This document provides information from a funding officer at the Big Lottery Fund about funding opportunities in Liverpool. It summarizes that 28 pence of every lottery pound goes to good causes, with 11 pence (40%) going specifically to the Big Lottery Fund. The Fund invests in projects that improve health, communities, and environments. It has invested approximately £36 million in Liverpool since April 2012 through various programs that support causes like youth employment, advice services, and community projects. The document provides details on the Awards for All and Reaching Communities funding programs and application processes.
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3C 10 Top Tips to Successful Applications
1. Big Lottery Fund
Ceri McGhee
Funding Officer (Local)
Liverpool 12 November 2014
2. BIG’s share of the Lottery pound
─ 28 pence to good causes
─ This is shared between all
Lottery distributors
─ 11 pence (40%) to Big
Lottery Fund
─ 17 pence shared between
Sport England, Arts Council
and Heritage Lottery Fund
3. Outcomes
People have better chances in life – with better access to
training and development to improve their life skills
Stronger Communities – with more active citizens working
together to tackle their problems
Improved rural and urban environments – which communities
are better able to access and enjoy
Healthier and more active people and communities
4. Liverpool Investment April 12 – date:
approx £36m
• Talent Match - £6,599,958, Liverpool City region
• Multiple needs - £9,997,372 plus development funding £50,000 – Lead org
Plus Dane Housing
• CLS - £917,045
• IFC - £1,968,109 (2 projects)
• Big Local £1,000,000 average
• Ageing better - £20,000 development funding
• Advice Services Transition Fund - £349,960
• Building Better Opportunities (EU funding) - £10,000 to partnership lead by
VOLA – City Region wide (opt in £666,667)
• Demand led funding – over £10m
6. Investing in Projects (big and small)
Awards for All
• 90% of awards
• up to £10,000
Reaching
Communities
• better
• simpler
• quicker
7.
8. Who can apply to Awards for All?
You can apply if you are a:
• voluntary and community organisation
• school
• parish or town council
• health body
You cannot apply if you are a:
• individual or sole trader
• private profit-making organisation
• statutory organisation other than those listed above
• organisation not established in the UK
9. How much can you apply for?
• A grant of between £300 and £10,000
• Only one application can be considered at a time
• One Awards for All funded project needs to be completed and the End
of Grant report approved before you can apply again
• One organisation cannot receive more than £10,000 of Awards for All
grants in any 12 month period.
10. What Awards for All will pay for?
Equipment
Hire/Purchase
IT
Equipment
Venue Hire
Feasibility
Studies
Training Transport Costs
Upgrading
Equipment
Session
Workers
Volunteer expenses
11. What Awards for All won’t fund
Promotion of
religious
belief/political
opinion
Used vehicles
Fundraising
Routine
maintenance/
repairs
Individuals
Salaries
Running costs
Statutory
responsibilities
Retrospective
cost
12. You read our guide
You send us your application
We let you know our decision
You send the documents we ask for
We confirm the grant
You start your project
10 weeks
13. Awards for All – common
mistakes
• Not showing the need for the project
• Not meeting one of the four programme outcomes
• Ineligible costs (such as salaries)
•Asking for funding for repeat/existing activities
• Not reading our guidance or help notes
15. Reaching Communities - Revenue
How much can you apply for?
•Grants for revenue from £10,000
•No total project cost limit
•1-5 year funding
•Up to £100,000 capital
16. Reaching Communities:
Who can apply?
•Registered charity
•Voluntary or community group
•Statutory body (including schools)
•Charitable or not for profit company
•Social enterprise
17. Reaching Communities-Buildings
Changes
•Capital and revenue available
•More flexibility about the amount of
funding requested
•Clearer indication earlier in the
process
•Up to 5 years funding (2 years for
building work)
•No total project cost limits
18. Additional funding for Stage 2
applicants or RCB Stage 3
•Improving your organisation’s skill, knowledge and
confidence
•Up to £15,000
•No additional assessment – just opt in
•Use the money to hire external providers to conduct
a strength review and training
19. Reaching Communities
You must contact us if....
•You are applying for Reaching
Communities Buildings project
OR
•Your are planning to apply for
more than £500,000
OR
•Your project has previously been
funded by us
20. The Big Advice Line
0845 4 10 20 30
general.enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk
21. Application process summary
(two stages):
Come up with a
good idea
Send a stage one form
BIG will let you know within six
weeks whether you might get a grant
and send out a full application form
Plan the
project
Submit a
completed
application
form within
four months
BIG will assess the
project and let you
have a decision within
four months
depending on size of
funding requested
22. Webinars For All
Webinars are interactive seminars run over the internet. This training
provides an opportunity to learn in a place that suits you without the
expense and time of travel. It will give you support and guidance on
applying for funding and top tips to presenting your project.
Webinars run every week and last approx 40 minutes to an hour. You can
ask questions throughout the presentation through a live chat panel.
So why wait join us today!
Please email webinars@biglotteryfund.org.uk or telephone
0845 410 20 30 to book a place on the webinar.
31. 8. Outcomes
Are you clear about the difference your
project will make
32. Explaining outcomes
Activities:
•Monthly social outings with peers
•Weekly trips to shops/post office
•Dial up booking to enable access to
health appointments
•Weekly trips to leisure centre,
‘Silver Surfers’ sessions and bingo
Links to
Programme
outcomes:
•Healthier and more
active people
•Stronger Communities
75 years old, lives alone
with no family nearby,
sits at home isolated
from peers, feels
depressed, has poor
health and has no car so
struggles to attend
health appointments
Project outcomes:
•Feels less isolated
•Increased independence
•Improved physical and
mental health
33. Writing outcomes
Who – people or
organisations who
will benefit
How – should relate
to change or
difference
What – what will the
change/ difference
be?
Young People
Lone Parents
People with
mental health
difficulties
Improve
Decrease
Reduce
Expand
Confidence
Skills
Relationships
Isolation
For example:
Older people will feel less lonely and isolated as a result of
increased social interaction
34. Outcomes tips
• Don’t repeat Big Lottery Fund programme
outcomes
• Make sure your outcomes link logically to the need
you have identified and evidenced
• Makes sure each of your outcomes are achievable
through the activities you describe in your
application
• Consider how you would measure progress towards
achieving your outcomes – are they achievable?
• Lasting impact
35. 9. Find a critical friend
They can be more honest
36. 10 – Plan your project
Know how it links to your organisation and
your aims
37. Key messages and themes
• Duplication especially in and around Toxteth and Granby -
BME, ESOL and employability
• YP, ASB and gang related projects from Norris
Green/Croxteth
• Lots of applications form Anfield and Everton
• Working with LCC and LCVS to reduce
• Mapping of other services to determine if there is a gap
• Work in collaboration
• Focus on local needs
• Think about other sources of income
Still amounts to around £600m across England per year
Our funding broadly focuses on health, education, environment and charitable purposes. So it’s fairly broad but what distinguishes us is our focus on people and communities most in need – this still remains the mission for the Fund
Rest of Lottery pound breaks down as prize money 50p, taxes 12p, retailer 5p, admin 4.5p and Camelot 0.5p
Reminder of RC programme
Outcomes for both RC and A4A
All projects need to meet at least one
Notice change language
All of your projects should meet at least one of these strongly
Will do a session on outcomes later
As a grant maker we face extremely difficult decisions and, most often, have to pass on very good projects through lack of funding. The challenge for you is to make your project stand out and meet a local need so it has the best chance of being funded.
Strategic & demand lead funding (also includes Big Local funding)
CLS – Granby Toxteth Development Trust
BL - Clubmoor
Also Rethink Parks UK programme – Everton Park £67,500 to fund Land Trust to work directly with community and friends of groups to develop and test a long term plan for community management of the park.
We have reorganised our staffing in England and created a stronger local presence. We have Local Officers based in smaller patches. We want to use our staff to connect local need and local context to decision making. Our ambition is that we use our demand-led funding like a kind of radar that can detect new trends and patterns in emerging need. These staff will be working with local stakeholders to build up a picture of needs in these areas so we can develop a better understanding across the country.
FO will see the application form before the assessment team to add any local intelligence.
A4A £56M
RC £250M ENGLAND WIDE
Our open programmes, Awards for All and Reaching Communities are key to ensuring that our funding is available and responsive to the ideas that flow from community conversations. The best ideas and the best projects arise from local responses to local need. We will always maintain our open, accessible demand-led funding – allocating over £250 million to it each year. But we want to improve it.
The majority of our awards (90%) are still to small community projects of less than £10,000 – this supports thousands of community groups across England. In recognition of the tough funding environment, we have changed our policy around only funding new projects so that small organisations with an income of less than £30k can now apply for existing activities.
Similarly, we have reviewed and refreshed our Reaching Communities programme to make it more responsive to the changing and wide ranging needs of those most in need. It will be more flexible, agile, efficient and cost effective, but above all it will offer an improved customer service.
These are the funding programmes that will be most relevant to the majority of you in the room.
A4A programme currently running at 55% success rate – Enabling programme
Incredibly popular small grants programme. Quick turnaround, small application form.
Awards for All England is one of BIG’s most popular funding streams. This year in England alone, the budget sits at £56.4million – our largest ever commitment to the scheme.
Voluntary and community organisations will include: Registered and unregistered charities, co-operatives, friendly societies, industrial and provident societies, companies that are not for profit businesses, unincorporated associations and social enterprises.
Health bodies will include Primary Care Trusts, NHS Hospital Trusts and Foundation Hospitals
Although town councils, parish councils, schools and health bodies can use Awards for All for some things, they cannot apply for funding for work that is part of their statutory duty: for example, a parish council can’t apply for funding for a Parish Clerk.
In the case of schools, Awards for All cannot support activities or services which the school has a statutory responsibility to provide. This means it will not fund activities that are in the school curriculum. Generally, Awards for All will only consider making a grant for activities that take place immediately before or after school, during lunch breaks and in school holidays.
If a school would struggle to provide activities outside of normal school hours e.g difficulties with transport in rural areas, it may be possible to fund extra-curricular activities that take place during the school day but this would need to be clearly explained in the application.
Projects in schools must also help children to learn about new things that would not have been part of their normal school day. This must be an integral part of the project and could be achieved by working in partnership with a local community group or local people.
Projects from schools working solely with children with special needs do not need to work in partnership with community groups or local people if this is not relevant to their project, but will need to show how their project is extra to what happens in the school day.
In England, applicants can apply for a grant of between £300 and £10,000.
Organisations can only submit one application at a time.
Organisations in receipt of an Awards for All grant for a current project can only reapply to Awards for All once they have completed their current project, completed and submitted their End of Grant Report and that End of Grant Report has been approved by BIG.
Organisations can be awarded up to £10,000 in a 12 month period
The dependent branches of a larger organisation count as parts of that larger organisation for the purposes of Awards for All. A dependent branch is a branch that does not have its own governing document and is under the direct management of its parent organisation. The dependent branches and the parent organisation, taken as a whole, can only receive £10,000 in total over any two year period.
There is guidance within the application form as to whether a branch should be classed as dependent or independent.
Here are a few examples of the things Awards for All regularly funds. These are just the most common items, and this list of things is by no means all you can ask for.
Just to highlight a few points on some of these:
EXISITING REPEAT ACTIVITIES – In recognition of the tough funding environment, we have changed our policy around only funding new projects so that small organisations with an income of less than £30k can now apply for existing activities.
BUILDING FEASABILITY can apply
Volunteer Expenses: means just that-out of pocket expenses for travel and things bought by volunteers for the benefit of your work. You cannot pay your volunteers with Awards for All money because then they stop being volunteers.
Upgrading Equipment: The word upgrade is key here. Awards for All is an enabling grant programme, so it doesn’t fund groups to replace equipment. In some cases however certain equipment may need upgrading because of health and safety issues, so things like kitchen equipment or certain children’s toys.
Sessional Workers: are eligible under Awards for All. But, Awards for All will not fund ongoing staff costs. So, we could fund a group to pay a free-lance keep-fit co-ordinator once a week for a short period, but we would not fund a group to hire a coach full time, or pay their office administrator for example.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning Building/refurbishment costs. Awards for All can fund groups for building work or the refurbishment of premises etc, however it can only contribute towards such projects where the total cost does not exceed £25,000 including VAT. It is also important that you own the building or land you want to refurbish.
READ GUIDANCE FOR FULL LIST
The key word to remember here is staff – we will pay for sessional worker time bought in and paid on invoice for project specific work – but not the hours of salaried staff.
SEND THE APPLICATION TO US AT LEAST 4 MONTHS BEFORE YOUR PPROJECT IS SUE TO START
It is important to stress that the assessment process only starts when BIG receives a complete application – any errors or missing information will not be considered as a completed application.
Applicants will receive a confirmation of a completed application in 5 working days. If incomplete, BIG will return the entire form and give 10 working days to provide the missing information.
Organisations will not need to send any documents other than the application form – any documents needed will be asked for later.
Because BIG will only use the form to assess the application, it is very important that organisations include all relevant information – BIG will not necessarily contact them during the application so there may not be an opportunity to expand on the information given in the form.
Once the complete form is received, BIG will assess it and let the applicant know of their decision within 30 working days.
If yes - A written conditional grant offer will be made and additional documents requested.
In order to convert the conditional award into an actual award, the applicant must return the documents Big asks for within 20 working days.
Documents -will vary from applicant to applicant, but might include things such as bank statements or governing documents and will be specified in the conditional offer letter.
BIG will also ask the applicant to sign the offer letter to accept the terms and conditions of grant. Asking for documents only at the conditional offer stage should make applying easier, as only organisations that have submitted fundable applications will need to send documents, and each applicant will be asked to submit only the documents needed instead of a standard list.
Once the documents required are received by BIG, they will be reviewed. This will take up to 10 working days.
Documents ok - BIG will advise when the grant will be paid and a press release issued.
Documents not ok - BIG will contact the applicant if they think the problem can be resolved. If BIG thinks there is a major problem or something that cannot be resolved, BIG will withdraw its conditional grant offer – they will write and explain why.
BIG obviously wants to avoid withdrawing offers, but it will do so if documents are not sent back or are not compliant with their standards. It is therefore very important that applicants make sure that any documents that might be needed, such as governing documents, are up to date and meet appropriate standards before they submit their application.
Organisations can start the project once the grant is paid into their bank account. Once the project is completed, they will need to complete an End of Grant Report
Common mistakes handout
34% of applicants read our guidance
Ensure form complete is complete.
common incomplete reasons are – missing landlines, DOB’s, home addresses, figures from last accs, two contacts cannot be the same person, senior must be a Director or SM committee member or head teacher for schools. 40% incompletes for main and senior contact being the same eprson
Template applications, MC involved in bid and somebody to read through app prior to submission. Groups applying on behalf of schools
RC is our flagship programme. It has been around for 5 years and shows no sign of going away.
What will we fund? Almost anything apart from arts, heritage, sports or basis projects. No retrospective activities, religious or political promotion or overseas activities. No statutory obligation. RC will fund salaries and existing projects.
FUNDING 2011-2014
8 awards £726,551. 5 pipeline apps
Beacon Counselling
Stockport Women’s Centre
Film Clun UK
Barnardo’s
Remploy Ltd
The East Cheshire Hospice
GM Sports Partnership
Redeeming Our communities
Under IA by £750,622
we have reviewed and refreshed our Reaching Communities programme to make it more responsive to the changing and wide ranging needs of those most in need. It will be more flexible, agile, efficient and cost effective, but above all it will offer an improved customer service.
We want to be upfront about the chances of success. We will be saying no earlier and putting less through to second stage but we will work locally to ensure we are putting the right projects through that really meet the local need. Hard work and no point going through it if the chances of success are limited. UNDERSTANDING THE NEED AND DEMONSTRATING THIS WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT
Although we have removed the total project cost limits and the amounts you can apply for, we only expect to fund a small number of exceptional large-scale projects each year. You expect you to have spoken to BIG before submitting a very large application.
Refer to stage one and stage two now, rather than OPF. We have made the first stage more detailed so that we can make more informed decisions about fit to need and project impact.
We have recognised the need for revenue funding in larger buildings projects so that organisations can run activities once the building has been refurbished.
We would still expect the building work to be delivered within a year to 18 mths.
Although we are still targeting certain areas, we are being more flexible in the way we apply this – refer to exceptions process.
Replace or improve multi-use buildings where a wide range of community activities take place.
The funding for RCb is limited and so has been targeted at buildings or sites based in the most deprived ‘Lower Super Output Areas’ in England and IMD 2010. You need to check your eligibility using the checker on the Reaching Communities page of our website.
http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_reaching_communities?tab=3&regioncode=-uk
You can apply to RCb if the eligibility checker confirms your eligibility and you are a:
Registered Charity
Voluntary or Community Group
Town or Parish council
Charitable or not-for-profit company
Social Enterprise
NB Statutory Bodies cannot apply to this strand of Reaching Communities.
Reject reasons / mistakes
buy building, lease, outcomes about the refurb, no evidence of need, no revenue or overheads.
Background
Grant holders have told us that they are so busy with their day-to-day work that their staff, management and trustees have little time, or money, left for learning new skills, knowledge and confidence (what we call “capabilities”). Focussing on the day-to-day delivery of services can make it harder for organisations to achieve more long-term goals.
Improving your organisation’s skill, knowledge and confidence
We want to help – so we are offering new funding which is additional to any training, evaluation or overhead costs you have already included in your Reaching Communities budget. We’d like you to use this extra money to concentrate on improving one or two particular aspects of your organisation’s skills and knowledge. This will be different for every organisation – you could use the funding for developing your skills and knowledge and confidence in consulting with service users; in fundraising; in marketing; in developing partnerships with other organisations and managing those partnerships; in developing your trustees; in building your skill level in monitoring and evaluation – or perhaps in building your ability to plan strategically and improve your business and financial planning skills.
The activities this extra money will pay for do not have to be restricted to staff involved in projects we have funded. This funding is for building the capabilities of your organisation as a whole.
Up to £15,000
If the project that you are applying for funding for is the value of £150,000, you can request £15,000 worth of additional funding to build the capabilities of your organisation.
If you are applying for a smaller amount of money for your project – less than £150,000 – then you can apply for 10% of the total award. So if you are applying to us for £60,000 worth of funding, £6000 worth of additional funding would be available to you to build your organisational capabilities.
No additional assessment – just opt in
The Big Lottery Fund will not be assessing any additional applications for this funding. All that stage II applicants need to do to opt in to the offer is to add an extra budget line to their stage II budget which is labelled "Building Capabilities"along with the appropriate amount. If your stage II application is awarded funding, you will automatically receive this additional funding with it.
Use the money to hire external providers to conduct a strength review and training
There are some specific parameters within which this funding has to be spent – it will not be up to you as an organisation to decide which areas you will be developing – you will need to shop around and hire an external provider to conduct an organisational strength review to identify these areas for development. They will give you some recommendations after doing this review of the areas you need to focus on. You'll need to use their recommendations to shop around again and source training and support in these areas. You will have to report on things are progressing with the funding when you have your monitoring calls and end of year reports during your project.
There is a guidance leaflet on the Big Lottery Fund website within the Reaching Communities pages. (Tell them to look for Building Capabilities) I would recommend reading this thoroughly to give you a good idea of how this offer will work.
If your projects meets one or more of the three bullets then you need to call us. Number at the end of the spreadsheet.
Big Advice Line........team of internal specialised staff who are available all day to answer your queries.
Refer to in house advice line open from 8am – 6pm. Team of specialised staff who have knowledge of our assessment processes and criteria.
Have been working to 10 weeks turnaround
RBP
6 weeks – first stage
3 months – to submit 2nd stage
4 months – to assess 2nd stage
6 months – 3rd stage
Decision – four months TOTAL 19-20 MONTHS
Evidencing Need webinar mon 17/11/14
A4A every Thursday at 3pm
Only 34% of applicants read our guidance & 26% looks at website
Budget to be robust – do your homework. Get quotes. Be involved.
A4A main reject reason with need
Good gov guidance available
You MUST show us HOW those beneficiaries who will be using your project have been involved in shaping the project
Before
User groups
Open meetings
Design project
Consultation days
Management Committee
During
Volunteer
Feedback
Decision making
Run parts
Survey
Management Committee
After
Focus groups
Case studies
Creative approaches e.g. performances, video clips, photos
Research workers i.e. beneficiaries conduct evaluation
Questionnaires
This forms a really important part of our assessment. CASSE
You must be able to clearly demonstrate why your project is needed
Lack of evidence is a common reason for rejection –
Its not about the work you are doing
We will deliver 10 training sessions for people – No
Its about what difference that training session will make to those people
Better aware, employment skills, confidence they didn’t have at the beginning
And you need to be able to measure this difference
This is an illustrative example of a community transport project based on meeting the needs of an elderly person who is isolated and has health issues. It looks at the beneficiary’s journey from the day they ‘walk through the door’/find out about the service, to the day they feel the project has made a difference/changed their life for the better.
Activities and the outcomes they will lead to:
Monthly social outings with peers – allowing greater socialisation and reducing isolation
Weekly trips to shops/post office – enabling him to be more self reliant, giving a greater sense of independence
Dial up booking to enable access to health appointments – enabling him to access appointments without having to rely on neighbours to take him, ensuring his health is monitored and managed
Weekly trips to leisure centre, ‘Silver Surfers’ sessions and bingo – allowing greater socialisation, access to facilities/activities which will improve his physical fitness. Being able to attend silver surfer sessions allows him to keep in touch with family members more regularly and also enables greater independence and a sense of wellbeing/reduced depression eg confidence to learn how to shop on-line.
Link to programme outcomes:
Improved mental and physical health as a result of being able to get out and do things and attend vital health appointments
Stronger communities with more active citizens working together to tackle problems – he is now a part of the community and after a year of using the bus service he feels he wants to help by volunteering to take bookings one day a week and gathering feedback/suggestions for future destinations/improvements to the service.
Wording is important. The words need to indicate the fact that you’re working towards change, to emphasise this change use words like more, better, increased, reduced, improved.
Additional assessment questions at Full Application stage are:
- Do the outcomes describe fundamental changes the project will make and who will benefit?
- How wide ranging or profound are the changes that the outcomes will bring about?
- How well do the project outcomes link with the programme outcomes?
Something can look like an outcome eg to better the health of members of the parish through access to better sporting facilities provided in the hall, however, if there is no evidence for poor health in the need section or the activities listed don’t mention anything which could result in this outcome then it is unlikely to score well.
We will ask for between 2 and 4 outcomes
Outcomes must be changes that can happen by end of project
Currently, outline proposals that do not provide at least two outcomes that describe the difference the project will make to people’s lives, are considered to be ‘Outside Funding Policy’. 55 per cent of all decisions made in the reporting period are Outside Funding Policy and the lack of outcomes is the most common reason for rejection.
Fresh eyes
Someone who also doesn’t know your project
can advise if it makes sense,
or they understand what it is you are trying to do
