Red Nose Day Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund

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1 Red Nose Day Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund Grant Guidelines 2015 About the Fund Comic Relief is supporting The Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund with a grant of 1million. Grants of between 5,000 and 20,000 are available to small community and voluntary organisations and social enterprises in London that are doing great work to help local people living tough lives. The following gives details of the Fund criteria and tells you how to apply. The Fund is managed by The London Community Foundation and is open across all London boroughs. Please note, the deadline for applications is 5pm Friday 8th May 2015 Aims of the Programme We believe that local people know what is needed in their community and are best placed to make any changes. Having lots of activities happening in area brings vibrancy to a local community which can make it a better place to live. We are also aware that many people are undertaking great work in their area but often struggle to get the support they need. We therefore want to support community groups undertaking work that helps people of all ages feel more included in their community, builds their skills and increases their sense of achievement. Criteria Grants of between 5,000 and 20,000 are available to support work where there is clear evidence of benefit to people who are excluded or disadvantaged through low income, social isolation, age, disability, race, sexuality or gender. This fund will cover the full costs of the project. Please include all costs in your budget that are required to run your project.

2 Priority will be given to: Small, locally based groups or organisations working in areas of disadvantage Organisations demonstrating a clear understanding of the needs of their community Organisations can apply for funding towards work that addresses one or more of the following themes: Tackling educational disadvantage; Getting people into work; Fighting gangs, knife and gun crime; Improving physical and mental health; Addressing other manifestations of poverty such as homelessness, pensioner poverty or the working poor. Applications are welcome from groups who have never applied for Comic Relief funding before. Organisations with current ESDF Sport Relief Funding are also eligible to apply, however, recipients of all other Comic Relief grants, either direct from Comic Relief or through Community Foundations must have completed the grant and submitted a satisfactory monitoring report. Who can apply? To be eligible your organisation must fulfil the following criteria: Have been active in your local community for at least 12 months Have an evidenced income of less than 250,000 per annum, either in your last complete financial year, or taken as an average income for the last three financial years (or over the life of the group if it is less than 3 years old) Be working in a disadvantaged or deprived area Be run by local people Have limited access to other sources of funding i.e., smaller local organisations Be a not-for profit, voluntary organisation including:

3 Constituted Voluntary and Community Groups Registered Charities Co-operatives Social Enterprises and Community Interest Companies Charitable Incorporated Organisations Faith Organisations Companies Ltd by Guarantee without share capital Examples of the types of project which might be funded Please note this is not an exhaustive list of activities but purely examples of the types of projects that might be funded: Activities and respite support for carers including gardening projects, cooking projects and telephone befriending services Support for older people including Good Neighbour Schemes, intergenerational projects involving younger people, home and garden services and financial advocacy Skills training to support people into work including accredited training programmes, back to work skills for parents, training in ITC and leadership skills. Running costs for self-help groups Please not this is not an exclusive list of projects but purely examples of projects that have been previously funded: An education, training and employability programme for homeless people A gardening and cooking project for carers and the people they care for A programme of workshops to address the issue of teenage pregnancies and encourage young women back into education A project supporting girls who have been involved in gangs, providing a safe environment to explore issues and develop exit strategies Health and art based activities for vulnerably housed or homeless people Residential respite breaks for adults with learning disabilities Befriending/good neighbour services for vulnerable, isolated older people Development of a food bank to provide free/subsidised meals and teach cooking skills Various training and employment focussed initiatives providing work placements and employment support.

4 What are we unable to support? We are unable to consider supporting the following: Individuals; Statutory organisations, including schools (though we can fund PTA s and Friends of Schools groups); Trips abroad; Buses, mini buses or other community transport schemes (not including transport costs forming part of a project) Building costs, including access adaptations to buildings Organisations which are currently in receipt of a grant from Comic Relief grant directly, or who have Local Communities Grant or a Large Grant through Community Foundations. Activities that promote religious or political beliefs; Spending that has already taken place; Organisations with overdue or incomplete monitoring/reporting for any of The London Community Foundation s grant programmes. Application Deadline The deadline for completed applications, including all supporting documents is: Friday 8th May 2015 at 5pm How do you apply for a grant? To apply for a grant please visit: Application Portal Please read the instructions carefully, tick to say you agree and have understood, enter your address and click on the Send and continue Once you have done this you will be sent an with a link to your unique online application form. You should receive the within a couple of minutes (if you do not please check your spam folder). If you have any queries re your application please do contact us well in advance of the deadline our contact details are on the last page. The application To begin your application, please click on the link within the that you have received from us. Please also read the online application form guidance as it will help

5 you understand what we expect. There are help notes available as you go through the online application form and you can save your application at any point and come back to complete it at any time before the closing date. You also need to submit all of your supporting documents by uploading them at the end of your application form. We regret we are unable to consider incomplete or late applications. Supporting documents you need to submit are: A copy of your signed governing document e.g. Memorandum and Articles of Association or Constitution. A copy of your most recent signed annual accounts A copy of your safeguarding policy if you will be working with children or vulnerable adults Names and addresses of your management committee members A completed cashflow projection for your organisation for 12 months from April 2015 to April 2016 on the template available for download on our website. (Please indicate secured income and non-secured income as well as all projected expenditure, showing when income will be received and monthly balances.) If you have received funding from The London Community Foundation within the last two years, you need only submit your most recent signed annual accounts and cashflow projection unless other documentation has changed since. We regret we are unable to consider incomplete or late applications so please ensure you submit everything by the deadline. What happens after you have applied? We may contact you to discuss your ideas. You should hear the outcome of your application within 10 weeks of the deadline; therefore we recommend your project does not start before 27 th July If you are awarded a grant you will have 12 months to spend it. Monitoring Grantees will be required to complete a short online form outlining how the grant was spent and highlighting the benefits for residents. Monitoring and evaluating our grants enables us to better understand the impact of our grantmaking. It helps us to understand community need, enables us to learn from our

6 grantmaking and inform future strategies, and also enables us to show donors the impact of their funding and hopefully encourage them to give more! It should also help organisations to collect valuable information on how service users benefit from your work, what works and what doesn t, how you can make your services more effective, and also demonstrate to funders (and donors) the value of your work. If your application is successful, you will be required to: Credit support from Comic Relief and The London Community Foundation on all materials related to the funded work (logos will be provided); Complete your spending within 12 months; Complete a project review form about the project within 6 weeks of completing your grant, and no later than 14 months after receipt of grant; Maintain financial records for all grant spending and submit requested information to The London Community Foundation, including original invoices; Be available for a potential monitoring visit by The London Community Foundation or Comic Relief. Be available for a potential Evening Standard publicity visit, if you have agreed to this when submitting your application Contact Us Please contact Anya Stern or Sam Smallcombe at The London Community Foundation if you need help with your application or have any queries about the Fund: anya@londoncf.org.uk sam@londoncf.org.uk Tel: