One Day’s Wages is a grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions coming together to alleviate extreme global poverty. We partner with trusted nonprofit organizations that empower local leaders to create lasting change in their communities. Because we believe that everyone’s story and contributions matter, we partner by providing matching grants in which our partners raise a portion of the grant funds and we match the amount they raise.
ODW’s matching grants require our partners to raise a portion of the grant funds, which are then matched by One Day’s Wages dollar for dollar. Most of our matching grants are 1:1 matches. For example, if a proposed project budget is $30,000 the partner would be responsible for raising $15,000 on ODW’s fundraising platform and ODW would match up to $15,000.
ODW occasionally awards 2:1 or 3:1 matching grants to locally-led, community-based organizations that do not have a Western-based branch, board, or network of donors. For these grants, ODW matches the amount raised by the partner two times or three times.
Project scope
Project scope must fit within one or more of the focus areas: Children’s Education, Climate Impact, Gender-Based Violence, Girls’ Empowerment, Global Hunger, Human Trafficking, Jobs & Skills, Maternal & Child Health, Preventable Disease, Refugee Relief, and Water & Sanitation.
Funding Information and Duration
- Matching grant request from first-time partners is $5,000 – $30,000. The requested amount includes the amount raised by the partner (typically 50% of the total grant) plus the amount matched by ODW.
- Request must not be more than 30% of the organization’s annual budget. If the total project budget is larger than the matching grant amount requested, the budget submitted to ODW must specify which activities would be covered by the ODW grant.
- Organization must be able to raise a portion of the matching grant funds from their own donors via a campaign page hosted on ODW’s website. For this reason, they prioritize applicants that have a diverse mix of funding sources (from individual donors, grants, and other sources), and an annual budget higher than $100,000.
- Proposals must be for projects that start no sooner than 6 months from when the LOI is submitted, and for activities that can be completed within 12 months.
Eligibility
- Organization must be a registered non-governmental nonprofit organization and must be willing and able to show documentation regarding its status as a charity. While they welcome partnerships with faith-based organizations, they do not accept applications from churches or other religious institutions.
- Organization mission and vision must align within ODW’s core values of dignity, empowerment, mutuality, transparency, and impact.
- Project location must be in a country ranked as Low or Medium on the United Nations Human Development Index. Excepts are made for anti-trafficking projects in Southeast Asia and relief projects in Ukraine.
- Organization must have an active website and social media account(s).
- Partners must be able to report back on project outputs, impact and budget in a timely and thorough manner (they require a 6-month progress report and a year-end final report).
- They prioritize partnering with smaller, grassroots organizations that are led by people from within the community served and that have annual operating budgets under $1 million USD.
For more information and application.
