What Type of Projects are Funded?
Democracy Commission seeks to fund well developed and innovative grassroots initiatives that aim to create open, tolerant and democratic society; advocate for transparent and accountable government, rule of law and market economy based on sound legislative framework, strong property rights and unrestrained competition.  Projects can be submitted on wide variety of topics that include but are not limited to:

Projects NOT funded by the Democracy Commission include:

How to Apply?
Qualified organizations may apply to the Democracy Commission at any time.  Please submit completed application and all supporting documentation to BakuDemCom@state.gov.  Please click the icons below to download the application form and application guidelines.  Please note that all organizations are required to use the official Democracy Commission application form to submit their projects.  Applications that do not meet minimum standards set forth in application guidelines will not be considered. 

Evaluation Process
U.S. Embassy Baku has formed a Review Committee consisting of representatives from different U.S. government agencies and experts from international donor organizations to review submitted proposals.  The Committee meets every three months or as needed to review qualified applications.  Once the application has been accepted by the program administrator it may take up to three months for the Committee to complete its review process.  Some of the applicants may be invited for an interview during this review process.

Evaluation Criteria
The Democracy Commission will use the following general criteria to evaluate all submitted grant proposals:

• The project proposal demonstrates that the organization has sufficient expertise, skills and human resources to implement the project;
• The organization demonstrates that is has a clear understanding of the underlying issue that the project is aiming to address and is able to articulate it without using excessive generalizations;
• The organization has consulted relevant literature, experts and potential partner organizations during the project’s design phase;
• The organization has identified appropriate beneficiaries or target groups in a way that maximizes project outputs and outcomes and the project has a clear focus and manageable scope;
• The project idea and approach is innovative yet proposed project activities are concrete and detailed and supported by reasonable work plan;
• The project’s budget is well organized, detailed and reasonable.  There are no budget lines labeled miscellaneous expenses.  Entertainment and alcoholic beverage expenses are not included in the budget.  The budget demonstrates that the organization has devoted time to plan for and assess actual expenses associated with the project instead of providing rough estimates;
• The organization has clearly articulated how it will assess and measure its own performance throughout the project implementation phase using concrete quantitative and qualitative assessment tools;
• The project proposal describes clearly the approach that will be used to ensure maximum sustainability of the project’s results after its completion.