Deadline: 16-Oct-22
The Freshwater Foundation’s Grant Program is now open for applications to support voluntary and community groups in Ealing and Hounslow.
The Freshwater Foundation give financial grants to suitable groups in Ealing and Hounslow to fund their charitable projects and initiatives. Beyond this, they 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.
The Freshwater Foundation is committed at 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).
Funding Information
- Grant Amount: £2000.
- They will not fund amounts above this non-negotiable limit.
Eligible Projects
Depending on the nature of the individual project, this agreement could include undertakings to:
- Use the grant solely for the purposes laid out in the grant application (in all cases).
- Make best efforts to spend the funds by a particular date and to inform them of any significant delays.
- Inform them when the monies have been spent and to furnish them with copies of any relevant invoices and receipts. (in all cases)
- Agree to a visit by their representative to inspect any work carried out and/or to discuss with those benefitting from the project their experiences of it, shortly after its completion. (in all cases)
- Allow their representative to make a further later visit to discuss with organisation staff and any beneficiaries of the project the impact of the project and whether it has met expectations once its effects have had time to be felt.
- Furnish them with any information regarding any measurable aspects of the project’s impact.
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)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 £25,000 or less. They’re looking for organisations 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 nonetheless 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 are able to give continued support and in this case, the grant could be used to fund initial day-to-day costs.
Ineligible
- 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 The Freshwater Foundation.
For more information, visit http://freshwaterfoundation.org.uk/grant-applications/