Community Grants Programme

Guidance Notes

What is the Community Grants Programme?

The Community Grants Programme is a European funded programme aimed at supporting people from the hardest to reach communities and individuals experiencing multiple disadvantages, in accessing mainstream European Social Fund, domestic employment and skills provision.  We award grants of between £1,000 and £12,000 in a simple and straightforward way.

Who’s managing the Community Grants Programme?

Three partners have come together to deliver the community Grants Programme across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

All three organisations have significant amount of knowledge and experience relevant to this Programme.

  Contact will be Paul Green (Social Inclusion Team Leader) on 01726 821945, e-mail paul.green@cornwallrcc.co.uk

Cornwall Rural Community Council will provide support to applicants and potential applicants to design and develop projects and fill in the application form.

  Contact details: Grants Team - Kirsty Martyn or Donna Martyn (Grants Manager & Grants Administrator respectively)

Tel: 01566 779333 email: Kirsty.martyn@cornwallfoundation.com, donna.martyn@cornwallfoundation.com

Or a generic email: grants@cornwallfoundation.com

Cornwall Community Foundation will carry out the initial assessment of projects and make recommendations to the decision making panel.

Email catherine.roberts@cornwalldevelopmentcompany.co.uk

Tel: 01209 611106

Cornwall Development Company (formerly known as Cornwall Enterprise) is the accountable body for the programme and will produce the contract letters, manage the claims and monitoring process and issue payments to projects.

How can the Programme help your organisation and community?

The Programme will support a range of activities that may include:

• Initial help with basic skills
• Taster work experience including voluntary work
• Training advice and guidance
• Job search activity
• Confidence building
• Personal development
• First contact engagement activities e.g. to provide support to individuals overcome barriers to learning and/or employment

Please take time to read these guidance notes carefully.  They explain who can apply, the kinds of things we will fund, how to apply, what you need to send with your application form and what happens when we receive your application.

Who can apply?

You can apply if:

• Your organisation is a not for profit organisation e.g. Registered Charity, Charitable Trust, Community or Voluntary Group, Company Limited by Guarantee, Community Interest Company etc.              
• Your organisation has a bank account that requires at least two signatories who are unrelated and do not live at the same address.
• Your organisation has a committee with at least three unrelated members.
• All projects must be finished and financially complete by September 2010.
• More than 1 year funding will be considered subject to targets and evidence of your project e.g. project plan, with a clear end date.
• No more than £12,000 will be funded per annum.  So, for a larger project £24,000 could be funded over 2 years (subject to above and no more than £12,000 per annum).  However, due to the timescales of the CGP, projects can only receive funding until September 2010.
• A local branch of a national body would be considered if independent e.g. you have your own bank account, management committee, strategy and no substantial income from Head Office.
• If your organisation has a turnover/income exceeding £50,000 per annum you will need to demonstrate why your organisation is unable to fund this project from its own resources rather than grant funding.

Please note that the organisation applying for a grant must be the same organisation that will receive and be responsible for the funding.

We cannot award grants to:

• Statutory Organisations such as health authorities, schools, hospitals (although these types of organisations could be partners in delivering your project.  Only not for profit groups can be the grant applicant)
• Individuals
• Other grant making organisations
• Those fundraising on behalf of another organisation

How much can you apply for? 

Grants between £1,000 and £12,000 can be applied for and you can hold more than one grant from the Community Grants Programme as long as it is for different projects with different beneficiaries requesting no more than £12,000 per organisation per annum. However we do recommend you have one project underway before applying for another. Up to 100% of the total project cost can be applied for.  Funding can also be part of a larger project e.g. phase 1, 2 etc., provided your costs are for specific items and not unspecified expenditure.  The grant from the Community Grants Programme cannot be used as “match funding” for other grants.

What is involved?

The grant will normally be allocated in 4 instalments; 20% will be paid up front, then 2 further up front payments will be made based on your evidence of expenditure of the previous payment and the submission of any required monitoring information, finishing with the final 15% balance payable at project end, based on achievement of your outcomes and evidence of the same.

There will also be a requirement to keep records for all beneficiaries throughout the programme, as part of your grant conditions.  These will submitted during the lifetime of your project, linked to the payment of the claims.

The monitoring process is not likely to continue after 6 months from your project end date.

What we need from you:

In order to complete a full appraisal of your application, we need your organisation to fill in the application form and enclose all the supporting information as detailed. 

If your application is successful, we will need you to provide information to us on a quarterly basis.  The details of this information will be specified in your contract letter but will include details of how much you have spent, what you have achieved and monitoring for each individual assisted as a result of your project, for example each beneficiary will have to complete an ESF Short Record Form.  The collation of this information can be time consuming.  However, we need this information to enable us to report back to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) on the effectiveness of the programme.  Support can be provided to ensure that successful applicants will fully understand the monitoring and reporting requirements of the fund and that the correct reporting practices are adhered to. The monitoring is designed to help applicants record the success of the project and an important part of the project process delivery.  If you need any help completing your application form this is available free of charge from CRCC (see page 2 for contact details).  Likewise, Cornwall Development Company can help you complete the forms mentioned above at no cost (contact details also on page 2).

The target groups and priority for the Community Grants Programme are:

Unemployed people and inactive people aged 16 years and over who are from hardest to reach communities of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and who have difficulty accessing mainstream provision and/ or European Social Fund.  Within this target group, participation of the following groups will be prioritised:

• People with disabilities and health conditions
• Lone parents
• People aged 50 and over
• People from ethnic minorities
• Females
• Carers
• People who are rurally isolated

The Community Grants Programme can fund a wide range of projects

Here are just a few examples of projects and community activities that are likely to meet the aims of the Community Grants Programme.  Remember your application must be for a specific item/project:

• An organisation running a basic skills course from within their local community centre
• Child protection training for potential volunteer car drivers
• Food hygiene for volunteers in a new community enterprise
• Projects working with lone parents combining fun activities with CV writing, interview skills, personal presentation, First Aid etc
• Using craft activities to build confidence
• Establishing and running a community café

Here are some of the things that a grant could be spent on:

• Computers (as long as the item in its entirety does not cost more than £1,000)
• Childcare
• Fees to hire equipment
• Materials for use in the project e.g. arts and craft materials
• Professional fees
• Publicity material
• Sports equipment
• Training
• Transport costs
• Venue hire
• Staff costs (where directly attributed to a project e.g. employing an instructor for 1 day a week for 6 weeks.  Existing staff will only be considered if the employee was previously grant funded and the funding is due to cease or if a contract was being continued/extended. Evidence of this will need to be provided).

It is very important that you know whether you can claim VAT back or not.  Please check with any of the organisations listed on page 2 if you are unsure.  Most small groups will not be able to recover VAT, however, you may be able to claim VAT back for specific projects.

We will not fund:

• More than £12,000 in a year (unless your project is for more than 1 year – see earlier)
• Capital items of more than £1,000 per item
• The running costs of your organisation, in full or part
• Repeat activities unless the beneficiaries are different
• Items which only benefit individuals for example bursaries and kit and equipment that is not shared
• Activities promoting religious beliefs
• Political activities
• Activities that the state has a legal obligation to provide e.g. education
• Endowments
• Loans or interest payments
• Fundraising activities for your organisation or any other group or activity
• Projects that take place or start before you receive our award
• Costs incurred or expenditure committed (including deposits) before you receive our award letter
• Contingency costs
• Any expenditure that does not clearly relate to the project
• Any expenditure which is not supported by written sources
• Unspecified or general expenditure
• Over 10% of your project costs on admin resource

Projects working with children, young people or vulnerable adults

If you are applying for a project that works with children, young people or vulnerable adults, we need to ensure that they will be safe.  As a minimum, you must have a policy that explains how you make sure of this and you must ensure that the policy is put into practice.  It is your responsibility to have acceptable child protection and safeguarding adult policies and procedures in place, which we may ask to inspect at any time.  Staff and volunteers working with children, young people or vulnerable adults on your project should also have Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) clearance.

How to apply

Once you have read the guidance notes and decided that a grant from the Community Grants programme is appropriate for your project, please do apply by contacting the Cornwall Community Foundation on 01566 779 333.