[WiLT] Trust for London - Closing Date 25th October

[WiL Admin]

Trust for London - Closing Date 25th October

But first you need to send in a proposal - see details below.

Funding Guidelines 2007-11 Supporting London's Communities

We are not able to fund all small, new and emerging organisations that
apply to us. We will therefore fund areas of work which have one (or
more) of the following aims:
1. To challenge discrimination faced by disabled people;
2. To promote the inclusion and integration of recently established
communities;
3. To strengthen mother-tongue and supplementary schools to provide
creative educational opportunities;
4. To address new and emerging needs.

You will need to demonstrate that all the criteria below apply to your
organisation. You must:
* benefit local people and communities in London;
* be run by volunteers or have paid staff that between them work no
more than 35 hours per week. This may include full-time or part-time
staff but does not include tutors who work sessional hours e.g.
teachers at a supplementary school;
* have a high level of user involvement, including on your management
committee;
* be undertaking charitable work, though you do not have to be a
registered charity;
* have a constitution or a set of rules which governs your activities;
* be run by a group of people who may be called the trustees or the
management committee;
* have your own bank or building society account where two named
people from the trustees or management committee have to sign all the
cheques;
* be able to provide annual accounts for the last year. If your
organisation is very new, copies of your most recent bank or building
society statements will do.

In general we will support organisations which have been established
for at least a year. However, if you want to start a new organisation,
or have recently been set up, you will need to tell us about the needs
you are addressing, how you will do this, and provide evidence that
you have a number of people involved in running your organisation.

If you are a long-established organisation, you will need to
demonstrate that you are addressing new and emerging needs.

Please read these funding guidelines in full before making an
application to us. Details of how you can apply are listed on pages
12-14.
http://www.cityparochial.org.uk/tfl/15%20Grants/TfL%20Funding%20Guidelines.doc

We highly recommend you visit our website before submitting your
proposal. We update it on a regular basis, outlining any changes made
to these funding guidelines. The website www.trustforlondon.org.uk
also includes a full list of recent grants we have made.

Each year we will make grants of approximately £650,000. The majority
of this is spent on our open programme.

The maximum you can apply for is £15,000 per year, although the
average grant will be approximately £8,000 in total. We will make
grants for one, two or three years. We expect to make 50 grants each
year.

In addition, we will also make a smaller number of grants to
organisations that want to increase their staffing levels in order to
make a step change in their development. This may include making a
contribution towards the costs of a full-time post.

Grants will be made to organisations that are undertaking work in one
of our priority areas. You may need to apply to other funders to fund
your proposal jointly with us and we encourage you to do this, as we
cannot always provide the total costs of your work.

Organisations which have previously received funding may return for
support for work which is particularly effective and continues to meet
our criteria and priorities. However, you should not assume we will
award further funding and should apply to other funders. If you wish
to apply again for the same or different work, you should contact your
relevant officer at least eight months before your current funding
expires. Generally we do not provide more than one grant at a time
through our open programme.

We receive many more proposals than we are able to fund. When
assessing proposals under our open programme we will give additional
weight to those which can demonstrate the following in relation to the
work for which funding is being sought:
1. develops new and/or imaginative ways of tackling an issue;
2. finds it difficult to get support for as it is perceived as being
challenging and risky;
3. addresses new and emerging issues;
4. has strong user involvement at all levels;
5. shares best practice and learning with others;
6. is accessible and targets those who are the hardest to reach;
7. involves working jointly with others, where it is relevant;
8. can demonstrate a strong case for the need for the proposed work
and considered other organisations providing similar services;
9. has the skills and ability within the organisation to undertake the
proposed work.

You do not need to meet all the above but we will prioritise
organisations which meet a number of them.

We will assess your proposal against our criteria and priorities. At
the same time, we will look at what other proposals have been received
and what we have funded recently. We want to make sure we fund across
all our open programme areas and it is likely that for some of these
areas we will receive more proposals than others. Proposals for types
of work in geographical areas, or particular communities/beneficiaries
where we have already provided significant funds will get a lower
priority. For example, if we have funded a number of projects
supporting refugees in a particular borough, further proposals for
similar work in that borough are unlikely to be supported.

We know that we will receive a large number of proposals. Many
organisations will meet some of our criteria and priorities and we
will not be able to fund all of them. Unfortunately, we have to make
difficult choices and will have to reject many good proposals. Just
because you are not shortlisted does not necessarily mean that we do
not think you are doing good and valuable work.

How to apply

As a first step, please read these funding guidelines carefully to
check whether the work for which you are seeking support fits our
criteria and priorities. Also please make sure you read what we will
not fund, or are unlikely to support, on page 10.

If after reading these funding guidelines you are unsure about whether
your work fits our criteria and priorities you may wish to speak to
one of our staff who are here to help you. You may telephone us so
that we can discuss your proposal and give you a realistic assessment
of whether your work is something we may be interested in. We welcome
such telephone calls as it can save you time and resources.

We have a two-stage application process. We do not have application
forms. Instead, at stage one we ask you to send in a brief proposal.
If your proposal is successfully shortlisted, you move on to stage two
of the process. This involves a visit from one of our staff, after
which, assuming your application does indeed meet our requirements, we
ask you to submit a final application which is considered by our
Grants Committee. Outlined below is more information about our
assessment process.

Initially we ask you to send in a brief proposal which covers the
points outlined on pages 15-16 of the guidelines. If your proposal
does not cover these points it is less likely that it will be
shortlisted.

We do not accept proposals sent by e-mail or fax.

When we receive your proposal we will send you an acknowledgement
within ten working days of receiving it. This may be by letter or by
e-mail (if you have provided us with an e-mail address). On some
occasions we may contact you for further clarification regarding your
proposal.

Closing dates
We have three closing dates for proposals to be submitted by. They
are:
* 7 February for the June Grants Committee;
* 30 May for the October Grants Committee;
* 25 October for the February Grants Committee.

You may submit your proposal at any time but it will only be assessed
once the next closing date has passed. For example, if you submit your
proposal in January it will be considered with others received up to 7
February for the June Grants Committee meeting. If you are successful
in securing funding the whole process will take approximately four
months from the closing date for proposals to the Grants Committee
meeting.

Trust for London
6 Middle Street
London
EC1A 7PH

E-mail: trustforlondon at cityparochial.org.uk
Phone: 020 7606 6145 Fax: 020 7600 1866
Website: http://www.trustforlondon.org.uk

Posted on WiLT blog at
http://www.freecharity.org.uk/~womeninlondon/?p=149