Позитивные изменения, Том 3 №1, 2023. Positive changes. Volume 3, Issue 1 (2023)

• The donor (Severstal): allocates funds for organizing and conducting the contest and implementing the winning projects; a company representative is a member of the jury for the contest. High influence.

• The Foundation team: organizes and conducts the contest; supports the winning projects. High influence.

• Winning project teams: develop and implement projects. Low influence.

• Beneficiaries: participate directly in the projects, evaluate the projects. Medium influence.

• Partner organizations: support the implementation of winning projects, provide human and material resources. Medium influence.

WHO MAKES THE ROAD HOME FOUNDATION GRANT COMPETITION

The competition team can be divided into three groups, each participant having a different role and function.

1. Administrative team:

• the director of the Foundation is the decision-maker;

• the deputy director of the Foundation organizes expert review of the applications;

• the head of the resource and methodological center of the Foundation manages the competition, consults all participants;

• the head of the media department of the Foundation provides information support;

• the economist and methodologists of the Foundation provide consultations on drafting the budget and applications.

The winners find new ways to address pressing social problems, thereby adding to the Foundation’s portfolio of practices. Participating in the competition requires embracing the Foundation’s principles and values, which promotes evaluation, evidence-based approach.

2. Joint implementing team:

• the competition committee – in-house and third-party experts in the Foundation’s areas of activity, experts in the field of social design, applied and evaluative research, following evidence-based approach in evaluating the results of social practices;

• the competition council – a collective body created specifically to make the final decision determining the competition winners;

• programmers – maintenance of the contest website[55].

3. Partners:

• media in the territories covered by the competition – information coverage of the competition and its results;

• city administrations and specialized departments in the contest territories – engaging grantees, developing a pool of urgent problems that require project ideas, and providing partner support to the winning projects;

• NGO resource centers in the contest territories – engaging grantees, assisting in executing applications and implementing the winning projects.

WHO EVALUATES APPLICATIONS AND HOW

The projects eligible for the competition last from 6 to 36 months. Regardless of the topic, duration, amount of funding, territory of implementation and size of the project team, each winning project must produce measurable positive change for the stated target groups. This is the key condition for obtaining funding.

The competition committee evaluates all applications received by the following criteria:

1. The project’s compliance with the goals and conditions of the competition.

2. The project’s relevance and significance for solving the problems of the target group.

3. Feasibility, logical coherence and the ability of the planned actions to achieve a progress towards the project goal.

4. Specific and achievable results planned.

5. Replicability of the project (the possibility of applying the technologies of the project in other organizations, in other territories).

6. The ability of the project team to achieve the project goal.

7. Feasibility of the project budget and alignment of the planned costs with the expected results.

SOCIAL RESULTS OF THE ROAD HOME FOUNDATION’S GRANT COMPETITION

Implementing the projects supported by the Foundation helps improve the quality of life for the project beneficiaries (children, families with children, and child welfare specialists) and increases the number of organizations and specialists providing quality services to beneficiaries. Project specialists help create safe living and developmentally favorable conditions for children in families, to form or strengthen positive personal and socially significant changes in minors, to improve the socio-psychological and parental competences in child-rearing and building harmonious parent-child relationships, and to improve the professionalism of child welfare specialists.

In 2022, more than 1,700 people received assistance from the winning projects; in 2021, the number of beneficiaries was 3,800; and in 2020 – more than 1,700 people.