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Small Grant Scheme

Update - January 2008

The small grant scheme has now closed; these small grants of £500 were made available through Celebrating Shropshire's Festivals and Events, at Shropshire Country Council, this enabled community groups and festivals to work together to recruit, train and help volunteers take part in cultural activity in their area.

Many volunteers took take part in cultural activities within the area, which increased the individuals' confidence, awareness of opportunity, skills level and participation working with festivals in the community.

Many successful projects were able to demonstrate how this grant helped, by showing how the project was accessible to all groups of people, they also demonstrated an awareness of risk management, legal and statutory requirements, relevant to the activity.

Programme Guidance for Bids up to £500

Celebrating Shropshire's Festivals and Events Small Grant Scheme for CED Wards in Oswestry, Ellesmere Rural West and Cockshutt. 

Introduction
General Notes and Guidance
Timetable
Funding
Essential Criteria
Criteria against which an assessment will be made
Guide to completing the application form
Important - State Aid
What Next
Documents
Links

Introduction

This grant scheme has been made available through Celebrating Shropshire's Festivals and Events, at Shropshire County Council, to enable community groups and festivals/events to work together to recruit, train and help volunteers take part in cultural activity in the area. Celebrating Shropshire's Festivals and Events is co-funded by European Objective 2 and Shropshire County Council, through Shropshire Partnership and Regenerating Communities Action Plan.

It is expected the activities supported by this delegated grant scheme will promote an increase in individuals' confidence, awareness of opportunity, skills level, and participation with festivals or events or the wider community. Successful projects will be able to demonstrate how the grant aid will help with this.

The application form should show evidence that the project has been developed out of a need arisen from a festival wishing to recruit new volunteers, increase skills and develop sustainable volunteering.

The application form is available as a Word document and can be emailed to you. Please contact carol.davies@oswestry-bc.gov.uk. 

General Notes and Guidance

1. Applications to Celebrating Shropshire's Festivals and Events Small Grant Scheme are invited for awards up to £500, for activities taking place up to December 2007.
2. The Small Grants Scheme is a finite pot of £15,000.
3. Grants will be made only to festivals for the purpose of improving volunteer opportunity.
4. The activity, or the beneficiaries of the activity, must be located in a CED Ward (see later)
5. Grants will not be made to individuals or commercial companies
6. Grants cannot be used for overheads, reclaimable VAT, activities of a political nature, statutory duties, liability out of negligence, payment in advance of need, contingencies, services charges on rentals or leases, payments for gifts or donations, legal expenses or similar.
7. Grants could be used for additionality, and for making things happen (for example) to pay for equipment to enable volunteers to do their work, to pay an artist or other person to lead workshops, special clothing for participants, training or learning, transport to an event, childcare provision whilst the parent is participating in the project, venue hire fees, or similar activity that encourages participation.
8. The grants will be awarded retrospectively on presentation of paid invoices; but not awarded for an activity that has taken place prior to November 2006.
9. Successful applicants will be required to acknowledge funding bodies in all publicity relating to the project.
10. The decision to offer an award is discretionary and the decision of the appraisal panel is final.

Timetable

Applications for funding must be completed and returned to The Festivals Officer, Oswestry Borough Council, Castle View, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1JR, no later than noon on the 30th September 2007.

• The grant, if awarded, must be claimed by 31st October 2007.

Funding

Celebrating Shropshire's Festivals and Events will fund up to 50% of the project costs subject to the ceiling on awards and subject to availability of funds.

You are therefore required to find 50% match funding. This must be non-European cash funds (i.e. Arts Council, Awards for All, business sponsorship or other fund raising). You can offer up to 10% of the total budget cost as volunteer in-kind support.

Essential Criteria

1. The activity or beneficiaries of the activity must be in a CED Ward in Oswestry, Ellesmere Rural West or Cockshutt - see attached map for guidance.  Please note that the map shows old ward names and boundaries, as the geographical criteria for European Objective 2 funding were based on these. 
   BEFORE APPLYING FOR A GRANT, PLEASE CONTACT JOY DURRANT, CELEBRATING SHROPSHIRE'S PROJECT OFFICER, ON 01743 255077, TO CHECK YOUR GEOGRAPHIC ELIGIBILIITY.
2. All Festivals/Events must be properly constituted, either as a registered charity, Company Limited by Guarantee, or other not for profit organisation or community group.
3. The project must contribute to supporting inclusiveness for local people and have a proper equal opportunities policy that actively encourages participation.

Criteria against which an assessment will be made

1. The applicant should demonstrate how the activity will meet the following aims:-
   • To increase the feeling of well-being through participation in a cultural activity, by providing opportunities for local people to be involved
   • By increasing the opportunity to acquire or improve or increase skills
   • To encourage opportunities for life-long learning, skills development, sharing information and best practice
2. Demonstrate a business-like approach; showing how the activity/equipment could extend the visitor offer for the festival or event, thus developing the product portfolio.
3. To show clear outcomes from the activity/equipment that will be evaluated appropriately and the results shared.
4. Demonstrate equal opportunities, showing how the project is accessible to all groups of people.
5. Demonstrate good environmental practice and sustainability, minimising the impact on the environment in terms of transport and waste control, and good use of recyclable and sustainable products.
6. Demonstrate an awareness of risk management, legal and statutory requirements, relevant to the activity.

Guide to completing the application form

Question 3

The constitution refers to the type of organisations involved (charity, limited company, not-for-profit or community group).  Individuals and for profit companies cannot apply.

Question 4

Tell us clearly why Celebrating Shropshire Small Grant Scheme should fund your project.

Question 7

Bullet points can be used to help you describe concisely who will benefit, how where and when.

Question 8

How will you evaluate?  What will be the indicator that tells you that your project is successful? This could be the number of participants, or the success of a show, exhibition, or art project.  It could be assessed by a third party or against subjective/emotive indicators such as participant's levels of happiness or increased confidence.

Question 9

You have a duty of care for the safety of your staff, volunteers, participants and visitors while working on the project. How is this managed?

Question 10

Different people have different needs, how will you ensure these needs are met?     How will you communicate with hard to reach people? What extra provision can you put in place to improve equality?

Question 12 & 13

The costs may be provisional but should be based on research or experience.

You should demonstrate best value and you must keep records that demonstrate your decisions. For items of value below £250 no quote is required, for items £250-£500 one single oral quote is required.

Remember to include project management time as a cost - this will be balanced in Q13 as match funding in kind.

Please contact Joy Durrant if you need extra support with working out the budget or need guidance about match funding.

Question 16

We can only accept completed and signed application forms.

Important - State Aid

Any public source of funding that is given to any beneficiary, either public or private, that could result in an economic advantage, is considered to be a 'State Aid' by the European Commission.  If this is the case, then potentially the economic market of the European Union could be distorted, and therefore rules must be applied.  More locally, this could result in someone being put out of business due to unfair competition.

All sources of funding are technically a State Aid, including European Funding, Rural Regeneration Zone and Lottery.

Funding can be provided to a business under a 'Block Exemption'.  The most suitable Block Exemption for this grant scheme is the De Minimis Block Exemption.  This can provide businesses with the highest grant intervention rate (i.e. up to 35% for this grant scheme).  A business will be able to apply under De Minimis if it receives no more than 100,000 euros (c. £60,000) over a three year period. 

In order to apply for grant under De Minimis the applicant must declare all sources of funding received over the previous 3 years (including any previous grants, free or subsidised training etc).  If this is more that 100,000 euros (ABOUT £66,000) the business will not be able to apply for a grant under this Block Exemption and another Block Exemption will be explored.  If however the business can apply under De Minimis the business must retain records of the grant received for 10 years and must read and sign the De-Minimis declaration, attached as part of this application.

This grant scheme is assisted by the ERDF Objective 2, and is subject to rules governing the amount of state-aid that can be granted to any one business in any three-year period. In making your application to this scheme you are required to specify all other financial assistance received from public bodies and organisations. Any business that will receive more than 100,000 euros (about £66,000) in any three year period - inclusive of this grant (if approved) will not be eligible to apply for assistance. Failure to disclose funding assistance resulting in a breach of this rule may lead to recovery action being taken by Shropshire Partnership Action Plan or the Government Office for the West Midlands.

What Next?

Joy Durrant, Celebrating Shropshire's Project Officer willl be available for advice on completion of application forms and help work out budgets and match funding.

Applications for funding must be completed and returned to the address below no later than noon on the 31st October 2007:

Oswestry Borough Council
The Festivals Officer
Castle View
Oswestry
Shropshire
SY11 1JR