Funded through Leeds City Council Adult Social Care’s “Better Lives” initiative, which aims to ensure services help people to live independently, the Ideas that Change Lives programme offers business guidance and financial investment to help organisations and individuals develop socially enterprising ideas which support people in Leeds with care and support needs to improve their health, wellbeing and remain independent.  

We want to support ideas which made a real impact with: 

• Older people 
• People with a learning disability, physical disability or sensory impairment 
• People with mental health needs  
• People with alcohol or substance use issues
• People with long term health conditions 
• Carers 
• Young people with support needs in transition between children’s and adult services 

Prior to applying, prospective applicants are required to contact Louanne Roberts at SEEAhead Louanne.Roberts@seeahead.co.uk to discuss their proposal to ensure their application is submitted to the panel for consideration. This is to ensure that applicants can obtain free advice from experienced social enterprise professionals and submit applications that are eligible for the programme.  

 Who can apply? 

A) Incorporated community groups such as CIOs, CICs and charitable companies from the third sector that: 

• Are registered with the Charity Commission, Companies House or Mutuals Public Register (FCA) 
• CICs, limited companies and similar must be clearly constituted for public benefit and should be limited by guarantee, not shares  
• Have a constitution or other relevant governance document 
• Have a management committee/board of directors/trustees of at least three unrelated people, none of whom have significant control 
• A copy of your most recent annual accounts or financial records showing your organisation’s balance of funds, income and reserves.   
• Have a bank account under the name of the group with at least two unrelated signatories (if your organisation doesn’t have its own bank account, but does meet all of the other criteria, please contact us to discuss how we can work around this) 
• Are based in or supporting people living in the Leeds Metropolitan District Area
• Have an appropriate Safeguarding Policy and an Equal Opportunities Policy or similar  
• If organising or running public events, festivals etc groups will be expected to have relevant insurance and comply with all required health and safety, food handling/preparation and other local and national statutory regulations for such activity.

B) Charities that are registered with the Charity Commission but are not an incorporated structure can also apply. They must also fulfil the above bullet points. However, grants cannot be used to pay staff that are directly employed by the charity. 

C) Small unincorporated and unregistered community groups can apply for a maximum of £5,000. Unincorporated, unregistered groups can only apply if their annual income is less than £10,000, and if securing the grant does not take them above this threshold for the year. You would be expected to have set up/or be in the process of setting up a formal legal structure with social and/or environmental aims using our support.

Size of Grant

The grant size for Kickstart grants is £500-£4,000 and for Development grants is £4,000-£12,000 for 12 months. The grant can be used to part-fund or fully-fund a wide range of activities. We like to see the impact our support is having and prefer for our grant to equal at least 50% of the total cost of the activity or project, however, if it is under 50% please provide details of the match funding you have secured or will as part of the project. Only one application per organisation can be considered.

What can the Fund support?  

Kick Start grants are for organisations with a socially enterprising idea that supports people to live independently in their own homes, but who need support to develop the idea into a full business plan. We are looking to fund new social enterprises/socially enterprising activities that can become financially sustainable beyond the end of the investment process, either through generating income, charging or being commissioned. The Kick Start funding can be used to carry out research, set up a pilot or feasibility study, access expertise or consultancy, or any other activity that helps to develop your idea further. If available you will need to submit: a cashflow projection and a business plan with your application; or if not available, you will need to outlined when you will be developing them.

Development grants are available for services/activities that support people with care and support needs to remain independent. If you apply for this, we would expect you to have a costed business plan and already be an incorporated body with social aims and profits used for social aims. We would also expect that the service/activity applied for has already been researched and/or piloted successfully. The service must be capable of being delivered on a sustainable basis through income generated from trading e.g. through being contracted to deliver services or individuals paying for the service directly through personal budgets or self-funding. You will need to submit: a cashflow projection and a business plan with your application.

Types of activities that can be funded:

We encourage all applications to consider:

• Alternatives to traditional day care and support services
• Brokerage, supporting people with care needs to manage their personal budget and/or access the services which meet their needs
• Health and wellbeing promoting activities
• Any other activities that enable people in Leeds with care and support needs to remain independent
• How they will evidence learning and demonstrate and evaluate outcomes from the project; applicants should consider including costs for external evaluation or additional internal capacity to ensure they can effectively report on this
• The project meets the needs and wishes of people using the proposed service, regarding health protection
• Full Cost Recovery, including a relevant portion of management costs and overheads
• Staff costs, which should wherever possible include paying staff at least the real Living Wage
• Costs which enable the project to be fully inclusive and accessible (E.G. transport, food, childcare)
• How they envisage a successful project could be sustained after this funding ends

What can the Fund not support? 

Grants will not be awarded to or for:

• For-profit organisations, statutory organisations (e.g. schools and hospitals) or overseas organisations
• Retrospective funding (activity and costs that have already taken place)
• Grant-making to other organisations and/or individuals
• Activity targeted at a particular group (ethnic, gender, religious etc.) without a good justification for this
• Activity that promotes a particular political or religious point of view
• Activity primarily for the benefit of animals
• Unincorporated groups that have an income of more than £10,000, or if securing the grant takes them above this threshold for the year
• Individuals
• Expeditions or overseas travel
• Capital appeals for building projects

When can you apply? 

The fund opens on the 4 July 2022 and the deadline to apply is at 12 noon on 24 August 2022. Decisions will be communicated in October 2022 and payments will be made to successful applicants within 3 weeks of the required documentation being received and any conditions being met.

How do you apply for a grant?

To apply you need to complete an online application form available at the end of this document.   You will also need to submit a signed copy of the organisation’s governance document, signed copy of accounts, and list of name and addresses of management committee/board members. Copies of safeguarding policy documents will be requested if applicable.

If you’re successful, you’ll also need to sign a funding agreement document and provide a signed copy of your organisation’s most recent bank statement.

To start filling in the online form, follow the link at the end of this document. We strongly suggest you submit your application at your earliest opportunity. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please contact Louanne Roberts to discuss your project idea before submitting an application.

What happens after you’ve applied?  

We will acknowledge the receipt of your application.  We will then assess your application and may need to contact you and your referee during this time.  If your application is shortlisted, it will then be submitted to an awards panel for further consideration. We’ll tell you their decision as soon as possible after they’ve met.

If you are successful, the grant offer will include any additional conditions set by the panel and/or the grant payment and a grant funding agreement you will need to sign. The grant must be spent by the date set out in your funding agreement. You can receive further business support from Louanne Roberts as part of your grant.

You are also required to complete reporting for your grant. The deadline for doing so will be specified in your funding agreement. You can find more information about reporting, and see an example End of Grant Report on the Reporting and Evaluation page of our website. Please note that failure to provide appropriate reporting information may impact on your eligibility for future funding.

If your bid is not successful, we will let you know the reasons for declining it. Please note we have limited funding available and we are not able to fund every application we receive, no matter how deserving the project is. The decisions made by the grants panel are final.

Publicity 

If your application is successful, you will be required to credit support from the Insert Funding Partner and Leeds Community Foundation, on all materials related to the funded work. Successful projects will be required to be available for a potential monitoring visit from funders.

 

To Apply 

Development Grants Application Link

Kickstart Application

If you post documents to us please send them to the address below using the correct postage and make sure the documents are received by us before the deadline. If you require more information about this fund please contact Leeds Community Foundation on 0113 242 2426 or email grants@leedscf.org.uk.

Voluntary Action Leeds