ActionS Enfance (ActionS 4 Youth)

Transcription

1 ActionS Enfance (ActionS 4 Youth) Procedure for granting financial support to eligible organizations Approved by the Board of Directors On August 13 th, 2009 Last revision: April 28 th, 2015 Take ActionS against childhood poverty

2 PREAMBLE ActionS Enfance (ActionS 4 Youth) is a registered public foundation, volunteer based. It aims to fight childhood poverty all over the Greater Montreal where one out of three children lives in poverty. To reach this goal, ActionS 4 Youth encourage school retention & fight dropout by providing annually, a financial support to community projects that offer appropriate guidance through means that proved their effectiveness, such as: academic support, healthy nutrition awareness, practice of sports and leisure activities, and offer personalized moral support for youths living in critical situations and guide them to the appropriate resources. These tangible actions will increase the self-esteem of these youths, improve their skills and help them to take responsibility of themselves and get out of poverty. The funding sources to projects of eligible organizations, which meet the above-mentioned criteria, originate mainly from the proceeds of various fundraising activities organized by ActionS 4 Youth. Page 2 de 8

3 DEFINITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS Local community organization = any nonprofit organization that works to improve the quality of life for children under 18 living in poverty in the greater Montreal region. Eligible organization = any local community organization that meets the criteria set by ActionS 4 Youth Board of Directors, as detailed in point A below. Recipient charity = eligible organization whose Project was supported by ActionS 4 Youth. Child or children = any person under 18, living in poverty in the greater Montreal region. In poverty = this term indicates and means children under 18 living in poverty according to the Act that aims to fight poverty and social exclusion. The Act was unanimously adopted by the Quebec National Assembly in December The following definition of poverty is described: The term "poverty" means the condition of a human being who is deprived of resources, means, choices and power necessary to acquire and maintain his economic independence and to facilitate his integration and participation in the Quebec society (Translation from L.R.Q., chapter L c.61, a.2) Beneficiary = any Child that beneficiate from a Project supported by ActionS 4 Youth OSC = Organizations Support Committee of ActionS 4 Youth Project = project or activity seeking funding submitted to ActionS 4 Youth by a local community organization. The Project will take place in the year that follows the year of submitting the request for a grant. Retained project = a project that meets the assessment criteria of ActionS 4 Youth and that has been retained by its CSO members to eventually be supported. Financial support granted = any financial support that ActionS 4 Youth Board of Directors approves to grant to a predefined Project submitted by an eligible organization. BOD = ActionS 4 Youth Board of Directors or the members of the Board of Directors. Fundraising activity = any activity undertaken by ActionS 4 Youth which aims to raise funds to finance Projects of Eligible organizations. Accord de soutien financier = a funding contract to be signed on the date of reception of the financial support by a Recipient charity from ActionS 4 Youth, binding both parties. Page 3 de 8

4 PROCEDURE FOR GRANTING FINANCIAL SUPPORT A. Identification of eligible organizations In order for an organization to be eligible, it must meet the following basic criteria: A.1. Have an ongoing legal status; A.2. Work to improve the quality of life for children under 18 living in poverty; A.3. Serve the population of the greater Montreal region; A.4. Be managed in a democratic way by a Board of Directors; A.5. Able to submit financial statements prepared by an independent accountant or auditor recognized by the law. B. Launching of the yearly support campaign and documents required ActionS 4 Youth launches its yearly support campaign in the months of March-April through notices in local newspapers that accept to do so free of charge, as well as by to organizations already identified by ActionS 4 Youth, advising the organizations seeking financial support for a Project, to submit a request by ONLY to actions@actionsenfance.org within the time limit mentioned in the notice. We strongly encourage all organizations to provide us by , all year long, their contact information or update them in case of any changes, so they can be added to our mailing list. The required documents are the following: B.1. BRIEF introductory letter on the organization s letterhead (one page), B.2. Copy of the up-to-date letters patent, B.3. Copy of the Board resolution, authorizing to submit a financial support request to ActionS 4 Youth, B.4. Copy of the latest financial statements prepared by either an independent accountant or an auditor recognized by law. IN-HOUSE PREPARED DOCUMENT IS NOT ACCEPTED, B.5. Detailed information on a Project that will take place during THE FOLLOWING YEAR and for which the organization seeks funding. (maximum 3 pages including a detailed description of a typical session, from the time of arrival of the Beneficiary till he leaves) The Project must address one or more of our following priorities B.5.1. Academic support B.5.2. Healthy nutrition awareness B.5.3. Sports & leisure (cultural, art or scientific) B.5.4. Personalized support & prevention in the Beneficiary living environment. B.6. Detailed budget for the Project with detailed expenditures, B.7. General information form, duly filled-out (see APPENDIX A), B.8. Summary of the Project submitted, duly filled-out (see APPENDIX B), Documents B.7. & B.8. are available on Please note the following: - The amount granted to a Project varies generally between $ 2,000 to 5, We strongly suggest not to create a Project specifically for this financial request. - Other financing sources should be anticipated for the submitted Project. - Take into consideration that generally the financial support is granted around the months of February-March of the year following the year of submission of the application. - Projects aiming to provide ONLY material support to Beneficiaries, without any guidance and followups, are not eligible to financial support. - The number of Projects to be annually supported varies depending on the available resources. Ideally, 9 to 12 projects could be supported. - The more you provide important information about the different aspects of the guidance and the supervision offered to the Beneficiaries during the course of the Project, the more it will allow the Page 4 de 8

5 members of our OSC to assign the appropriate points to each element and to make a well-informed comparison with the other submitted projects. C. Assessment criteria of submitted Projects For a Project to be considered for evaluation, it must address at least one of the priorities mentioned in paragraph B.5. For the sports & leisure activities, they should be complementary to the other priorities, unless the Project can prove that their aim has a leverage effect on the life of the beneficiaries. In general, the more the project demonstrates its effectiveness in helping Beneficiaries to get out of their poverty and take responsibility of themselves, the more it will likely be retained, but this will not guarantee that it will be supported. The majority of the elements covered in the document B8-Summary of the submitted Project (appendix B) are taken into consideration during the assessment of the Projects, as well as the financial health of the eligible organization. In case your financial statements show a deficit, kindly explain briefly the reasons of this deficit in the document B7-General information (appendix A) D. Financial support granting and follow-up D.1. The amount granted to a Project, may not be the amount required by the Recipient charity. It will vary depending on: D.1.1. Our available resources, D.1.2. The pertinence of the Project based on point C above. D.2. If the amount of the grant is less than the amount required, we will verify with the Recipient charity whether the Project can still reach its goals. If the said amount will not be sufficient for the successful realization of the Project, the amount will be granted to another eligible organization. D.3. The Recipient charity will sign a document Accord de soutien financier (Funding contract) that will bind both parties. D.4. As stated in the Accord de soutien financier, ActionS 4 Youth reserves its right to make some follow-ups for the use of the grant to ensure that it has been used for the purpose of the Project for which it was intended., D.5. The Recipient charity that has used the support in part or in full for other purposes, without getting a prior written approval from ActionS 4 Youth, may, by resolution of our BOD, no longer receive support from us. Eligible organizations whose projects have not been retained will be notified in writing as soon as possible. N.B: The BOD may at its discretion and without prior notice, bring some changes to this Procedure. Page 5 de 8

6 Appendix A Example of the B.7. General Information Form THIS DOCUMENT IS TO BE FILLED-OUT & SUBMITED WITH THE OTHER REQUIRED DOCUMENTS It is available on GENERAL INFORMATION Organisation name Year of constitution Head Office address Mailing adress (if different than above) Telephone (s) address Website address Name Title Person in charge of the organisation Direct line or extension In post since (year) Area (districts) covered by your services Your Mission Your Objectves Registration no. with Canada Revenue Agency, as charitable organisation, if registered? List only your main activities ( No details please) Total number of full time employees Total number of part time employees Name and position of your Board members and their professional occupation Total number of your organisation's members INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Date of the financial statements submitted with this funding request Type of financial statements submitted: Audited or Review mission or Notice to reader Total Products Total Charges In case of déficit, kindly explain the reasons Total amount of your wage billl including social benefits Page 6 de 8

7 Appendix A Example of the B.8. Summary of the submitted Project THIS DOCUMENT IS TO BE FILLED-OUT & SUBMITED WITH THE OTHER REQUIRED DOCUMENTS It is available on Information about the submitted Project Organisation name Brief description of the Project By which means the Project is going to improve the life of the disadvantaged children? During the course of the Project, do you make any followup with each beneficiary to find out wether your intervention had any positive impact on his life? If so, please describe the follow-up Please fill-in the blank cells below At the end of the Project, what assessment tools do you use to measure the effectiveness of your intervention for each beneficiary? What are the facts which prove that the goals you have set for the Project were reached? Also please describe the tangible impact that your Project has effectively brought on certain aspects of the life of the beneficiary, through findings that you noted during your assessment? On the long term (in the years following the Project), do you keep contact with your beneficiaries, which allows you to observe the efficiency and the impact of your intervention on their personal and / or career path? Besides that the Project meets the objectves of ActionS 4 Youth, what are the elements that distinguish it so that it will be retained by ActionS 4 Youth among many other projects? Among the following fields of action, which ones are concerned by your Project: Academic support, Healthy nutrition, Sports, Leisure or personnalized moral support & prevention in the living environment? Is it a must to register in order to take part in the Project? If so how much are the fees? Is the participation in the Project on a voluntary or mandatory basis? If the participation of a registred individual is mandatory, are their any sanctions for the absenteeism? If so, what are these sanctions? In case your intervention is custommized according to the situation or needs of each beneficiary, please describe this intervention Total number of the Project beneficiaries under 18 Total number of the Project beneficiaries under 18, living in poverty Page 7 de 8

8 How do you ensure that a beneficiary lives in poverty? (What documents do you require? Are the beneficiaries referred by a recognized institution...) Age groups of beneficiaries During the course of the Project, how many sessions (meetings) are scheduled for the same beneficiary? At which frequency do they occur? Average number of beneficiaries during each session What is the duration of each session? According to your statistics, what is the average number of attendance to the activity for the same individual versus the total number of planned meetings for this beneficiary? Total number of coordinators assigned to the Project Number of volunteers that help in the Project Total number of coordinators versus the number of beneficiaries in each session (meeting) What are the coordinators qualifications and how many years of experience does each one of them have? What training do you provide to your coordinators? Is there any role assigned to the parents in relation with the Project? If so, please describe this role. Total duration of the Project Date of the beginning of the Project Date of the end of the Project Total amount required for the Project Amount required from ActionS 4 Youth Use of the amount required from ActionS 4 Youth If applicable, please state the type of material that will be used during the Project Date support required Since how many years this same Project occurs? Name of the confirmed donors of the Project and amount received or to be received from each of them Name of the potential donors of the Project and amount asked from each of them Page 8 de 8