The Partnership Fund for the Disadvantaged will be open for application in March, the fund's advisory committee says.

Vetting on the first-round applications is expected to start in the second quarter and disbursement of grants for successful applications will be made thereafter.

The committee held its first meeting today to discuss the establishment, arrangements of application guide, eligibility criteria and monitoring mechanism.

The fund will allocate about $190 million for non-governmental organisations in the welfare sector to apply cover projects to help the disadvantaged.

Grants to NGOs will be calculated in accordance with the contributions from business corporations, in cash or in kind, on a dollar-to-dollar matching basis.

Each applicant can submit one application only

Each applicant NGO will be allowed to submit only one application in the first round and allocation for each successful application will be capped at a maximum of $500,000. There is no limit on the amount of contributions from the business corporations.

The rest, about $10 million, will be used to carry out measures to facilitate the formation and sustainability of the three-way partnership.

For the matching grant portion, the committee will allocate funding in two rounds. It has tentatively earmarked $80 million for the first round and $110 million for the second.

Any unallocated funding of the first round will be transferred to the second or subsequent round(s) for allocation until the fund's depletion.

All bona-fide charitable welfare NGOs having tax-exempted status under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance can apply for the fund.

Application criteria set

Project proposals meeting the following conditions will be eligible for application:

* The proposal should be an initiative in support of the Government's welfare policy but currently not receiving funding support from the Government in any form or from any established charitable trusts/foundations.

* The initiative should be delivered in Hong Kong, and would benefit directly the welfare of the underprivileged groups such as people with disabilities, elderly people with inadequate social support, children from deprived families and victims of family violence/abuse.

* Contributions should be made by business corporations registered and operating their business in Hong Kong. 

* The proposal submitted by an applicant NGO should have a business corporation's contribution in cash, in kind or a combination of the two.

Grants from the fund will be disbursed to the applicant NGO upon confirmation of the commencement of the project and receipt of contribution from the business corporation concerned. 

Progress reports are required

The applicant NGOs will be required to furnish a concise report at the end of the project, or progress reports at intervals as specified by the committee which will be uploaded onto a web-based platform for public scrutiny.

They will be required to submit final audited financial statements to account for the use of the grant from the fund to the Social Welfare Department, and to certify that the grant from the fund has been used for the purposes as specified in the applications. 

As a requirement, NGOs should exhaust all or an amount equal to the approved grant under the fund, whichever is the lower, of the donations from the business corporations if they are contributions in cash before using the grant from the fund.