Grant Funds For

Nottingham Together

Small Grant Guidance

Nottingham Together is about how well people get on with others from different backgrounds. The Nottingham Together Grants aim to support and develop activities that promote coming together, cohesion or neighbourliness amongst and between Nottingham’s communities. The funding has been allocated to Nottingham from central Government to help us make Nottingham an even friendlier place to live and work.

Migration can bring real benefits to Nottingham, our culture, economy and way of life. Nottingham is a welcoming city, open and compassionate as we have shown in welcoming people in need. Grants are aimed at achieving the best benefits for established resident communities, and enabling or encouraging cohesion and integration amongst newer communities in our City. Grants can also support local projects that respond to local issues or tensions between resident and newer communities. Tensions and service pressures can result from a lack of understanding amongst communities of the social expectations of behaviour in Britain. These can be an honest lack of understanding of social norms amongst new communities.

Who is eligible to apply for funding? Most community and voluntary organisations and groups within the city boundary are eligible to apply for funding. You must have the following in place;  A constitution or set of written rules which set out your aims and objectives. This must also contain a dissolution clause that states any assets purchased with grant funding will be kept for community use should your group come to an end or close.  An Equalities and Diversity policy or statement.  A Safeguarding policy (if working with children and young people or vulnerable adults).  A bank or building society account in the groups name with at least two unrelated signatories.  Annual accounts for groups over 12 months old.  A 6 month cash flow for groups under 12 months old showing predicted income and expenditure. If you are a locally managed branch of a national organisation, you can apply as long as you have your own local constitution, management committee and accounts.

In all cases it is recognised that these documents will be relevant to the size of your group or organisation.

1 What types of activities are eligible? The type of projects, events or activities for which funding can be applied for should be community driven, providing a wide variety of opportunities to bring people together. This could include cultural festivals, sport, dance, coffee mornings, newsletters, story-telling and open days; spread right across the year. We are particularly interested in activities which provide opportunities for bringing people from different backgrounds together and activities ongoing activities which allow people to get to know each other and develop meaningful relationships.

For example, you may be:  A local football club wanting to run a community football tournament that will bring together young people from different cultures, faiths or areas of Nottingham.  A parents and toddlers group wanting publicity material to promote themselves to new members and encourage under-represented groups to participate.  A local faith group wanting to run an event for the community or an open day at a place of worship to promote wider community access and the sharing of knowledge/understanding.  An older people’s group wanting to run an event to share experiences with local school children or younger members of the community.  A Parents & Teachers Association wanting to establish an activity that will connect the school with the wider community.  A women’s group wanting to exchange cultural experience with other women’s groups.

To be eligible to apply for a grant, your project, event or activity must benefit Nottingham residents. In order to demonstrate the difference this fund makes we require you to evaluate your project, assessing the difference it makes to those involved. You can choose to do this through questionnaires, photo or video diaries or any other method you feel is appropriate to your project. This information will need to be submitted to Nottingham City Council when your activity ends or 12 months after you receive your funding.

What will the funds support? The fund will support costs like the examples below. In all cases the costs must relate directly to the activity you are providing. Rent The cost of using premises to deliver your project or to hire a venue for an event Equipment Purchase of materials and / or hire of equipment to deliver your project / event Publicity Production of a leaflet or newsletter to advertise the activities you are undertaking Expenses Travel / parking for staff and volunteers delivering activities (specified pence per mile) Training Necessary Courses that you intend to offer volunteers and / or staff Admin costs Insurance and membership costs, general stationery for running the activity Salaries Staffing costs for additional hours / new posts to deliver the activity (inc. recruitment) Support Additional specific support that may be needed (e.g. translation costs)

2 What will the funds not support? The fund cannot be used to support;  Individuals  Activities where making profit is a primary aim  Statutory organisations or private businesses  Activities where the primary purpose is to promote religious beliefs or where people are excluded on religious grounds. We can fund religious organisations to work with others and to come together.  Political groups or groups promoting political activities  Charitable or fund raising activities  Groups / organisations where the majority of the membership live outside the City Council boundary (You may be required to produce a statistical breakdown of your membership by area)  Activities that take place outside the City Council boundary  Costs you owed or promised to pay before your application was approved (retrospective costs)  Projects that will take more than 12 months to complete  Grant making bodies applying for funding to redistribute to individuals or groups  Salaries for existing members of staff  Costs associated with foreign travel

How much can I apply for and how often can I apply? You can apply for grants of £50 to £2,000. We will not consider applications above or below these amounts and only one application can be made for any one project in each financial year. If you have previously applied for any funding from the City Council we will check to ensure your monitoring is up to date before we process any further applications. If you apply and are unsuccessful you can reapply immediately with a different request for support.

Sources of help  If you need help to complete the application form, please contact Nottingham Together and we will signpost you to the appropriate help and support. Due to the high volume of applications we receive we are unable to visit individual groups.  For help with ideas of what can be funded contact: Nottingham Together on 0115 876 1110 or [email protected] Please read the guidance notes that are with the application form before you ring the City Council as these will answer most questions.

What happens next? Using the information from your application and in most cases a follow up call, we will assess your project to see;  How well it fits with our themes and priorities  How much local benefit the project will have  What difference your project will make to the lives of local people  Your ability to deliver the project  Whether it offers good value for money 3 The information contained in your application form will also be shared with appropriate agencies. Nottingham Together will notify the named person on the application form once a decision has been made. If you are successful, any awards will be subject to the receipt of a signed grant agreement. If you are unsuccessful, we will tell you why.

And finally…… Please ensure you have read both this information and the general guidance on applying for a grant before you complete an application form. Take into consideration the costs we can support and the level of funding that is available, ensure you have thought your activity through and have considered how you will monitor your success. Make sure you leave plenty of time before your activity is due to start when you apply as it can take some time to process an application. Finally make sure you sign the application form and enclose all the additional documentation such as quotes in order to ensure your application is not delayed whilst we wait for this information.

You can either email us your application (including scanned signature) to or post it to us at the address below.

For more information and help contact us; 4 Nottingham Together Nottingham City Council Byron House Maid Marion Way Nottingham NG1 6HS 0115 8761110