large community capital grant £10,000 – £20,000

We welcome applications from:

• Registered and exempt charities
• Community groups
• Schools
• Social enterprises
• Voluntary groups
• Community interest companies.
• Town, parish or community councils
• Faith groups/venues.

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept applications from:

• Individuals
• Party political groups
• Those whose objectives and ethos do not meet believe housing’s charitable objectives.

To help you prepare to make a large grant application please consider some of the following questions:

• What are you wanting to do, where and when will it happen and who will take part?
• How do you know there is a need for your project? Do you already have a waiting list of people or do you have more demand for your service? Have you found a gap in services for the people you support? Have people come to you asking for this support? Do you work with other organisations who will direct people towards your activity? How do you know people will access your project?
• How will you ensure at least 30% of your beneficiaries are believe customers?
• What are your project milestones? These are the key stages in your project and could be planning, marketing and publicity, purchase of resources, delivery of events, recruitment of volunteers etc.
• What are your targets? How many people will benefit from your activities? Targets should be specific and outline how often an activity takes place – for example, we will deliver weekly craft activities over 40 weeks, 25 people will attend overall with an expected average weekly attendance of 10-12 people.
• What are the outcomes of your project? These are the difference your project will make in the long term. Do your outcomes reflect our priority themes?
• What are your project costs? These should be detailed and give us an idea of how you have calculated these costs. For example, staff costs should show the hourly rate for the member of staff and the number of hours they will be working.
• What is the long-term impact of your project? If it is to continue beyond our funding period, how will this happen?
• How could believe staff volunteers support your project?

It is expected that projects would last between 6 – 12 months. Priority will be given to projects that are sustainable and have long-lasting impact.

Projects need to start within a month of receiving the first payment instalment, this can include planning time.

You need to identify any required permissions, for example, building regulations, leaseholder permission, planning permission, prior to submitting your application.

• Items that are purchased on behalf of another organisation
• Applications to develop the financial reserves of the organisation
• Ongoing running costs of an organisation
• Religious, party political or lobbying activities (non-religious and multi-faith activities that are open to all may be funded)
• Loans or debt repayments
• Projects/activities for personal profit.

A total fund of £120,000 is being made available for projects to start delivery in 2022/23. Organisations can apply for grants of between £10,000 – £20,000.

The grant allocation will be spread equally between central, east, and west areas of County Durham where believe housing have properties. Please see the locations list above for the breakdown of areas.

Once you have submitted your application, we will contact you to acknowledge receipt of this application within five working days.

Your application will then be reviewed and be part of a shortlisting process. We may contact you if any additional information is required.

If your application is shortlist, this will then go to a grant panel for a decision in June 2022.

If shortlisted, we will invite you to attend the grant panel for a 10-minute time slot – 5 minutes to talk about your project and an additional 5 minutes to answer any questions the grant panel may have regarding your application. The grant panel will take place virtually via Teams and you will be advised of your time slot one week prior to the grant panel taking place.

If shortlisted and you are unable to attend the panel, we can accept a 5-minute video about the project you are applying for.

Once a decision has been made, we will then contact you to advise you of the outcome. We aim to inform your of a decision within eight weeks of the grant closing date.

You may be asked to provide additional information prior to a final decision being made.

If your application is successful, we will contact you to agree the payment schedule and reporting dates. You will need to provide us with:

• a copy of the organisation’s bank statement dated within the last 3 months
• relevant paying in bank details (Name of bank, account name, sort code, account number and business address)
• policies and procedures that will support your project. For example; safeguarding, equality and diversity, health and safety etc
• a copy of your constitution or relevant document.

We may also request quotes for items over £5,000.

Once initial checks have been carried out, you will then receive an agreement letter which is a contract between your organisation and believe housing for the project delivery. We will also discuss the details of publicity and quarterly reporting requirements, these include:

• evidence that the purpose for which the grant was awarded was achieved including a written update detailing progress against targets, milestones and outcomes. It should also include case studies and photos where possible
• records of attendance
• data from participant surveys (the details of the survey will be agreed at your start-up meeting)
• a detailed statement of expenditure including receipts and/or evidence of spend e.g. invoices or staff wages claim form.

Grant funding will be paid via BACS in instalments.

If believe housing agree to award a grant to help fund your project or activity, then you will be required to agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. believe housing’s liability shall be to make a payment of the grant to the organisation in accordance with the Payment Terms, subject to the organisation fulfilling its obligations under these Terms and Conditions. All other liabilities or claims are the responsibility of the organisation receiving the grant.
2. All grant funded projects/activities must be carried out under the complete control of the organisation awarded grant funding.
3. The signatory of this acceptance letter will have delegated financial power to accept money into the organisation detailed above and can authorise or request payments on behalf of this organisation.
4. Organisations must have an up-to-date constitution or similar documentation and their own bank account, with at least two unrelated signatories. Proof of bank details and a copy of the constitution is required before funding can be released.
5. It is the applicant’s responsibility to make sure all required insurance and permissions are in place for any projects awarded.
6. In using the grant your organisation should at all times:
   1. conform to the principles of inclusion and must comply with equalities legislation;
   2. ensure it has and complies with any necessary safeguarding policies and procedures;
   3. comply with all necessary health and safety obligations;
   4. have in place sufficient insurance to protect it against any risks which can be insured against; and
   5. comply with all appropriate laws and regulations.
7. Projects should demonstrate that appropriate child and adult protection policies are in place together with any necessary health and safety arrangements. If the project involves work with children, young people or vulnerable adults (‘vulnerable people’), you will take all reasonable steps to ensure their safety.
8. The grant is allocated for this project/activity only and the grant must be spent only on the purpose for which it was allocated unless believe housing agree in writing that it may be used for another project/activity. Where grant money is spent on another purpose without believe housing’s consent then the full amount will become immediately repayable to believe housing. The grant shall not be spent to meet liabilities it has incurred before the date this letter is signed and returned to believe housing.
9. The organisation will deposit the grant in an interest-bearing account and keep a detailed record and official proof of all transactions relating to that account, which will be provided to believe housing on a quarterly basis.
10. The organisation will provide believe housing, within 5 days of the date of this agreement, with bank account details to enable a BACS transfer to take place in accordance with the payment timescales detailed in the Schedule, except where you have forwarded this information to us in advance.
11. The grant is the total amount payable and no further funds will be available. Organisations must ensure that the project/activity can be completed within budget.
12. Monies must be spent within a period which does not exceed 12 months from the date of approval.
13. If actual project costs incurred are less than the grant awarded, the surplus will be repaid to believe housing.
14. The organisation will, at any time, if requested:
    1. provide information or copies of financial records as may be required by believe housing.
    2. make projects/activities delivered/developed available for inspection.
15. The accounting arrangements/transactions will be subject to audit scrutiny by believe housing.
16. If you have to raise funds from another source to enable your project’s success, you will need to show how you intend to do this. If match funding is not secured, we will contact you for further information. If you are successful in applying for community investment funding where match funding is essential, believe housing will not release any funds until confirmation is received from the alternative funder.
17. Applications for retrospective funding will not be considered.
18. The organisation shall commence the project/activity within an agreed time frame, no later than 1 month of receiving the grant payment, or where the grant is paid in instalments the first part payment. If the project/activity is delayed for any reason you must write to us to request an extension and agree this in writing with the Community Investment Co-ordinator.
19. The organisation will achieve the milestones detailed in their application form.
20. The organisation will achieve the targets detailed in their application form.
21. During the project the organisation will provide quarterly reports and an end of project report to include:
    1. evidence that the purpose for which the grant was awarded was achieved, including a written update detailing progress against targets, milestones and outcomes. It should also include case studies and photos where possible.
    2. records of attendance.
    3. data from participant surveys (the details of the survey will be agreed at your start-up meeting).
    4. a detailed statement of expenditure including receipts and/or evidence of spend e.g. invoices or staff wages claim form.
22. If set reporting dates and requirements are not adhered to, we may delay further scheduled payments and/or request that funding is repaid to believe housing unless agreements have been put in place prior to the reporting deadline.
23. We appreciate the need for flexibility within projects in order to achieve the desired outcomes, therefore we will consider reasonable requests to adjust the timescales and proposed activities where possible. Any requests to change the project, including changes of personnel, must be agreed in writing with your Community Investment Co-ordinator.
24. Groups with successful grant applications will be required to consent to any publicity and marketing that believe housing may require. This may include, but is not limited to, press and online activities of both funds being awarded and the outcomes of approved projects. Should you carry out future promotion of the outcomes of your grant application, you must reference believe housing (using relevant brand guidelines and logo(s) where required), with approval via the Community Investment Co-ordinator.
25. Any organisation receiving a grant will acknowledge the support of believe housing in all publicity material and will liaise with believe housing’s Marketing and Communications Team to obtain their advance agreement to publicity proposed.
26. If a project is turned down for funding the decision is final and there is no appeals process.
27. We will use the information you give us during the application process and during the lifetime of any funding for administration, analysis and research purposes. We recognise the need to maintain the confidentiality of vulnerable groups and their details will not be made public in any way, except as required by law. The management of all personal information you collect will meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018.
28. It may sometimes be appropriate to add additional conditions to an individual grant to take account of particular circumstances. These will be included in the grant offer letter. Any additional conditions will be agreed by both believe housing and the applicant before the award of a grant.
29. If an organisation does not meet the terms and conditions of the grant they will be unable to apply for further funding.

match funding

Our grant may be used in conjunction with other funding sources e.g. Lottery funding, Prince’s Trust, etc. If you have to raise funds from another source, you will need to show how you intend to do this. If match funding is not secured, we will contact you for further information.

If you are successful in applying for a believe housing grant where match funding is essential to the success of a project, the believe house grant fund will not be released until match funding is confirmed in writing by the other funder. We must be notified of any changes to match funding. The Large Community Capital Grant may not be used to enable fundraising for another organisation or body.

safeguarding

If you are working with vulnerable adults or children, it is your responsibility to have appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures in place. We may ask to see these. If you are working in partnership with other organisations, it is your responsibility to ensure they also have appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures in place.

governing documents

A governing document sets out in writing how your organisation operates, what your organisation is set up to do and how it does it. It can be a constitution, memorandum and articles of association, set of rules or trust deed.

Schools, health bodies and town or parish councils are statutory bodies, while charities (both registered and exempt) and companies are regulated, so we do not need to see their governing documents. However, we need to check all other organisations’ governing documents to make sure we wish to fund them.

All governing documents must be completed correctly and be up to date. Organisations applying for the grant must have an up-to-date constitution and their own bank account, with at least two unrelated signatories. Proof of bank details and a copy of the constitution will need to be provided if applicable.

publicity 

Groups with successful grant applications will be required to agree to any publicity and marketing that believe housing may require. This may include things like press and online activities giving details of grants given and outcomes achieved. Should you carry out future promotion of the outcomes of your grant application, you must liaise with believe housing giving us, where possible, at least two weeks’ notice before the date the publication or promotion is to go ‘live’. 

data protection

believe housing is a data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and we seek to take care of the personal information you provide and deal with it in accordance with the Act. Your personal information will only be used by us so we can consider and process your application and any funding awarded. It will not be shared with other organisations unless we are required by law to do so. To find out how we process your personal information please read our privacy notice.

Any group who has received our £500 or £1,000 community grant will still be eligible to apply for our large community capital grant within the same financial year.

If your application is approved for funding, you will be asked to sign a contractual agreement between your organisation and believe housing.