UK: Freshwater Foundation Grant Program

Deadline: 30-Apr-23

The Freshwater Foundation’s Grant Program is now open to support voluntary and community groups in Ealing and Hounslow.

They offer grants through 2 funding rounds each financial year. There is a strict limit to the funds that they make available for each round, so aim to make as good a case as possible as demand is high: success is not guaranteed, even to perfectly worthy and eligible applications.

Projects

• What they are looking for are these three aspects of the project:
  • The project you want funding for must be fulfilling a charitable purpose as defined in law. If it does not come under one of the charitable purpose headings to be found in the Charities Act 2011, then they are prohibited by law from funding it. You need to establish which charitable purpose your work would be furthering. In this regard, establishing your charitable status is also important. If you are registered, then this is easy; if not, then you need to provide proof of your charitable status. Non-charitable status will not necessarily debar you from receiving a grant, but in that case, they would need to be given strong reason to believe that any grant would be used exclusively for charitable purposes.
  • They need to be convinced that were you to be given funding for a project, you would be sufficiently competent to run that project. Your cause might be the most worthwhile in the world and perfectly charitable in law, but were monies to be squandered, then that would be of no consequence whatsoever. In your answers (and with any relevant supporting documentation that you include), you need to show that you have the relevant skills for the job; these would in general include basic financial and managerial skills, perhaps experience with similar projects, and any other particular skills relevant to the project.
  • The project may be worthwhile, charitable and carried out with all due skill and care, but if it does not produce any actual benefit then the money will have been wasted. You need to be clear as what benefits you believe the project will bring, which people will profit from these benefits (and how), what good they will bring to the broader community and how they will help you fulfill your aims as an organisation. In order to be fully convinced that you have thought seriously about the benefits, you also need to be clear as to how you intend to find out if they have in fact been gained.

Funding Information

• Is the amount required under £3000? Sorry, but they  will not fund amounts this non-negotiable limit. However, you can apply for funds up to this limit over a maximum of 2 grant rounds (e.g. £2000 for a current project and then the remaining £1000 for a project at a later date).

Eligibility Criteria 

• Are you a voluntary or community organisation engaging in charitable work? This does not necessarily mean having charitable status, but the project you want funded must be considered charitable according to the charitable purposes set out in law.
• Are you constituted (you do not need to be registered or otherwise incorporated)? If you are not, they can often help you constitute during the application procedure (to discuss further, or if you are unsure if you are constituted.
• Is the proposed spending for a project, or for development or infrastructure (capital)?
• In general, they do not fund day-to-day costs, but for the time being they  will consider applications where a proportion of the sum requested is for such costs that you are struggling to meet because of the pandemic. The proportion will depend on the circumstances and there will always need to be a project or capital element. They will also need to see evidence that your struggles are down to the pandemic and that they are causing you significant difficulties. Awarding such sums will always be at the discretion of the charity. To discuss further.
• The group must be based in Ealing or Hounslow, the project must concern the needs of communities in Ealing and Hounslow and the group should ideally do the bulk of their work in those boroughs. In certain circumstances (at the charity’s discretion), they will consider applications where the bulk of the work of the group is not done within Ealing andor Hounslow. However, a group of people within either of the boroughs must benefit very substantially from the the project and your organisation must have strong links to one or other of those boroughs. To discuss further.
• Will the project benefit the community or some group within it (as opposed to a single individual)?
• The project will preferably be volunteer led, but if not, should promote voluntary charitable and community activity in the area. Ideally, less that 50% of the project expenditure will be on salaries or fees.
• Both the organisation and the project will be reasonably small. This is difficult to quantify in financial terms, but in general they will probably only consider projects worth around £30,000 or less (note: this is not the amount they will fund, but the total value of the project funded from a number of sources). They’re looking for organisations that have an annual income of around £100,000 or less, but there are plenty of exceptions; churches that have income associated with other activities, small CICs generating fairly large commercial revenues, and small groups in receipt of support funding from the council to fund expensive but necessary aspects of their work – these are just a few that they have come across. If they consider you outstanding in any aspect of importance to us (say you have a large number of volunteers working for you) then they will also consider raising the limit. Please get in touch to discuss further if you exceed the £100,000 limit but nonetheless believe yourself to be a small group or believe yourself to be outstanding in some particular way.
• At The Freshwater Foundation, they are very keen to help groups to set themselves up for the long term. For these groups, they are able to give continued support and in this case, the grant could be used to fund initial day-to-day costs. If you’re interested in creating a life for your group beyond your immediate project, contact and they will send you are their comprehensive guide to setting yourself up as a constituted group, and they can also discuss how else they can give you support during the early stages.
• Thy are committed to maintaining the highest standards in public life, so will only consider organisations that conform not merely to the letter, but also the spirit of charity law. In particular this means that they are very unlikely to consider organisations where there appears to be unjustified personal benefit to trustees, where there are trustees whose interests are in regular competition with those of the charity, and of course where there is any suggestion of financial impropriety (or where they are not given sufficient information to make a judgement about a group’s financial probity).

Deciding on your Application

• They will consider your application.
• If it is considered both suitable and worthy, they will contact you to arrange a visit where the project can be discussed further.
• After that, a report will be written to be discussed by the board at its next quarterly meeting, at which a final decision will be made.
• All deliberations and discussions by the charity about the application will be strictly confidential and all decisions will be final. They may however, at their discretion, contact unsuccessful applicants to discuss how they might better make any future applications.
• Just because one application may have been unsuccessful does not necessarily mean that any subsequent ones will be.
• If successful, they will send you a set of terms and conditions associated with the grant.

Ineligible

• Organisations and activities they cannot fund:
  • statutory organisations such as local authorities, schools and the police
  • regional or local offices of a national organisation
  • projects or organisations that exclude beneficiaries on the grounds of religious or political beliefs
  • projects or organisations that do not adhere to their equal opportunities policy
  • arms length public sector organisations that are controlled wholly or in part by, for example a local authority, Primary Care Trust or agencies of these
  • any party political and/or religious activity
  • commercial ventures
  • organisations that are for the sole benefit of the relief of animals or plants
  • services to Asylum Seeker groups which are inconsistent with immigration laws or Home Office policy.

For more information, visit Freshwater Foundation.