Grant funding for community projects

The need for the project

• How did you identify and analyse the need for the project? For example, did you do any research or consultation?
• What different ways of meeting that need did you look at?
• If you plan to do work on land or buildings, did you look at different sites or different designs? Did you consider any options that did not involve building work?

The aims and objectives of the project

• What are the aims and objectives of your project?
• How do they meet the need described above?
• Who will benefit from your project - and how?
• How do you know that people will use the facilities or services that you want to develop?
• How would they be additional to, and complement, any existing facilities or services?
• Will there be any indirect benefit to other members of the community?

Who will do the work - and when

• What are the start and end dates of the project?
• What targets and milestones will you be working to along the way?
• How do you know that these targets and milestones are realistic?
• Have you identified any risk factors and what do you plan to do about them?
• Who will be responsible for managing the project and reviewing progress?
• Will you need extra staff, volunteers or committee members and, if so, what are your plans to recruit them?

How will you involve all members of the local community

• How will you ensure that the facilities or services you develop are accessible to range of different users, from different backgrounds?
• How have potential users, or other members of the community, been involved in planning and developing the project so far?
• How will you keep up that level of involvement?
• Which other bodies will you be working with locally to help ensure the success of your project?
• Is there any local opposition to your project? If so, how do you propose to deal with this?

Why your organisation should be the one that manages the work

• What experience does your organisation have in carrying out this kind of work?
• If you are a new organisation, what relevant skills, knowledge or experience do the members of your management committee have?

How much it will cost - and how you know

• Please provide a budget breakdown of how much the project will cost in total (including VAT if your group is unable to reclaim this back)
• Have you secured any funding for your project from other sources tell us from whom and how much?
• Will the figures still be valid by the time you start the work?
• If you are proposing to carry out any work on land or buildings we would encourage you to include a contingency of up to 10 percent of the cost of capital works.

How it will make a lasting difference to your local environment and to quality of life in your community

• What will be the longer term impact of your project?
• How will you know that you have made such an impact?

Who would manage any work required beyond the period of the grant and how it would be sustained financially

• If you plan to alter a building, how will this affect its running costs?
• How will you meet any increased costs?
• If you plan to improve an open space, how will it be maintained in the future?
• If you aim to buy any other kind of asset, what will the maintenance costs be and how will you fund them?
• If you have not yet identified any further funds, what fund-raising skills and experience do you have within your organisation?

Additional information

Work on land or buildings

If your project involves work on land or buildings you will need to provide extra information.

Ownership

If your organisation does not - and will not - own the land/building you plan to work on, you will need to get a lease to use it. In order to ensure projects are good value for money, if you are applying for a grant for building work your lease should have at least ten years remaining on them if you are asking for a grant of up to £50,000 including VAT. If you are applying for a grant to purchase land you will need a lease for at least 40 years.

Permissions

If you do not own the land or the building outright then you may need to get permission from the owner to do the work you have in mind. If you have a lease then this may tell you whose responsibility it is to do what and when you need the landlord’s permission. You may also need to obtain a number of statutory permissions.

These could include, for example:

• planning consent
• change of use approval
• approval under the building regulations
• listed building consent
• party wall agreements

The site and building plans

You need to ensure that the site is suitable for the purpose for which you intend to use it. Have you undertaken a site survey to ensure that the site is suitable for the planned use? If not, please explain how you know that the land or building is suitable for your project. Please provide floor plans or drawings showing any proposed works, floor area in square metres and basic specification for the proposed works. Please provide a site plan showing the outline of the building and the site, surrounding properties and access routes.

Access

As a minimum, your work should meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act and you should be able to show that it does.

Things to think about:

• Have you carried out an audit?
• If so, who did this, what were the results and how will you act on them?
• If not, have you had any other form of advice - from a local access officer, for example?
• When thinking about disabilities you should not just think about the needs of wheelchair users.
• Might there be barriers to participation other than the obvious physical ones?
• Will there be the need for childcare facilities, for example, or the need to offer materials in different languages?
• What are you planning to do about these issues?

Safety issues

Are there any safety issues you have identified? Then tell us what advice you have received about them, from whom, and how you have followed this advice. This is especially important if you are planning to install children’s playground equipment.

Local opposition to your project

Are you aware of any local opposition to the proposed project? If so, how are you dealing with this?

VAT

If you have not already done so, you need to find out the VAT position in respect of your proposed project work.

The basic rules are as follows:

• If you are registered for VAT, you can apply for the cost of non-recoverable VAT only.
• If you are not registered for VAT you can apply for all VAT costs that you will incur in connection with the project