Main Grants Programme Revenue Grants

Main Grants Programme
Revenue Grants
Applications for Revenue grants of £10,000 or more per year for work taking place in the
UK* can be made through our Main Grants Programme.
The amount requested must be £10,000 or more each year. The maximum length of
funding that can be requested is three years.
Revenue grants are grants to fund core running costs, salaries and/or project costs.
Each of our grant programmes has separate guidelines. For information about applying
for a Capital grant through the Main Grants Programme, a Small or County grant, or for
any of our other grants, please refer to the guidelines for those programmes.
*including the Isle of Man and Channel Islands
How to apply for a Revenue grant
Applications for Revenue grants can be submitted at any time, provided that
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you do not have an active grant from us;
we are not already assessing an application to one of our other programmes; and
if you applied previously and were unsuccessful, that more than 12 months has
passed since you received your declination letter.
There are no deadlines and we do not have an application form, but you must complete
an Application Cover Sheet. This can be downloaded from our website.
Mail shots and general requests for donations will not be considered.
The Application Cover Sheet must be completed and submitted with your application.
This provides us with key information; your organisation name, full contact details, the
name and email address of your main contact, and gives us an idea of the project or work
you want us to fund and the amount you are requesting. It also asks for confirmation that
your organisation has a Child Protection Policy (if applicable to your work) and that
Disclosure Checks (PVG checks in Scotland) are carried out on all staff and volunteers
working with children or vulnerable people.
Your application should be no longer than four sides of A4 and in font size no smaller
than 11 point.
Your application should clearly and concisely describe the work your organisation
undertakes, your track record, what evidence you have that your work is effective, and
provide details of the project or activities you are seeking funding for. Please include all
the following information:
Your Organisation
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Your organisation’s status (e.g. registered charity, company limited by guarantee, not
for profit organisation or community interest company) and when it was formed.
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If you are a branch of, or related to, a larger organisation, please explain the nature of
the relationship and whether it includes any financial support.
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The range of services or support your organisation provides the needs /
characteristics of the area in which you operate, and the people you help.
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How you monitor and evaluate your work, including evidence of how it benefits your
service users/beneficiaries (i.e. the outcomes of your work).
Your Project (in this section ‘project’ refers to the work or costs you are asking us to
fund, i.e. activities, services, salary costs or core costs)
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Details of your project.
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Why it is needed. If your project is based on the outcomes of a pilot, please provide
details of the pilot, its outcomes, and tell us why the project should continue/develop.
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The number of people who will benefit.
The aims of your project and what outcomes (practical results, changes and/or
improvements) you hope to achieve. If you are requesting a grant to continue an
existing project, it is important that you provide information about its impact to date.
Tip: common mistakes made by applicants are not including evidence or data to
support the outcomes they tell us they achieve, or relying solely on case studies to
illustrate impact.
How the aims, progress and outcomes of your project will be monitored and evaluated
(i.e. how you will know whether and to what degree it has been successful) and how, if
appropriate, you will disseminate good practice to others.
How the project will be managed and by whom. Include information about their
experience and qualifications for the job.
How you will ensure your project is cost-effective.
How your project is currently funded, by whom, and when this funding ends.
Your fundraising strategy for the project, including details of any funds already
secured and applications you have made or plan to make. We recommend that you
make applications to other funders in addition to applying to us, even if you are
requesting the full project costs from us. Please note we will expect you to have
approached local and regional funders before applying to us. If it is not appropriate to
do so in this instance, please tell us why.
The names and addresses of two independent referees (i.e. people who do not
currently benefit from your services or that will benefit from you gaining a grant i.e. not
Trustees, employees or volunteers).
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Please keep your application as simple as possible and avoid the use of technical jargon.
Please do not include electronic media (e.g. DVDs) with your application.
Your application must be signed and should either be printed on your organisation’s
headed paper or accompanied by a covering letter on headed paper.
Supporting Documents (these are required in addition to your four page application)
Budget
A detailed budget for your project. If you are requesting funding over more than one year
your budget must reflect this. Please set out costings for each year of the project in
separate columns, as well as a column providing totals for each item or area of
expenditure.
If your request is partly or wholly for salary costs, please ensure that the salary element of
your budget is broken down as follows:
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Salary
National Insurance
Pension (if applicable)
This is particularly important when requesting a two or three year grant. You can ask us
to consider annual salary increases of up to 2% p.a. If the increases in your budget are
larger than this, for instance because of a salary scale you have for your staff, the
balance will need to be raised elsewhere.
Explain from where the balance of funds will be/has been raised if you are applying to us
for part-funding.
Job Description
If the request is for a salary, enclose the job description.
Accounts
Your organisation’s most recent audited or independently inspected accounts (full
accounts are required, not just a SoFA and Balance Sheet). If the accounts show a
significant surplus or deficit of income, or high reserves, please explain the reason for
this. If the year end date of your accounts is more than 10 months ago, please send
up-to-date management accounts as well as accounts.
How Much Can I Apply For?
The average Revenue grant awarded is £76,800 (usually spread over either two or three
years). Most of our Revenue grants are within the range of £20,000 - £30,000 per year,
but are sometimes lower or higher than this. The amount it is appropriate to ask us for
depends on the size of your organisation. Details of grants awarded over the past three
years can be found on the Recent Grants page of our website. Please contact us for
advice if you have queries on this, or any other part of your application.
What will happen to my application?
It will take up to six months to hear the outcome of your application (though applications
that are ineligible, or that are not being taken to full assessment stage will be notified
before this).
If an application is not signed or is received without accounts or a budget, it may be
declined or returned to you unread. Please read our guidelines carefully before
submitting your application.
We receive many more applications than we are able to fund. Unfortunately this means
that we often have to turn down good applications.
Our assessment process has four stages. Additional information (such as management
accounts, a budget for your organisation, or information about your fundraising position)
may be requested during stages two and three.
Stage One: applications are entered onto our system and eligibility checked. We will
write to you to acknowledge receipt of your application, or to let you know if it is ineligible,
within six weeks of receipt.
Stage Two: eligible applications are initially reviewed by our Grants Team. During this
stage our Trustees receive information about the applications, and may be asked to
comment on them. Completion of this stage can take up to eight weeks from the date we
acknowledge your application, particularly if we have to ask you for any further
information. We will contact you again at the end of Stage Two to let you know whether
or not we will be taking your application forward to the next stage.
Stage Three: if your application reaches this stage, we will ask you for some additional
financial information and an electronic copy of your application. One of our network of
Volunteer Visitors, or a member of staff, will then contact you to arrange to visit to your
organisation. The visit enables us to discuss your project with you in more detail and to
find out more about your organisation and the people you work with. Visits can take up to
three hours and, as well as exploring your funding request, will look more closely at your
organisation’s governance, management, and fundraising strategy. We would normally
expect to meet with staff and a member of your Board/Trustees. Once the visit has taken
place a report is prepared for our Trustees.
Stage Four: Trustees meet quarterly in March, June, September and December.
Decisions about whether or not to award grants are made by Trustees at these meetings.
A letter notifying you of the outcome will be sent to you within two weeks of the meeting
taking place.
We reserve the right to share with other grant makers information received from
applicants requesting funding and from those in receipt of a grant from us, unless an
organisation expressly requests otherwise. Knowingly providing false information will
invalidate any application or grant.
Please note that we cannot guarantee that your application will go to a particular meeting
as this is dependent on the number of applications we receive.
Applicants who are unsuccessful are required to wait a minimum of 12 months from the
date of notification before re-applying.
What we fund
Our grants are for work in the UK, including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
Priority is given to work benefitting groups experiencing social and/or economic
disadvantage (people with disabilities, for example) and to work that tackles problems in
areas of high deprivation (by which we mean areas in the bottom third of the National
Indices of Deprivation).
We make grants in the categories listed below, and have given some examples of the
type of work that we prioritise for support through our grants.
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)
Culturally appropriate services for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities;
including those that promote integration and access to mainstream services.
Carers
Advice and support; including respite services for carers and those who are cared for, and
educational opportunities for young carers.
Community Service
Support services for communities in areas of high deprivation; including furniture recycling
projects, debt advice services and community centres.
Disability
Rehabilitation, support services, training and advocacy for people who are disabled; this
includes people with learning disabilities as well as physical disabilities.
Domestic and Sexual Violence
Advice, support and secure housing projects for families affected by domestic violence or
sexual violence. Perpetrator programmes can be considered where organisations have
secured, or are working towards, Respect accreditation. We are particularly interested in
services which can demonstrate their outcomes measurement such as data collected
through the CAADA Insights programme.
Drugs & Alcohol/Substance Misuse
Rehabilitation and support services for people affected by, or at risk of, drug and/or
alcohol dependency, and projects providing support to their families.
Ex-Service Men and Women
Support and residential care services for ex-service men and women and their
dependents.
Family Services
Support services for families in areas of high deprivation.
Healthcare
Residential, health and outreach services, such as home care support. NHS operated
services will not normally be funded and, in the case of applications from Hospices,
priority is given to requests for capital expenditure.
Homelessness
Advice, support and housing services for homeless people and those at risk of
homelessness.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Advice, support and counselling services for people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or
Transgendered.
Mental Health
Advice and support services for people experiencing mental health problems, and
projects that promote positive mental health.
Older People
Residential, health and emotional support services, such as befriending services and day
care centres. Priority will be given to projects in areas of high deprivation and those
where rural isolation can be demonstrated.
Prisoners and Ex-offenders
Rehabilitation and resettlement services for prisoners and/or ex-offenders; including
education and training projects that improve employability, and projects that provide
support to prisoners’ families.
Prostitution & Trafficking
Advice and support services for sex industry workers; including advice on housing
support and personal health, escaping exploitation and exiting prostitution.
Refugees & Asylum Seekers
Advocacy, advice and support services for refugees and asylum seekers, and that help
promote integration.
Young People
Projects and services that help maximise the potential of young people who experience
educational, social and economic disadvantage; including young people in, or leaving,
care.
Not normally funded
We do not make grants towards:
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General Appeals or letters requesting donations (full applications that follow our
guidelines must be submitted).
Local authorities, or work usually considered a statutory responsibility.
Schools, colleges or universities, except for independent special schools for pupils
with disabilities or special educational needs.
We will not fund the following unless they are in an area of high deprivation (i.e. in the
bottom third of the Indices of Deprivation):
o Youth clubs
o Uniformed groups such as Scouts and Guides
o Community centres.
Counselling projects, except those that have a clearly defined client group and are in
areas of high deprivation.
Pre-school projects, out of school play activities or holiday schemes, unless these are
specifically for disabled children.
Community transport organisations or services.
Projects that promote religion (please see the Frequently Asked Questions page of
our website for more information on this exclusion)
Capital applications for places of worship.
Organisations that do not provide direct service delivery to clients (such as umbrella,
second tier or grant-making organisations).
Arts projects, unless able to evidence therapeutic or rehabilitative benefits to:
o older people;
o disabled people;
o vulnerable groups;
o prisoners, or
o young people experiencing educational, social and economic disadvantage
(such as young people in, or leaving, care).
Education projects, except those able to evidence practical and rehabilitative benefits
to:
o disabled people;
o prisoners, or
o young people experiencing educational, social and economic disadvantage.
Leisure, recreation or play activities unless they:
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o are specifically for disabled people;
o are able to demonstrate a significant rehabilitative benefit to people with mental
health problems, or
o significantly improve opportunities to maximise the potential of young people
experiencing educational, social and economic disadvantage.
One-off events (such as festivals, conferences, exhibitions and community events).
The core work of Citizens Advice Bureaux.
Projects that solely provide legal advice.
Core running costs of Hospices.
Feasibility studies.
Professional associations, or training for professionals.
Organisations that do not have charitable aims (such as companies limited by shares
and commercial companies).
Start up costs, organisations that do not yet have a track record of service delivery, or
that have not yet produced accounts.
Individuals, or organisations applying on their behalf.
Projects taking place or benefiting people outside the UK.
Overseas trips.
Residential holidays (except those that qualify under our Holiday Grants scheme).
Heritage or Environmental conservation projects.
Social research.
Campaigning or lobbying projects, or general awareness raising work.
Projects where the main focus is website development or maintenance.
IT equipment (unless related to a member of staff we are also being asked to fund).
Capital projects that are solely to meet the requirements of the Disability
Discrimination Act.
Organisations that have applied to us unsuccessfully within the previous 12 months.
Checklist
Please ensure that :
 your application is signed
 it is either printed on your organisation’s headed paper, or accompanied
by a covering letter on headed paper
and that you have included :
 application cover sheet
 your application
 a detailed budget
 full audited or independently inspected accounts
 and, if relevant, a job description.
Please post your application to:
Applications
The Henry Smith Charity
6th Floor
65 Leadenhall Street
London EC3A 2AD
These guidelines are available in large print or by email on
request. Please tell us in which font size you would like to
receive them, and whether you would like them posted or
emailed to you.
The Henry Smith Charity
Charity No. 230102
Tel: 020 7264 4970