General guidance

Project Ideas 

To get you thinking, below are some ideas that could increase an organisation’s capacity to help people mitigate the impact of welfare reform and poverty.  

• Pilot/test an idea you think might benefit your community 
• Train staff/volunteers in benefits advice 
• Bring in-house an external benefits advisor 
• Add some staffing hours to develop and enhance a service you currently provide to meet increase in demand (this cannot be more hours for business as usual) 
• Develop new systems to track referrals and progress and aid networking between organisations 
• Set up or provide time for staff to take part in networks around welfare reform 
• Build local partnerships to ensure clients are more effectively supported
• Develop a volunteer recruitment programme 
• Facilitate knowledge and experience sharing – hosting events with partner organisations, inter-agency job shadowing etc. 
• Develop innovative support for local people e.g. cheaper food, community food sources, budgeting workshops, peer support groups 

Remember, applicants will be required to demonstrate: 

• How their proposal will expand/develop the organisation’s capacity in order to meet demand relating to welfare reform 
• How it will help bring organisations together in partnership to support people 
• How it will develop people’s ability to prevent themselves from reaching crisis point 

How will you monitor and evaluate your project?

There are a number of ways you can gather evidence about your project. We want you to tell us the methods you will use e.g. attendance sheets, questionnaires, focus groups, case studies, personal reflection videos/diaries. We also want to hear about the timing of your evidence collection. The import thing here is to make sure that the methods you use will enable you to demonstrate the difference your project will make and the impact it will have.   

Financial Information  

In this section please give an indication as to what the funding you are requesting will be spent on. There is no need to itemise your spend fully, however we are keen to see the top three expenditure items to get a feel for your approach. Think about things such as (but not limited to); new staff costs, material production, purchasing of items/goods/services, training materials, volunteer expenses. This funding is NOT for core costs e.g. rent, utilities, existing staff costs, but for projects/activities that organisations do not have the capacity to carry out otherwise. 

Additional Information  

In order to confirm that your income was less than £200,000 in your last financial year we require a copy of your last audited or independently examined accounts.  

If you are not a registered charity, please upload a copy of your constitution or governing document.