I. Beneficiaries
The Trust is being funded by a gift of £1m annually for fifteen years from BAA (Heathrow Airport Ltd). A requirement of the deed of gift is that grants shall be made for the benefit of the community in the southern part of the Borough (These are the wards of Botwell, Townfield and Pinkwell in Hayes, West Drayton, Yiewsley, and the Heathrow Villages south of the M4.)
II. Purposes for which grants may be made
The Trust can make grants for the following purposes:
- The improvement of the environment
- The provision, maintenance and improvement of public amenities including transport links
- The relief of unemployment including assistance to find employment
- The advancement of education, training or retraining
- The support of measures to prevent crime and improve community safety
- The promotion of wellbeing through the provision of assistance in the provision of recreational facilities
- Capacity building/development of local voluntary and community groups
III. Organisations to which grants can be made
The Trust can make grants to:
- Properly constituted voluntary bodies. The minimum requirements are a constitution, a governing body, an annual report and a bank account. For larger grants, above £25,000, there is a preference for applicants to be registered charities
- Corporate bodies, subject to meeting the test of the purpose of the grant being charitable. It is unlikely that a grant will be made to a corporate body other than on a matched funding basis.
The Trust is not permitted to fund political parties, political lobbying or non-charitable activities.
The Trust does not make grants:
- To individuals
- To public bodies in respect of projects that should be funded by public funds
- religious bodies except for ancillary activities which meet one of the priorities (e.g. older persons’ lunch club/improvements to a community facility owned by a religious body)
- For work on a project that has already been started
The Trust will consider applications by voluntary bodies for projects that will be partially financed by public bodies.
Where we decline an application the Trust will not consider another application for the same or similar project.
IV. Prioritising grant applications
The Trust wishes to ensure that its funding brings maximum the benefit to the community and will give priority to applications:
- which will have the greatest impact in the six wards
- for projects that encourage social cohesion and integration
- have a strong community ownership, and will be delivered by organisations based in or with a proven track record of contributing to the communities in the six wards
- bring in funds from other sources
- involve partnership and co-operation between organisations, where this is feasible
- address social need and deprivation
- help strengthen voluntary bodies and support community involvement
- are sustainable and provide a long-term legacy to the local communities
V. Size of grant
There is no maximum grant size but those applying for larger grants will understand that the larger the amount sought the more difficult it will be to obtain.
VI. Grant Programmes
A. Small grants programme
£150,000 (15%) of the Trust’s funds is normally set aside for this programme which offers grants of between £100 and £7,500. Grant applicants are asked to submit a small grants form which is considered by the Small Grants Sub-committee and the Board of Trustees.
If an organisation is seeking funding for a project involving schools within the Hillingdon Community Trust area, we will require evidence of support for the project from the schools concerned to be submitted. We normally request this at Stage 2 for main grants but for small grants we will wish the evidence to accompany the application.
VII. Core Funding
The Trust revised its policy on core funding following feedback from groups and an evaluation of the Trust’s work. The vast majority of the Trustís grants are for projects, and that grant making strategy is likely to continue. However, the Trust will generally accept that a grant application should aim to allow an organisation to meet all reasonable overheads relating to a project (e.g., a proportion of rent, salary, management costs) on a full cost recovery basis.
In addition, the Trust will consider applications for either:
- development funding (where at least some of the core costs of an organisation are met for start-up organisations or for those undergoing significant development and change) or
- strategic funding (where the Trust recognises the need for an organisation to exist in its area and is prepared to contribute for an agreed period of time)
In assessing grant applications for development or strategic funding the Trust will:
- give priority to groups based in or mainly operating in the southern six wards rather than to large charities or national organisations from outside the Trust area
- want to consider and limit the proportion of an organisations total funding it is being asked to provide. This is to reduce the risk of an organisation being over dependent on a single funder
- prioritise applications that feature collaboration or partnership between groups
- prioritise applications featuring key objectives such as community cohesion
- require a business plan to be submitted to support an application for core funding and to show how desired outcomes would be achieved
- Consider the expected outcomes from the core funding requested. Possible outcomes from core funding might be:
- That the organisation has found alternative ways of meeting its core costs
- Achieved significant and appropriate change in the way it functions and/or responds to need/the external environment
The Trust would expect to measure the success of core funding by reference to:
- improved stability of income and expenditure over the period
- improved sustainability through alternative sources of income secured
- improve quality of services
- the success of the organisation as a whole and the outcomes it has achieved through the funding.
VIII. Volunteer expenses
The Trust will consider funding for volunteer expenses for certain projects provided the expenses are reasonable. It is important to remember that funding for travel expenses from the Trust can only be used to pay for expenses actually incurred by volunteers when working for a project. So for example, the Trust’s funding can only be used for volunteer expenses in proportion to the number of days a volunteer attends a project. In some cases it may cheaper for a volunteer to buy a Travelcard or Oystercard, but the Trust will only fund the cost of that for the days the volunteer actually travels to the project. For example if a volunteer attends a project on three days a week, only 3/7ths of the cost of the Travelcard can be claimed from the Trust, not the full cost. This reflects advice from the Charity Commission and the National Council Voluntary Organisations. The Trust will not normally reimburse taxi fares incurred by volunteers.
IX. Payment of grants
Grants are normally paid when the recipient’s organisation is ready to start the project and any relevant conditions on the grant have been met. The Trust is as flexible as possible when making grant payments subject to protecting the funds for which it is responsible. Small grants may be paid in advance of expenditure being committed.
A schedule of payments for larger grants will be agreed on a case by case basis, the objective being to use arrangements that best suit the organisation to be funded. Where a grant is being used to finance the employment of someone then payments will normally be made quarterly; where fairly large grants are being used to finance capital expenditure then stage payments will be made.
X. Monitoring and evaluation requirements
The Trust will require successful grant applicants to comply with our monitoring and evaluation procedures. For small grants the Trust generally requests that a monitoring and evaluation form is completed around nine months after the grant payment has been made. For main grants, organisations are asked to provide a monitoring report on their project. For grants covering more than one year, the Board requires an interim report at the end of each year before it can approve second and subsequent year funding. More information on the Trust’s monitoring and evaluation policy, including model formats and sample reports, is available on the Trust’s website or from the Trust office.