A presentation given by Judith Leigh, Grants Director at Trusthouse Charitable Foundation at NICVA's GrantNet Funding Conference in September 2017.

1. A Funding Workshop
Judith Leigh, Grants Director, Trusthouse Charitable Foundation

2.  There was a problem
 Someone had a good idea how to help
 They told some other people
 They set up a project
 The project helped people
 There was only one problem left…
 …everything cost money.

4.  Chapter 1: Setting the scene
 Chapter 2: The story so far
 Chapter 3: The plot thickens
 Chapter 4: The price to be paid
 Chapter 5: The happy ending and the
alternative ending
 The Sequel

5.  If writing is really not your strong point, how
about asking for help from:
◦ Current clients
◦ Volunteers
◦ The community and other community groups
◦ Local schools or colleges

6.  Find out about your funder
◦ What’s their story?
◦ What do they fund?
◦ Do you fit?
◦ What sort of applications do they like?
◦ Use all the guidance they provide

7.  About Trusthouse
◦ Our story
◦ Our priorities
 Urban Deprivation
 Rural Issues
 Community Support
 Arts Education Heritage
 Disability & Healthcare
◦ Our programmes
 Small Grants (£1,000 to £6,000): income under £100,000
 Standard Grants (£6,001 to £12,000): income under £500,000
 Large Grants (£10,000 to £50,000): capital projects under £1M for
organisations with an income under £5M). Includes village halls and
community centres
◦ Our guidance
 Guidelines
 Giving Your Application the Best Chance
 Annual Report

8.  “The charitable purposes… are such general charitable
purposes in accordance with the laws of England and Wales
as the Trustees shall in their absolute discretion from time
to time determine.”
 “You Can Community Club works with 10-25 year olds in
Salford, most of whom have a physical and/or learning
disability, and who may be in living in care and face social
isolation. The charity uses projects in Sports, Arts, Outdoor
Pursuits, Media and Educational Workshops to help
develop the personal, social and emotional wellbeing of
their members. These activities are delivered through a
range of youth clubs, school holiday trips and residential
stays.”

9. Exercise 1
 Introduce your group to your neighbour
 Your neighbour will introduce you to the
session

10.  Aim
◦ Summing up in a sentence
 Methods
◦ Most detail needed
◦ Concentrate on practical aspects: how, when, where
 Ask an outsider…
◦ Can someone not connected with your group
understand what you do from your description?

11.  Putting your work in its local context
 UK wide funders will probably not have been
there
 Statistics are useful but don’t tell the whole
picture
◦ Use the ‘right’ statistics
 Adding layers of practical detail
 Make it personal
 Working with a specific group

12.  Northern Ireland:
www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/public/home.aspx.
 Enter your postcode in the ‘Enter Postcode to
View Area Profile’ box at the top of the Home
page.
 Select the Ward tab, then the Deprivation tab.
The Multiple Deprivation Measure gives you your
ward rank: 1 is the most deprived and 582 the
least.
 For urban projects, your ward should be ranked
under 120, and for rural projects under 290.

14. Exercise 2
 Describe your area to your neighbour
or
 What ONE word describes your area?
 Talking Point: urban and rural areas in N
Ireland

15.  Haldane Youth Services
 Haldane is a housing estate built on the east side of the River Leven on the outskirts of Balloch and
Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, 18 miles west of Glasgow. To the north and northwest is Loch
Lomond National Park. Haldane is the last large council housing estate between West Dunbartonshire
and Stirling, 30 miles away.
 First houses within the estate were erected during the 1950s to help accommodate the influx of
families that arrived due to the relocation of many light engineering firms into the Vale of Leven area.
As time progressed and the demand for social housing increased, the building of semi-detached and
terraced housing was replaced by 3 storeys high, 6 in a block tenement type housing causing a
population increase within the estate. During the early 1990s much of the estate fell into disrepair,
properties became vacant and some of the local youth with nowhere to go at night, started using these
vacant properties for themselves for drinking, drug taking and other anti-social activities. Haldane was
no longer an area that became a desirable residence. The Co-op market within the estate closed, the
only leisure facility available became a target for vandalism and was eventually closed down.
Unemployment rose within the community and apathy reigned. Haldane was becoming a community
that local residents feared walking around after dark and one that local government regularly shunned.
 During 1996, a young schoolgirl was killed in a house fire. Her family lived within one of these
tenement type flats. The fire was caused by a chip pan left unattended as the occupant of the bottom
floor flat had passed out drunk. Shocked at what had happened a group of local residents formed an
action group who along with local service providers. Council, Police and key local residents formed
Haldane Regeneration Group. A 12 year plan was drawn up and put into place to transform Haldane
into a community that its residents would become proud of once again.
 The community may be impoverished, but the residents are stronger since the regeneration finished.
Families have taken more ownership of their community. Young children are playing within the small
play areas built when the new housing was being erected. Haldane no longer has a stigma attached to
it caused by run down housing and the people that lived within being tarred with the same brush.

16.  Nightstop Devon
 Holsworthy is a small market town in Torridge with a population of about 2,700,
about 37 miles from Exeter and close to the border with North Cornwall. It has
the services that outlying villages would not have eg doctors, dentist, leisure
centre, primary and secondary schools, and it is linked by buses to Exeter (90
minutes away), Barnstaple (60 minutes), Bideford (40 minutes, the base for
Torridge District Council) and Okehampton (45 minutes). However, its relative
remoteness from the main centres in Devon means that those living and working
in Holsworthy tend to be on low wages, and if reliant on public transport, are
restricted by bus frequency in the type of work available to them in the main
centres. North and West Holsworthy is ranked in the top 30% of the Indices of
Multiple Deprivation, with significantly higher than average levels of working age
people who are on low incomes (with nearly double the Devon average being in
receipt of working age benefits) and who are unemployed. Young people in this
area are more likely to be NEET (more than double the Devon or Torridge average)
and to be in receipt of benefits (treble the Devon average and more than double
the Torridge average). There are no young people services in Holsworthy, and if a
young person can no longer live at home in Holsworthy, they have to travel to
Bideford, Barnstaple or Exeter to get any support – assuming they can find the bus
fare. Living in a rural town, let alone a village, in a remote area is very challenging
for young people if they get into difficulties and do not already have a strong
support network.

17.  “So…what’s it like to live here? It is home and a place
where the young people we support, as well as most of
our staff and volunteers have a sense of belonging.
There is a community spirit that perhaps doesn’t exist
in other more affluent places. There is also severe
financial hardship, social isolation and a sense of
hopelessness among some who see no way towards
greater prosperity. Our job among the young people is
to grow their aspirations and help them to break free
mentally, emotionally and physically, from low self
expectations and ambitions.”

19.  Essential to show your project works
 Hard outcomes
◦ More than user numbers
◦ Is there a standard way of measuring outcomes in
your sector?
◦ User feedback
◦ Stakeholder feedback
 Soft outcomes
◦ Case histories
◦ Quotes

20. A community sports and leisure centre
 Over 1,000 children and adults took part in these activities last year.
The results of this work included:
◦ of the 125 children attending sporting activities, 86% reported improved mental
and physical health
◦ 14 young people developed leadership skills and took on responsibility roles in
the youth groups
◦ 12 unemployed people received training and volunteering opportunities
◦ 18 women and parents who attending parenting and cooking workshops said
they felt less stressed, had better mental health, had increased their knowledge
of affordable healthy eating and improved their family’s diet
◦ the Chit Chat support club is supplying the missing support for people with
disabilities
◦ free community transport had enabled 32 people to access activities and
improve their social contact.

21. Care Lochaber
 An 83 year old lady living alone in a tiny community 17
miles from Fort William. A taxi fare to the supermarket is
£25 one way. Her nearest family member is 22 miles away.
She is visually impaired and due to arthritic knees is no
longer able to drive. She cannot see to cook and relies on
ready meals heated in a microwave. She used to use the
once-daily bus to the passenger ferry across the Loch to the
shop but cannot now risk the 9 mile walk if she misses the
return bus. She relies on Care Lochaber's care service to
help her shop, take her to the lunch club, have social time
and occasionally visit the hairdressers.

22. A performance arts charity
 Emma is a 17 year old girl who has been in foster care from the age of 2. She was referred to the charity at the age of 16 via
her fostering agency. Emma’s carers wanted to help her build up her social skills and confidence as she struggled to make
friends. Emma is of African descent, however she identifies as Brazilian as that is where her foster family are from. Because
of this, Emma struggled with her identity and was very introverted. However, she had a keen interest in theatre.
 To help Emma build her self-confidence we paired her with a mentor who at the time was studying for a Masters in Theatre
Studies. The intention was to choose someone who had an immediate common area of interest with Emma. Initially, they
spent time talking about plays they had read or watched and on occasion went to see a few theatre productions. This
helped them build a relationship and make Emma feel more secure about opening up about other areas of her life. With
ongoing support from her mentor, Emma began to attend drama workshops and became confident enough to speak up in
groups and share thoughts. She was also able to make friends with some of the other young people in the group.
 However, when Emma turned 17, her behaviour started to regress and she fell into old habits, avoiding social situations, not
attending group activities, isolating herself and not wanting to talk to people. During a 1:1 mentoring session, Emma
revealed that she was anxious about turning 18 as for her it meant having to leave the family that she had come to identify
as her own. She felt suddenly overwhelmed and forced into a situation she did not want to be in. Her mentor suggested
Emma take part in the charity’s life skills programme, set up to prepare young people for independence. At first Emma was
hesitant however after attending some of the workshops, she started to feel more positive about the next phase of her life.
Emma was encouraged to discuss her fears with her family so they too could help support her as she transitions out of care
by allowing her to take on more responsibility within the home such as cooking, cleaning and laundry.
 By participating in the life skills programme, Emma was able to meet other young people in the same position as her facing
the same challenges helped Emma feel less isolated. Our Full Circle project also offered her a new support network that she
could have on going access to if needed.
 More recently, Emma was encouraged by her mentor to become a volunteer as a way to stay within the Reaching Higher
network. She has since been offered a role as part of the drama workshop team once she turns 18.

23.  What do you want a grant for?
◦ The difference between a donation and a grant
 Why are you doing this work?
◦ More of the same?
◦ Something new?
 How will you carry out this work?
◦ Sessions, classes, groups, lunches and trips
 When will this work be done?
◦ Daily, weekly, monthly
◦ NB: Trusthouse expects you to start spending your grant as soon
as it is paid
 Running costs and salaries
◦ Don’t re-invent the wheel
◦ The year ahead

24.  “We would like to apply for a grant towards our core costs and salaries for the next 12
months. This includes the rent of our building, where we deliver all our activities;
heating, lighting, water; IT maintenance contract. A portion of the grant would go
towards the salaries of our receptionist and our volunteer manager. Our receptionist
has been with us for five years, starting as a client, then becoming a volunteer and
finally is a full-time member of staff. His friendly manner and his ability to understand
the problems of our clients makes his a truly welcoming presence as people walk in –
his ability to calm people’s nerves about taking part makes a big impact and is often
highlighted in feedback from clients. Our volunteer manager recruits and trains our
volunteers from a range of places and backgrounds and she is very successful at finding
just the right job for volunteers to do, whether they want to increase their work skills,
become more confident or give something back to their community. Most of our
younger volunteers move onto employment or training, while the older volunteers
have been supported to form a network which has made a major difference in life to
those who have been bereaved and were feeling excluded and left behind by the
community. The manager’s enthusiasm, support and people skills are the root of this
success. The plan is to expand the volunteering scheme over the next 12 months, with
peer mentoring support and a new scheme for 13-16 year olds to become involved.”

25.  “Our project aims to build organisational resilience by
upgrading obsolete technical equipment and digital
infrastructure to facilitate long term efficiency savings
and a sustainable touring model in order to increase
our reach across middle scale theatres and reach
diverse and bigger national audiences, underscored by
a new and diversified artistic programming and
outreach programme that is designed to reach
individuals from diverse backgrounds and across a
wider geographic and socio-economic areas.”

26.  Making your case for new work
◦ Waiting lists
◦ Increasing demand
◦ Duplication of services?
 How will people know about the work?
◦ personal and arms’ length approaches
 How will you get people through the door?
 Who else are you working with?
◦ Expectations of local networking

27.  What will it cost?
◦ Guestimates or estimates?
 How much to ask for?
◦ Am I being greedy asking for the full amount?
◦ The pitfalls of looking at ‘average’ grants
 Trusthouse’s 50% funding rule
◦ Who else should be funding?
 The budget
◦ The whole cost and nothing but the cost
 Annual Report & Accounts
◦ Income & Expenditure Sheet (SOFA)
◦ Balance Sheet
◦ Reserves

28.  Low or Negative reserves
◦ Giving your funder reassurance
 High reserves
◦ Explaining why you hold more than 6 months’ costs
in unrestricted reserves
 Late with returns to the Charity Commission
◦ Why did it happen
◦ Why it will never happen again
 What if we’ve missed out information or made
a mistake?

29.  But can’t we just send…
◦ Links to websites
◦ DVDs
◦ Lots of extra sheets of information we wrote for
someone else
◦ Constitution
◦ Letters of support
 We ONLY want the application form, the
budget and your latest annual report and
accounts

30.  Application assessment and
acknowledgement
 Small Grants: decisions in 6 weeks
 Standard Grants: going to the Grants
Committee Meeting
 Large Grants: assessment visit for report to
Grants Committee Meeting
 Grant awarded!
◦ Payment of grants
 Reporting how you spent the grant
◦ Keeping us updated

31.  Application unsuccessful
◦ Incorrect applications
◦ Unsupported applications
 Feedback
 Applying again

32.  For you
◦ Applying again after a grant
 For Trusthouse
◦ On-line applications
◦ A new strategy

33. “The aim of all charities should be to go out of
business.”
George Hosking, The Wave Trust