilapidated abandoned old gas station, the area was marked by insecurity and crime. The site therefore did not call for spontaneous or planned community activities between local citizens. Today we have two cosy small houses inviting people inside to socialize. At the moment we are building a stage and a railing around the square. The railing has several activities incorporated in it, one being a play kitchen for children. We are applying for this ignition grant because we want to build an outdoor kitchen for all ages as well. Our mission with this is to utilize food culture as a way to bring people together across generations as well as ethnic and social groups in our local community. In this outdoor kitchen we plan to build an open fireplace or brazier, to use for cooking as well as burning borders between diverse people.


What is the ELS Civic Ignition Grant?
A program aimed at funding innovative community & civic projects within the greater European region.  We are interested in programs that create collaborations, produce direct actions, utilize several of the 10 Burning Man Principles, are reproducible, and creatively tackle local social problems. This grant gives anyone the opportunity to submit a collaborative, creative, and principle-focused project with a chance to win up to a 1,300 grant.

Timeline:
–  Grant Opportunity is announced on March 1st
–  Deadline for grant submissions is April 5th (Midnight UTC)
–  Workshop Participants will review the grant proposals at the 2018 ELS in Aarhus, Denmark (April 11-14)
–  Winner(s) will be announced Sunday evening at the ELS  (April 14th)

Apply here: https://bit.ly/2H7hwzy

What’s special about the ELS Civic Ignition Grant?
Submissions to the 2019 ELS Civic Ignition grant cycle will be workshopped and judged by a group of participants and community leaders that attend this year’s ELS Civic Ignition Grant Workshop. This group will be using the submissions as material to review and workshop while learning how to administer their own civic grant programs.

Who is eligible to apply?
Individuals, Groups, and Not-for-Profits are all eligible to apply.

How much can you ask for?
The maximum grant that maybe awarded is 1,300.  We encourage your project’s viability to not be solely dependent on this grant.  Think about other sources of funding that might be available.  Grants awarded could be less than the full amount.

What types of proposals will likely not get funded by this program?
Programs that are solely based on artistic endeavors and do not have a community or civic aspect will most likely not be considered for funding.  Funds should not be used for direct fundraising, chapter promotion efforts, or for paying people for their work.

What follow-up will be expected by grant recipients?
All recipients will be expected to submit written reports on what they have accomplished and learned in the course of their projects, along with accompanying visual media.  This media will be hosted on the Burners Without Borders website.

Suggestions for a quality grant proposal:
– Look at the BWB Grant Impact & Criteria Document to see how we think about grants.
– Reach out to your local Burning Man Regional Contact and ask if they might be an advisor.
– Watch our video “How to write Quality Grants: Burning Man 101
(Starts rough but gets going at (9:00 in)
– Listen to our podcast  “Targeted Grant Writing: with Meta-Regional Jacqui Latendresse

Who won the Civic Ignition Grant in the past?

2018 ELS Civic Ignition Grant Winners  

2017 ELS Civic Ignition Grant winners

2016 ELS Civic Ignition Grant winners


Photos from the ELS Civic Ignition Grant Workshop 2018 (Nantes, France)

Fostering a more Connected, Creative & Resilient World

DONATE Find a Project