Borough of Rochdale Fund - guidelines
Application guidelines
The Borough of Rochdale Fund aims to support local community
groups, projects or individuals throughout the borough.
Organisations or groups who would like to run projects or
activities which address any or all of the eight priority themes
listed below may be eligible to apply for a grant of between £100
and £2,000.
- Safety, including crime and disorder
- Sustainable neighbourhoods including the environment and
housing
- Prosperity, skills and jobs
- Lifelong learning including early years and schools
- Transport
- Health and well being
- Culture, sports and arts
- Community cohesion including issues of race and disability
Who can apply?
The fund is available to community groups, organisations or
individuals who seek to improve the circumstances in the borough of
Rochdale.
The key aim of this fund is to encourage and support grass-root
community activity. This means small, community-based and locally
controlled groups that manage themselves, encourage active
participation from volunteers, usually have minimal cash reserves
and limited access to funding support. The fund does
not prioritise larger, more sophisticated
organisations that have a track record of attracting funding,
particularly when such groups have a turnover of £75,000 a year.
There are many other funding opportunities available for such
groups and organisations - local Council for Voluntary Services can
provide advice and their details can be found on the website:
Community
Foundation
Amount
The maximum grant requested that will be considered is
£5,000.
Fast Track applications
Requests for grants up to £1,000 for genuine emergencies or time
critical projects can be processed within 20 working days. Please
note that this is a limited funding stream and that the Fast Track
process is in place to react swiftly to short term and time
critical emergency requests.
Help with your application
If you need advice or support to complete your application form,
please contact a member of our Grants Team who will be happy to
discuss your needs.
Please read this information carefully before completing the
application form.
What CAN and CANNOT be funded
Priority is given to projects or activities that:
- Are run by local volunteers who wish to improve the
circumstances of individuals and communities in economically /
socially excluded and / or deprived areas.
- Do not have access to a professional fund-raiser and experience
difficulty in attracting funding from other sources.
- Encourage involvement of local residents in improving,
designing, identifying and implementing community activities.
- Promote voluntary participation and social inclusion as well as
community involvement and self-help.
- Meet an emerging or immediate need and serve to build the
community's awareness.
- Do not duplicate an existing provision or service. (If the
project resembles an existing provision, the applicant will be
asked to explain why their services are needed in addition to
existing provisions or clarify how they are different.)
Who and what cannot be funded:
- Organisations and projects outside the borough of
Rochdale.
- Organisations trading for profit or intending to redistribute
grant awards.
- Major capital requests i.e. building and construction
work.
- Requests that will replace or enhance statutory provision.
- Academic or medical research and equipment.
- Overseas travel.
- Primary purpose of request is to promote religious or political
beliefs.
- Retrospective grants (projects / activities that have already
taken place).
- Projects that fall within statutory sector responsibility.
- Sponsorship or fund-raising events.
- Contribution to larger / major appeals.
- Holidays and social outgoings (except in cases of specific
disablement or proven benefit to a community group or group of
people).
- Local branches of national charities unless locally managed,
financially autonomous and not beneficiaries of national marketing
or promotion.
- More than one application at a time for the same project.
How to complete the application form
Please complete all relevant sections of the application form,
even if you are enclosing supporting or corresponding information,
as this speeds up the assessment process.
Contact details
Please give all your contact details accurately as we aim to
keep our records as complete as possible. If you are making this
application on behalf of an organisation / group, please provide
details for a second person including the contact telephone
numbers. We often try and communicate via telephone to ensure the
swift progress of your request. Having the ability to contact two
representatives from your group can help us to process your
application more effectively. (If there are certain times in the
day when it would be best to contact you, please indicate
these.)
About your group
In this section you will help us understand the structure and
purpose of your group. You can tell us what you actually do and who
is involved. You may wish to enclose leaflets and other information
that illustrate your activities, but please keep these to a
minimum.
About the project or activity
Please describe the project your group is proposing and what
exactly you are planning to do once the grant has been received. It
is also important to show how the need for the project or activity
has been identified within the respective community, that members
of that community have been involved in the process and that they
will be involved in delivering the project or activity.
Cost of the project
In this section you are asked to provide a clear idea of how
much money you need for your project or activity. Please give
as thorough a breakdown of costs as possible using the table
provided on page 4 of the application form. Should your
project or activity cost more than the maximum you can apply
for, please tell us how you plan to raise the remainder of the
funding you require.
Finances of your group
We ask you to provide a brief summary of your income and
expenditure within the application form. You will also need to
provide copies of your organisation's or group's last two bank
statements. (Should you be a new group and have no banking
arrangements in place - please indicate this on the form).
If you are successful and have no bank account in the group's
name, we will ask you to find another community group that is
willing to accept the grant into their account for you. PLEASE NOTE
THAT WE CANNOT MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO INDIVIDUALS.
Beneficiaries and timescale
We would like to know how many people are going to benefit from
your project and what age range your proposed project / activity
will cover. It is also important to indicate when the project /
activity will start.
IMPORTANT: We can only process your request once all required
information has been received. This includes details of a referee
for your application. (Should you need further advice on who can
act as a referee, please contact our Grants Team)
Monitoring form
To help us monitor our grant-making programmes effectively, we
would also ask you to complete this form and return it with your
application. The information you provide will be used for
monitoring purposes only.
Monitoring Form
What happens next?
Remember to include any supplementary information requested.
- Your application will be checked to make sure your idea or
project fits the funding criteria.
- We will contact you to confirm receipt of your application and
advise if further information is required, or we will confirm the
date that your application will be submitted to a panel.
- Following receipt of a response from your referee, your
application will be passed on to an independent panel for
consideration. The panel will decide if your request can be
funded.
- The Community Foundation Trustees must then approve any
decisions taken.
- We will contact you to advise on the panel's
decision.
- We will then issue the grant-cheque.
Please return your completed application to the address
above.