ACTS – Advancing Caritas through Solidarity

Two application forms are available for Caritas organisations that want to apply for financial support from ACTS: one for individual OD projects and one for joint OD projects with a consortium of at least three Caritas Europa member organisations.

Applicants must introduce their request, including the relevant annexes, to the Caritas Europa secretariat by the deadline indicated in the call for proposals (usually mid-September).

The ACTS task force will evaluate the requests and fill in an evaluation grid. Based on this grid, the task force formulates an initial assessment of the OD projects received (both individual and joint) and drafts its recommendations. If necessary, the applicant organisation will be invited to submit a second version of its proposal, taking into account the recommendations/comments made by the ACTS task force.

The final and detailed allocation proposals are submitted by the ACTS task force directly to the Executive Board of Caritas Europa. The Executive Board will formally approve the allocations.

The ACTS guidelines give all the details of this solidarity scheme regarding applications reporting, eligibility criteria, etc.

ACTS is based on internal donations from Caritas organisations. The Caritas Europa secretariat issues a call for pledges each year in May/June. The call is addressed to the entire network, seeking new contributions and possibly re-pledges.

Through financial support pledges, Caritas organisations finance the implementation of ACT applicants’ OD plans for one year, covering costs related to human resources strategy, fundraising strategy and CIMS implementation.

Caritas organisations benefitting from ACTS are also invited to contribute to the system with an amount of their choice or with technical expertise. They are also asked to share their experience of ACTS with the network by presenting their OD plan results and implementing methods to the OD community of practice (CoP).