Deadline: 31-May-22
The Freshwater Foundation’s Grant Program is now open to support voluntary and community groups in Ealing and Hounslow.
The Foundation gives financial grants to suitable groups in Ealing and Hounslow to fund their charitable projects and initiatives.
The Foundation also give free training and advice on the managerial and legal aspects of charities, build partnerships between groups and act as a research hub for topics of interest to small charities and community groups.
Project
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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. The 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 was 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 to 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 organization. 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 been gained.
Funding Information
- Both the organization 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 £20,000 or less.
Eligibility Criteria
- Are you a voluntary or community organization engaging in charitable work? This does not necessarily mean having charitable status, but the project you want to be funded must be considered charitable according to the charitable purposes set out in law.
- Is the proposed spending for development or infrastructure?
- 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 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.
- 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 project and your organization must have strong links to one or another of those boroughs.
- Is the amount required under £2000? Sorry, but they will not fund amounts above this non-negotiable limit.
- 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 than 50% of the project expenditure will be on salaries or fees.
- They’re looking for organizations that have an annual income of around £50,000 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. Please get in touch to discuss further if you exceed the £50,000 limit but believe yourself to be a small group.
- At The Freshwater Foundation, they are very keen to help groups to set themselves up for the long term. For these groups, they can give continued support and in this case, the grant could be used to fund initial day-to-day costs.
- They are committed to maintaining the highest standards in public life, so will only consider organizations 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 organizations where there appears to be an 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 judgment about a group’s financial probity).
For more information, visit Freshwater Foundation.
For more information, visit http://freshwaterfoundation.org.uk/grant-applications/