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Grassroots Grants

“Grassroots Grants is making it easy for small community groups to get the funding they need for their local projects” Darien Parkes, Director

Background Information

The Grassroots Grants programme is funded by the Office of the Third Sector and delivered into Gloucestershire by the Gloucestershire Community Foundation. This programme will run until March 2011; however it is anticipated that grant making will cease in December 2010.
Grants of between £250.00 and £5000.00 are available to small groups to help respond to the diverse needs of communities and should therefore be used to fund a wide range of activities, some of which are listed below as examples.
The Foundation aims to make the application process as easy and as simple as possible. A Grassroots Information Sheet and Application Guidelines have been produced to assist applicants.

Who can apply? - summary of key eligibility issues:

You must have been active in your local community for at least 12 months and be able to evidence this.
You do not need to be a registered charity, you can be a community group without charitable status, but you must be of charitable purpose and ‘not for profit’.
If you are operating under an umbrella organisation, you need to be able to demonstrate your independent decision-making (ie have your own management committee) and financial management; you should have your own set of rules or constitution, and your own bank/building society account.
You must be volunteer led or with a large volunteer input.
You must also have evidence of income of LESS than £30,000 per annum, taken as an average over the last three financial years, or over the life of your organisation, if it is less than three years.
You must be connected with and/or meeting the needs of the community.
You must be able to start spending any grant you are awarded within six months of the offer being confirmed to you; preferably grants should be spent within the same financial year (ie before 31 March).

What you may apply for – some examples of what you CAN apply for:-

full cost recovery for your project or activity
the purchase of equipment like a computer, oven or furniture
the costs of putting on a local event or workshops
staff costs to enable the employment of individuals
contribution to rent costs (related to activity or service delivery)
the costs of attending a seminar, conference or event
costs of training for volunteers
costs of additional activities to expand an existing funded project, your project doesn’t have to be a new one
costs of activities that support community activity
costs of activities that meet an identified need in the local community
funding to support your organisation to achieve a quality or other standard relevant to your activities
Grants can be given to faith groups, whilst not allowing grants to be used for proselytism (religious evangelism or active recruitment to faith).

What grassroots will not fund:-

Statutory organisations such as Councils, Schools, Police Force.
Regional or local offices of a National Organisation.
Arms length public sector organisation eg. Primary Care Trusts
Commercial ventures
Organisations that are for the primary benefit of animals or plants.
Organisations working primarily outside of Gloucestershire
If you are in receipt of a Grassroots Grant from another funder, you are not permitted to apply for a further grant from this Foundation, if this would mean that the total Grassroots funding applied for would exceed £5000.

In addition to the above organisational restrictions, please note that you may not apply for a grant if you intend to use the money for certain activities:-

To promote religious belief;
You may not receive a grant which you then pass to another group to spend;
There are some restrictions on the type of activities that can be supported for Asylum Seeker groups.

When can we apply?

The programme has a fast track assessment process that begins with complete applications reaching the Foundation’s office by 12.00 noon on the second Wednesday of each month. A decision will be made within 2 weeks of this date.

Please note! There will be NO Grassroots Panel meetings held in February, June or October 2010. Applications received will be put back to the subsequent Panel meeting.

How much can we apply for?

Grants of between £250.00 and £5000.00 are available. You can make a single application or apply for separate grants but you cannot apply for more than £5000 in total.

Can we get advice?

If you would like to receive the Grassroots Information Sheet, Guidelines and an application form, or if you would like to discuss any idea or project please contact:
Jane Jarman 01452 656386
or email: jane.jarman@edf-energy.com

Please note – documents cannot be downloaded from this website.

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