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Guidance

Community Grants Policy

This policy sets out our priorities and approach for the funding of our local Not-For-Profit (NFP) organisations through grants.  The Horsham District Council (HDC) recognises the contribution that the local NFP makes both towards the quality of life of local people and in ensuring that all members of the community have a voice.

This policy aims to ensure best use of the limited funding available to support the work of the NFP to deliver high quality outcomes for Horsham residents, through a fair and transparent process.

The purpose of financial support is to:

  • Enable engagement between NFP organisations and Horsham District Council on a wide range of activities which promote community and wellbeing in Horsham district.
  • Reach the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our communities to enable them to access the support and services they need.
  • Invest in local organisations that are able to provide high quality services and to make a significant contribution to well-functioning and cohesive communities.

Our priorities

This funding policy is underpinned by the HDC’s overall Corporate Priorities, which are articulated below:

Horsham District Council Plan Priorities 2023-2027

1. Help people through the cost-of-living crisis.
2. Better understand the needs of our whole community to deliver services that support people to live long, active lives.
3. Improve access to affordable housing and community services.
4. Build closer ties with all our housing partners.
5. Improve vulnerable residents’ access to benefits.
6. Work with partners to ensure our District continues to be a safe place to live and work.
7. Create safe spaces for our children to grow and play.
8. Invest in local arts and leisure and foster civic pride.
9. Improve access to sports for under-represented groups.

Eligibility

  • The organisation must be based in Horsham District or provide activities that benefit users that make up at least 80% of Horsham District residents.
  • The applying organisation must be a local voluntary, community or not-for-profit organisation.
  • The organisation is properly constituted with its own bank account, with at least two unrelated signatories.
  • Projects must not unfairly exclude individuals from participation.
  • Annual subscriptions, joining fees and session charges should be affordable to all.
  • Horsham District Council will not support projects that promote specific political or religious views.
  • Organisations must have the necessary policies in place including a safeguarding policy for children, young people and vulnerable adults, equal opportunities, insurance and health and safety where appropriate.

Assessment criteria

Applicants should show the following:

  • Evidence of financial need
  • Evidence of need and/or support from the community
  • How the project may add to the quality of the participants lives

Financial viability:

We will assess project costs to establish they are realistic and value for money.

Monitoring and Evaluation

All successful applicants of a Community Grant will need to complete a report at the end of the project to demonstrate the work that was achieved, using our Monitoring and Evaluation Template.

Read this information before you start your application. 

You will need to complete the application in one go, you will be unable to save/exit.

You will need to have the following information to hand:

Information about your organisation, for example:

  • Charity number (company registration number if a company)
  • Names and contact details of bank account signatories.
  • How many people involved in organisation.
  • Membership of any national body or institution
  • Details of the project or works.

What supporting documents do you need with your application?

You will need to provide information to accompany your application form, depending on the category of project you are applying for and your organisation type.

All applicants will need to provide the following:

  • Constitution or set of rules.
  • Last two years' annual accounts or statement of income and expenditure
  • Recent original bank statement from any current and investment account
  • Equal Opportunities Policy
  • Safeguarding Policy (if applicable)
  • Vulnerable Adults Policy (if applicable).

In addition to the above:

If the project involves professional services and/or the purchase of a single item of equipment above £500, then two quotes are required.

Who can apply?

You can apply if:

You meet our minimum standards, see below.

  • The grant will be of direct benefit to the residents of Horsham District.
  • You are properly formed and have a governing document, a constitution or a company registration, with a bank account and financial records (or financial projections if newly formed).
  • Your organisation and/or services are open to all, and you have an equal opportunities policy.
  • Your project meets at least one of our priority areas.
  • The number of awards that each organisation can receive is limited to one application in each financial year (excluding the Lottery grant).
  • The project/work is capable of completion within 12 months of the date of the grant.
  • You agree to complete the monitoring/evaluation report within one month of the project end. (please note that if the report is not returned satisfactorily then subsequent awards will not be made).

What we will not fund

  • Loan re-payments
  • Individuals
  • Private organisations operating as a business to make a profit or surplus. Please see our Business Funding Page https://www.horsham.gov.uk/business/business-funding).
  • Local groups and organisations whose fundraising are sent to their Headquarters for distribution to other areas.
  • Education, health or social service activities, where central government, the health authority or county council are the most appropriate funder.
  • Projects that have started or finished.
  • Retrospectively, for goods or services procured prior to receipt of a grant offer.
  • Organisations holding more than 12 months’ unrestricted reserves.
  • Projects that do not demonstrate sustainability over the medium term.

Minimum standards

Horsham District Council will only award your group a grant if you meet our minimum standards.

Our minimum standards cover three areas:

  1. Governance
  2. Finances
  3. Safeguarding

We do not want to turn down your application because your group does not meet our standards. So, under each of these three headings we tell you what we expect of your group.

Getting help

You might be reading this as someone just setting up a new group, or you may be part of an established group and you are not sure if you will meet our standards. In either case, then please call us to discuss.

Governance

Who runs your group and how they run it are important. There are many ways to run your group well, but your approach must be appropriate for the work you do. The governance section https://www.ncvo.org.uk/help-and-guidance/governance of the NCVO website provides more information.

When you make an application, we ask you to send us your governing document. You might call this your rules, constitution, or your memorandum and articles of association. This document needs to show us how your group is run.

If we do not think you are governed in an appropriate way, then we will not give you any money. Instead, we will give you some suggestions to improve your governance arrangements.

Governance that’s right for you.

How you are run will depend on what you do. We are happy to look at applications from different types of groups, and it does not matter if you have just been set up or if you have been around for many years.

This means you can usually apply if you work or volunteer for a:

  • community group
  • registered charity
  • community amateur sports club
  • social enterprise
  • faith-based organisation
  • community benefit society
  • local statutory organisation, like a parish council or school.

Whatever type of group you are, your governance document must:

  • outline appropriate charitable aims that cover the work you are asking us to fund and make it clear that what you do is inclusive of everyone in your community.
  • include a clear not-for-profit statement that explains that all income is used to achieve your own charitable aims and not distributed to other groups.
  • state that your group is run by a governing body of at least three unrelated people, and that most of them will be unpaid.
  • include a dissolution clause that explains what happens to any money that is left if your group has to close.

Notes for community groups.

Community groups are unincorporated associations that have charitable aims that benefit their wider community. Your community group must:

  • register with the Charity Commission if its income is regularly over £5,000 per year (you can find more guidance about that here: https://www.gov.uk/setting-up-charity/register-your-charity
  • not enter into contracts or own property in its own right, as it’s not recognised as a legal entity. This means it must be done in the names of the individual trustees, which makes them personally liable.

Notes for social enterprises.

Many social enterprises are registered with Companies House as a Community Interest Company (CIC), or sometimes a company limited by guarantee.

If your group is set up in this way, then we apply some additional standards. These standards are to ensure that you meet the ‘community interest test’. This test requires CICs to act in a way that a reasonable person might consider that their activities are being carried on for the benefit of the community.

Your social enterprise must:

  • be limited by guarantee, and not shares.
  • not have any persons of significant control.
  • primarily be trading, and not relying entirely on grants.
  • include an asset lock that benefits a similar local cause.
  • pay its directors a reasonable salary for the work they do.

Notes for faith-based groups.

We are happy to consider applications from faith-based groups, but we cannot fund the practice or promotion of religion.

This is because these activities could exclude people from taking part in what you want us to pay for. In other words, you cannot use the Council’s funding for worship or try to convert people to your religion.

Applications from faith-based groups must benefit your whole community. For this to happen, they must be open to people of all faiths and to those of no faith. We expect you to make this clear on your website and promotional materials that relate to the project you are asking us to fund. For some groups, this may include making a statement about diversity and inclusion. You can read about our approach to diversity, equity and inclusion here.

https://www.horsham.gov.uk/council-democracy-and-elections/equality-diversity-and-inclusion

If it is not clear to us that the project you are seeking funding for is open to everyone in your community, then we will not be able to award you any funding. This includes repairs to places of worship where there is no clear evidence that they are used regularly by the wider community.

Notes for statutory organisations.

We are happy to consider applications from statutory organisations, such as parish councils and schools, but we cannot fund statutory duties-for example:

  • educational activities for pupils that take place during the school day.
  • school facilities, classroom equipment or teacher training.

Finance

As you are asking us for a grant, we want to understand how your group manages its money.

When you apply, we ask you to send us a bank statement for your group, and your most recent accounts or financial record. We use your bank statement to check your payment details and to do anti-fraud checks, and you can redact individual transactions if you prefer. We use your accounts to understand how much money your group runs on, how much it spends, and how much money you have in reserve.

If your group has more than 12-months running costs in free reserves then we will not give you a grant, unless you have a reserve policy in your accounts that provides a good reason for doing so. When we talk about free reserves, we mean the unrestricted and undesignated funds available to your group. This does not include funds that are not available for spending such as assets tied up in property.

Likewise, if we think your group will need to close down during the period you want to spend a grant then we may not be able to support you.

Finance that’s right for you.

How you prepare your accounts will depend on what type of group you are and how much money you run on.

As a minimum, your accounts must:

  • be no more than 18 months old.
  • show your total income and expenditure for the year.
  • show how much money you held at the end of the year, and whether that money is restricted or not.

And your bank statement must:

  • be in the name of your group.
  • show the account name, number and sort code.
  • in addition, your bank account should require two unrelated signatories to process payments.

Some groups may need to provide extra information, but the above list is the minimum we would expect to see from every group that applies to us.

Safeguarding

Keeping people safe is essential.

When you ask us for funding, we ask you to provide us with your safeguarding policy and procedure. These may be separate documents, or you may have combined them. Whatever format you use, we need to see how you recognise, address, record and refer safeguarding concerns.

If we are not convinced that you have thought about your safeguarding responsibilities, then funding will be withheld. Instead, we will give you some suggestions to improve your safeguarding arrangements.

Safeguarding that is right for you.

What you include in your safeguarding documents will depend on what your group does.

As a minimum, your safeguarding documents must:

  • be in the name of your group, and not that of a partner or parent organisation. If you use documents provided by a parent body, like a national association you belong to, then we need to understand how you use it within your group. For example, we still need to see who your safeguarding lead is.
  • outline the definitions you use for terms like ‘abuse’ and ‘neglect’.
  • include clear steps to take in the event of an incident or concern.
  • name a designated safeguarding lead who understands how to handle and report a concern, and how to get hold of them.
  • describe what training staff, volunteers and trustees receive and how often.
  • explain what background checks you do on people who work with children or vulnerable adults.
  • give the date of when you adopted it and when you will next review it.

Some groups may need to provide extra information, but the above list is the minimum we would expect to see from every group that applies to us. Please remember, if you use a model policy, then we need to see that your group has adopted it for local use.

What happens when we receive your application?

After receipt of application

On receipt, we will check that your application is eligible, and you have supplied all the necessary supporting information. We will then look to see:

  • How your group is set up and managed – by looking at your constitution
  • The financial need for support from the HDC and how your group’s finances are managed by looking at your accounts and financial information.
  • If there is strong evidence of need/demand for your project/activity
  • Who will benefit from the project you are running.
  • Whether your organisation has a good understanding of Equal Opportunities
  • How your project/activity contributes to the HDC’s Priorities.
  • What the expected outcomes and impact of your project/activity are.
  • How the project will be measured and evaluated
  • Whether the project represents good value-for-money, and that the amount of grant requested is relative to the proposed benefits.
  • Whether the project will directly benefit the residents of Horsham District
  • Whether the group has sought and secured other sources of funding
  • Whether the group is best placed to deliver the project, or will it duplicate the work of others.
  • Whether the group is working with, or linking to, other organisations.
  • Whether the group is known to the HDC and has a good track record of work

What happens next?

Your application will then be considered by a panel of Horsham District Council Officers. This step of the process can take several weeks.

If you are successful then you will need to send us an invoice, on headed paper with a unique invoice number. By sending us an invoice you are agreeing to our Grants Programme Policy and must adhere to it.

If you have not received money from us before then we will also need to set you up on our system with a one-time New Suppliers Form.

Your application will then be considered by a panel of Horsham District Council officers. This step of the process can take several weeks.

Logo, branding and recognition

By acknowledging Horsham District Council, you help us raise awareness of our work, generate interest in the need in our local communities, and encourage more support and funding for your group and others like it.

Horsham District Council’s logo should be on your website and used in all publicity about your funded project, including press releases, social media, leaflets, flyers and brochures, annual reports and films.

When using our logo, please follow our branding guidelines.

Social media

We encourage you to talk about our support on social media by using mentions, profile links and hashtags in your posts. You can find us on: