Global Fund for Children: Grants for Community Organisations Serving Children with Disabilities in Africa

Of all the groups within the disability community, children with disabilities face perhaps the most compounded barriers. They are excluded from schools, denied healthcare, subject to harmful cultural beliefs, and frequently invisible in both official statistics and national policy. In Africa, where fewer than ten percent of children with disabilities attend school and where disability in children is deeply stigmatised in many communities, the organisations working to change this reality operate in some of the most challenging conditions imaginable.

The Global Fund for Children (GFC) is one of the few international funders that consistently partners with the community-based organisations doing this work. Since 1993, GFC has invested in grassroots groups around the world including across Africa that are advancing education, challenging injustice, and helping children and youth thrive. For small, community-led organisations serving children with disabilities, GFC represents one of the most accessible and values-aligned funding relationships available.

About the Global Fund for Children

The Global Fund for Children was founded in 1993 by Maya Ajmera, who later became publisher of Science News and president of the Society for Science and the Public. GFC’s model is built on trust-based philanthropy; the belief that community organisations closest to the problems they are solving are best placed to decide how funding should be used.

GFC’s named focus areas are Education, Gender Justice, Safety and Wellbeing, Youth Power, Climate Resilience, and Solidarity in Emergencies. Disability inclusion cuts across all of these particularly Education (inclusive schooling for children with disabilities), Gender Justice (girls with disabilities face compounded barriers), and Safety and Wellbeing (protection of children with disabilities from abuse and exploitation).

GFC works across Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In Africa, the fund has active partnerships in countries including Sierra Leone, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, among others. GFC is explicit that its primary interest is in community-based organisations run by local leaders not large NGOs or international implementing partners.

Grant Amounts and Funding Structure

GFC’s grant structure is designed to support organisational growth over time:

• Initial grants typically range from USD 5,000 to USD 20,000 per year
• Grants grow in size and scope over the course of the funding relationship
• GFC provides flexible general operating support funding that can be used for core organisational costs, not just restricted to specific programme activities
• Funding relationships are often multi-year, building trust and enabling long-term planning

The multi-year, growing funding model is intentional. GFC wants to build the capacity of its partner organisations over time, not just fund individual projects. This approach means that a small OPD working with children with disabilities could start with a modest grant and, over three to five years of partnership, develop into a significantly stronger and better-resourced organisation.

What Makes GFC Different: The Relationship-Based Approach

Unlike most international funders, the Global Fund for Children does not accept unsolicited proposals. This is an important and unusual feature of GFC’s model that organisations need to understand before investing time in preparing applications.

GFC’s approach is relationship-based. Staff and regional representatives visit organisations in person, build relationships over time, and identify potential new partners based on alignment with GFC’s mission and regional strategies. When GFC has raised funds for a particular region or theme, it draws on a database of organisations it has already engaged with to identify the best partners.

This means the pathway to GFC funding is not a proposal form it is getting onto GFC’s radar through:

• Registering your organisation in GFC’s database at globalfundforchildren.org/for-community-based-organizations
• Ensuring your organisation is active and visible in your country’s disability and children’s rights networks
• Building relationships with GFC’s regional representatives in Africa through conferences, networks, and direct outreach
• Demonstrating consistent, community-led work that places power in children and youth including children and youth with disabilities

What GFC Looks for in a Partner

GFC is explicit about the type of organisation it wants to support. The strongest candidates for GFC partnership share these characteristics:

• Community-based and locally led: GFC wants organisations rooted in their communities, led by people who understand those communities from the inside
• Power-sharing with children and youth: GFC prioritises organisations that genuinely involve children and young people including those with disabilities in decision-making, not just as programme recipients
• Innovative grassroots solutions: GFC is interested in dynamic groups trying new approaches to entrenched problems, not organisations simply replicating standard programme models
• Aligned with GFC’s focus areas: Education, gender justice, safety and wellbeing, youth power, climate resilience, or emergency solidarity
• Small and early-stage: GFC specifically targets organisations that are too small or too young to access larger international grants

One past GFC grantee is the Thai Child Development Center, which helps local school systems develop special education programming so that disabled children have access to education, therapy, and health services. This provides a model for the type of disability-focused work GFC has funded in the past.

Disability Inclusion Within GFC’s Framework

While GFC does not have a dedicated disability funding stream, disability inclusion runs through all of its focus areas. Children with disabilities are among the most marginalised populations in all of GFC’s programme countries in Africa, and organisations that explicitly address their needs particularly girls with disabilities, children with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities, and children in rural or conflict-affected areas are strong candidates for GFC partnership.

GFC’s Education programme emphasises girls’ education and access for marginalised children. Its Gender Justice programme addresses the compounded barriers facing girls and women, including those with disabilities. Its Safety and Wellbeing programme addresses protection from violence and exploitation – a critical concern for children with disabilities who face elevated risk of abuse.

Organisations whose work sits at these intersections for example, an OPD working to get girls with disabilities enrolled in school, or a community group protecting children with disabilities from abuse are well positioned to engage with GFC’s regional teams.

How to Get Started with GFC

Given GFC’s relationship-based model, the most important first step is visibility and engagement:

• Visit globalfundforchildren.org and read about GFC’s regional strategies for Africa in detail
• Submit your organisation’s information to GFC’s database; this is how GFC identifies organisations to visit and potentially partner with
• Follow GFC on social media and engage with their content to build familiarity
• Attend regional disability and children’s rights conferences where GFC representatives may be present
• Connect with other GFC grantees in Africa who can share their experience and potentially provide a warm introduction

📌 GFC makes clear that it does not ask organisations to submit proposals and that it cannot support all worthy organisations that come to its attention. Getting onto GFC’s radar requires patience and consistent engagement. The organisations that build relationships over time are the ones that receive funding when GFC has resources aligned with their work.

African Countries Currently Active

GFC’s current Africa partnerships include countries across West, East, and Southern Africa. Active country engagements include Sierra Leone, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The foundation periodically expands into new countries as it raises funds for specific regional initiatives.

For organisations in these countries that are doing community-led work with children with disabilities, getting onto GFC’s database and building visibility is a concrete and worthwhile investment of time.

The Global Fund for Children’s model – trust-based, relationship-driven, flexible is exactly what small disability organisations working with children in Africa need. It is not a quick win. It is a long-term partnership. And for the organisations that build it, it can be transformational.