Founded in 2012, the Robert Carr Fund is a leading international pooled fund that supports global and regional civil society networks responding to HIV.

The Fund contributes to improved health, inclusion and wellbeing of inadequately served populations (ISPs) by funding networks to sustain and build organizational capacity, programmatic capacity, and regional and global collaborations.

The Robert Carr Fund raises funds from multiple contributors, including foundations and government international development agencies, and then allocates that funding to civil society and community networks.

To date, the Robert Carr Fund has raised and allocated over US$ 70 million to civil society and community networks. The following is a summary of past rounds of RCF's grant making:

Grant making in 2012 (for one-year grants in 2013): US$ 5.4 million allocated to 24 networks; average annual grant size US$ 225,000, maximum annual grant size US$ 480,000.
Grant making in 2013 (for multiyear grants in 2014-2015): US$ 16 million allocated to 14 networks and consortia; average annual grant size US$ 443,000, maximum annual grant size US$ 975,000; 94% of funding as renewal support to previous grantees, 6% of funding to first-time grantees.
Grant making in 2015 (for multiyear grants in 2016-2018): US$ 20 million allocated to 18 networks and consortia; average annual grant size US$ 377,000, maximum annual grant size US$ 875,000; 97% of funding as renewal support to previous grantees, 3% of funding to first-time grantees.
Grant making in 2018 (for multiyear grants in 2019-2021): US$ 32.6 million allocated to 24 networks and consortia; average annual grant size US$ 453,000, maximum annual grant size US$ 640,000; 88% of funding as renewal support to previous grantees, 12% of funding to first-time grantees.

The Robert Carr Fund is notable for maintaining open requests for proposals (RFPs), providing large funding amounts in multiyear core support, encouraging global collaboration and consortia, and running a participatory grant making process that has been cited by UNAIDS as a notable example of good funding practices. The RCF grant making process includes:

Consultations before each grant cycle to ensure input by grantees and stakeholders about funding priorities, guidance documents, application forms, outreach plans, and review processes;
Pre-application informational webinars in multiple languages and related in-person meetings and a public question-answer document to provide clarifications for potential applicants;
An external review of each eligible proposal by at least two independent experts and then an opportunity for each applicant to provide rebuttal responses and clarifications to those external reviews;
A comparative review of all applications by a Program Advisory Panel (PAP), which makes recommendations to the RCF International Steering Committee (ISC);
Final funding decisions made by the International Steering Committee (ISC).

The Robert Carr Fund’s priority is to fund civil society and community networks and consortia working to achieve the outcomes articulated in the RCF Results Framework and Theory of Change. When a new funding opportunity is announced with a Request for Proposals (RFP), that RFP will define any specific funding priorities for that funding round.

RCF application forms and policies & procedures are posted with each funding round.

Application forms typically include questions and response fields about the applicant’s organization(s), organizational structures and collaborations, network/consortium goals, network/consortium governance and management, and proposed organizational and program costs to be funded.
Application forms are accompanied by a budget form that requests information about proposed organizational and program costs to be funded and a work plan form to map activities against a timeline, the RCF Theory of Change intended results, and across geographic regions and ISPs.

Potential applicants should note that the following criteria are likely to be important for any consideration of funding from the Robert Carr Fund:

Networks should be able to describe their alignment with the RCF goal of improved health, inclusion and wellbeing for inadequately served populations (ISPs).
Networks should be regional or global in governance, participation and proposed budgetary allocations.
Networks can be new or emerging, but should be operational enough so that reviewers can judge organizational and programmatic quality, capacity for managing people and financial resources, and potential for results.