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Councillor Community Grants funding

Councillor Community Grants funding

The deadline for applications to this year’s scheme has been extended to 28 February 2023. Please ensure you send your application and supporting documents to the relevant councillor in time for them to review and submit by this date.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Councillor Community Grant scheme has been introduced to provide flexible funding for small-scale, local initiatives that will make a difference to people’s lives and help bring communities together.

What is the Councillor Community Grant Scheme?

The Councillor Community Grant scheme provides flexible funding for purchases of physical items (and any costs associated with their installation or set-up) that will make a difference to people’s lives and help bring communities together. It is open to a wide variety of organisations that are active in their local communities.

Our priorities for this scheme link to the Council Plan and particularly aim to support small, local projects which:

Strengthen communities.
Protect and enhance our environment.
Improve safety.
Plan for the future.

It is your opportunity to explain your ambitions to your borough councillor(s) and show how they meet both council priorities and identified local need.

Each borough councillor will have £2,000 per year to allocate in single grants of between £250 and £1,000. You cannot apply for more than £1,000 but individual councillors in the same ward may combine part of their allocations to provide a grant up to the maximum limit of £1,000. You can apply for a maximum of one grant per financial year (April to March). We would encourage applicants to speak with their nominated funding councillor before making an application to discuss whether they would support the funding in principle.

All applications, complete with supporting documentation, must be submitted by the relevant councillor/s to grants@basingstoke.gov.uk by 28 February 2023. (Deadline extended from original date of 27 January 2023.)

Who can apply?

Any not-for-profit organisation that represents or works with a specific community or group of people within a Basingstoke and Deane ward can apply. It will need its own bank account in the organisation’s name and be able to demonstrate that it is an organised group with stated objectives that are for the benefit of the community and has an agreed way of working. This could be demonstrated by a constitution, statement of purpose, annual report, notes from meetings, information on your website or other organisational documentation. This documentation should be recent (or recently reviewed).

This includes:

Voluntary or community groups that represent a specific location or group of people.
Not-for-profit organisations such as registered charities, CIOs, CICs, uniformed youth groups and community benefit societies.
Schools and churches providing there is a wider community benefit not limited to the student body or congregation.
Town or Parish Councils, providing the project is not part of their core service.

You cannot apply for these grants if you are an individual, for-profit-organisation, political party or organisation formed to campaign on a single issue.

Please note that the grants are discretionary, and subject to the availability of funds. Being an eligible organisation does not give any automatic entitlement to a grant.

What can you apply for?

You must use the grant for the purchase of physical objects and any costs associated with the initial installation of the item/s purchased. The money cannot be used to cover such things as staffing, travel, maintenance, running costs or events and any future maintenance will be the responsibility of the organisation.

We will not reimburse any money that was spent before the grant was awarded.

You can apply for between £250 and £1,000 and this must be sufficient to cover the full cost of the item/s unless you can show that you have other funds in place to cover the difference. We will not accept applications for contributions towards a larger fundraising total.

As part of the application process, applicants will need to provide quotes to evidence costs that are of a reasonable value. These will be held digitally along with all documentation submitted. The funded item/s must benefit those who live within a specific ward in Basingstoke and Deane and councillors from different wards cannot combine their allocations.
You must ensure that any necessary permissions related to the purchase, installation, use and storage of the item/s are obtained to carry out the funded work including such things as planning consents, or landowner’s approval. These must be in writing and submitted with the application form.
You must be able to maintain the funded item/s without relying on future grants.

You must acknowledge the council’s support if a grant is provided and we will tell you how to do this.

We don’t want to be prescriptive about what the grants can be used for, as there are likely to be many different ideas, but we would expect to fund things like purchasing tools or equipment for community groups, health and wellbeing activities, lunch clubs or play groups. We will also ask you to consider how a wide range of groups, including minority and marginalised groups, may benefit.

How do you apply?

1. Check that your proposal meets the criteria above and that you are eligible to apply.

2. Get confirmed costs to support the amount of grant you are requesting. This can be a quote from a supplier or a cost taken from a website or catalogue, but make sure you include any VAT payable and associated costs such as delivery or installation.

3. Contact one of your local councillors to explain your idea and find out whether they think it is appropriate for funding and if they have sufficient budget to support your request.

You can check the different ward areas on the council’s website: Ward and Parish boundaries (basingstoke.gov.uk).
You can find all the relevant contact details for ward councillors Find Councillor - Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council

If all councillors have already allocated all of their annual allocation, you will be asked to apply again the next financial year.

4. If the councillor agrees to support your request, complete the blue sections (1-5) of the application form and confirm your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions and send it to them for approval with the relevant supporting documentation.

5. Your councillor will let you know if they are happy with your application, in which case they will send it on to council officers to process, or if they have questions they would like you to answer.

6. You will be notified when your application has been received by officers and told when a decision will be made, which should be within twelve weeks. You will be asked at this stage to provide any other documentation relevant to your application (for example permissions).

What happens if a grant is awarded?

You will be notified by email if a grant is awarded. You will need to accept the terms and conditions as set out in the Grant Agreement attached to the email and you will have eight weeks to purchase the item/s and submit proof of payment for reimbursement. Payment will be made direct into your organisation’s bank account after you have accepted the terms and conditions of the award and submitted your proof of purchase.

Once the grant funds have been paid. You will have up to two months to report back to us on the impact or difference the item/s has made, using a form we will provide. We will ask to see photos of the purchased item/s in place/use and confirmation that council support has been acknowledged.

We expect our grant funded partners to be open and inclusive to all people within their communities. The grant funded items should reflect this and we welcome applications to support different members of the community including children and young people, families, older people, members of the LGBT+ community, refugees and asylum seekers, communities experiencing racial inequity and disabled people. Please consider this this when providing your monitoring feedback and explain how you target and engage with the wider community to ensure maximum benefit of your grant funded item.

All grants awarded will be published on the council’s website.