Wednesday 30 April 2014

Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales - Invest Programme

The Invest Programme provides longer term core or delivery funding for charities and CIOs in England and Wales which are delivering clear outcomes as a result of their work with people experiencing multiple disadvantage at one of the critical points in their life. Organisations must be working with people aged 17 years and over who are experiencing at least one of the following:
  • Have been abused or are at risk of abuse.
  • Are victims of sexual exploitation.
  • Are ex-offenders or those at risk of offending.
  • Are long-term unemployed.
  • Are leaving care.
  • Are homeless.
  • Have learning disabilities.
  • Have mental health and wellbeing issues.
  • Have addictions.
  • Are isolated and vulnerable.
  • Have severe financial difficulty as a compounding disadvantage.
The only exceptions are people aged under 17 years who are:
  • Young parents.
  • Looked after children and disabled young people moving into independent living.
Grants are available for up to £25,000 per year for two or three years, with the opportunity for continuation funding for a further period of up to six years in total. Funding is available for core organisational costs which are related to the day to day running of the charity as well as costs associated with the direct delivery of the charity's work.
Applications may be submitted at any time.
(This report was the subject of a GRANTfinder Newsflash.)

Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales - Enable Programme

The Enable Programme provides smaller short term grants to strengthen charities and CIOs in England and Wales which work with people experiencing multiple disadvantage at one of the critical points in their life. Organisations must be working with people aged 17 years and over who are experiencing at least one of the following:
  • Have been abused or are at risk of abuse.
  • Are victims of sexual exploitation.
  • Are ex-offenders or those at risk of offending.
  • Are long term unemployed.
  • Are leaving care.
  • Are homeless.
  • Have learning disabilities.
  • Have mental health and wellbeing issues.
  • Have addictions.
  • Are isolated and vulnerable.
  • Have severe financial difficulty as a compounding disadvantage.
The only exceptions are people aged under 17 years who are:
  • Young parents.
  • Looked after children and disabled young people moving into independent living.
Grants are available for up to a total £15,000 over two years and can be used for a wide range of activity related to the development and improvement of the capability of the organisation.
Applications may be submitted at any time.
(This report was the subject of a GRANTfinder Newsflash.)

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Best (Business & Employment Support & Training) Charity Financial Management Course


There are still places available on the Charity Financial Management coursebeing held on 15th and 16th May. The cost including lunches and certification is £170 per person.
By the end of the course participants will be able to:
  • Explain the procedures required for adequate and appropriate financial controls within charities.
  • Provide examples of good practice in relation to financial controls.
  • Define the term "reserves" as applicable to Charities and assess the appropriateness of a reserves policy.
  • State the policies that should be in place for effective financial management of a charity.
  • Explain the significance of the Accounting and Reporting by Charities SORP 2005 for account preparation and fundraising applications
  • Define the term "cost"
  • Classify costs into fixed or variable costs and direct or indirect costs
  • Describe absorption based costing, activity based costing and marginal costing methods for dealing with overheads
  • Understand the principles of effective budget preparation
  • Construct a simple cash flow forecast.
Contact me for more details or to book a place. Closing date 29th April 2014.
To book a place on this course please contact Shirley David on 01646 651655 or email her on sdavid@bestuk.org.uk or book online at www.bestuk.org.uk by completing the Training/Event Booking Form under the drop-down menu entitled "Bookings"
Venue: Unit 30 Ddole Road Industrial Estate, Llandrindod Wells, Powys LD1 6DF

Wednesday 23 April 2014

New Gift Aid declarations to be trialled this summer

New Gift Aid declarations will be trialled “in a live environment” this summer as part of the government’s drive to encourage more donors to sign up to the tax rebate.
The tests will be carried out by a ‘promotion and declaration’ working group – containing fundraising practitioners and behavourial insights experts – that aims to reach initial conclusions by this autumn.
Research conducted by the group – to be chaired jointly by HMRC and the Treasury and reporting to the Charity Tax Forum – will be supplemented by “customer closeness” work.
The measure was announced in HM Treasury’s response to the consultation it ran last summer on Gift Aid and digital giving.
However, whichever option is chosen will remain as an opt-in as the government has rejected calls to move to an opt-out system – whereby donors are presumed to be eligible to claim Gift Aid and opt out if they are not – and that the new declarations will require donors to give “informed consent”.
The government’s response to the consultation points out that 40 per cent of adult Britons are no longer paying income tax.
“It is therefore clear that any changes made to the Gift Aid declaration should be careful to increase donors’ understanding that they must have paid tax in order to use Gift Aid,” the Treasury says.
“Changes will need to address the challenge of making it easier for donors to apply Gift Aid to eligible donations at a time when the number of eligible donors is reducing, while helping to ensure that Gift Aid is not applied incorrectly to ineligible donations.”
In May 2013, the Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Team published recommendations and suggestions on howbehavioural insights could be applied to charitable giving, but this made no special mention of Gift Aid.

Greater role for intermediaries

The Treasury’s consultation response also states that ‘intermediaries’ – such as an online giving platforms or text-to-donate services – will take a role in collecting and passing on Gift Aid declarations to charities or other intermediaries to make the Gift Aid Claim. This will be legislated in the Finance Bill 2015, with subsequent secondary legislation to fill in the full details, including a definition of ‘intermediary’.
Secondary legislation will also allow a single declaration to cover multiple charities through a single intermediary and set out the regulatory framework for the intermediaries, which the Treasury says will be based on the regulatory regime for payroll giving agencies.

No universal database

The government said it would not establish a universal gift aid declaration database – which would have meant that donors only need to opt-in to the Gift Aid scheme once, rather than every time they make a donation to a new charity.
However, information provided by respondents would be used in “supporting longer-term thinking about the future of Gift Aid administration”.

The Treasury’s consultation – aimed at addressing barriers in access to Gift Aid when making donations through digital channels, including text and online – ran between July and September 2013 and received 100 responses.

(Source: UK Fundraising)

Lloyds Bank Foundation’s two new funding programmes open for applications

Applications are now open from smaller charities for the two new funding programmes from the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales. The two programmes – Invest and Enable - focus on reaching young people and adults facing multiple disadvantage at key stages in their lives. They are open to charities in England and Wales with an income between £25,000 and £1 million.
Announced in January this year, the new funding programmes are designed to help charities achieve greater sustainability: both will provide larger grants over a longer period of time. In addition the Foundation aims, with its Enhance programme, to help charities build capacity.

Paul Streets, Chief Executive of the Lloyds Bank Foundation, said:
“There is an increasing need and focus on helping charities to become sustainable in this challenging funding environment. Through research, we discovered nearly a third of our applicants said that over 80% of their funding was restricted. We don’t want to be just a grant maker, we want to support charities through a journey of development and help them meet the need for their services”.
Funding programmes
The Foundation’s programmes offer the following support:
·         Invest – providing long term funding of core costs and delivery for charities for up to £25,000 per year for up to three years, with the opportunity for continuation funding for a further period of up to six years.
·         Enable – providing funding for smaller, shorter grants for charities with a clear development need. Grants up to a total of £15,000 are awarded for a maximum of two years.
·         Enhance – A programme working alongside the Invest or Enable programme providing an option of tailored in-kind support to strengthen and develop charities’ effectiveness.

The Lloyds Bank Foundation receives its funding from Lloyds Banking Group through a nine year rolling funding agreement, designed to provide a secure and sustainable approach to grant making. Last year the Foundation awarded £19 million to 828 charities across England and Wales.

(Source: UK Fundraising) 

Welsh Advice Services Invited to Apply for Share of £1 Million Fund

The Welsh Government has launched a new front-line advice services grant scheme to help advice services continue supporting people in Wales.
The total funding available to support front-line services in 2014/15 will be £1 million, with the Welsh Government seeking to earmark around £300,000 of the £1 million for the purpose of developing a specialist discrimination advice service in Wales.
Applications are invited from independent, not-for-profit and quality assured advice providers. Eligible advice services will be on issues relating to welfare benefits; debt and/or financial capability; housing; and discrimination. A collaborative application from advice providers is encouraged, but the Welsh Government will consider single applications from eligible organisations.
Communities and Tackling Poverty Minister, Jeff Cuthbert said:
“This year’s allocation of funding will be based on the growing need for services that offer help with welfare benefits, debt and money management, housing and discrimination.
“Free and independent advice services are more important than ever given the current economic climate and the impact welfare changes are having on whole communities. Many of our advice services are facing direct cuts to their funding.
“I want to make sure people do not fall through the cracks given the changes to the UK welfare system and encourage organisations to apply for funding."
The deadline for submissions is 13 June 2014 and applicants will be notified of the outcome of the grant application process by 25 July 2014.
Further information is available from the Welsh Government website.
Source: Welsh Government, 15/4/2014

Tuesday 15 April 2014

LLOYDS BANK COMMUNITY FUND 2014

Members of the public can now nominate their favourite local group and charity for a Lloyds Bank Community Fund 2014 award.
Until now, only Lloyds Bank staff have been able to put forward nominations for groups to receive an award. Now, anyone can.
The Lloyds Bank Community Fund helps local people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to have a positive impact at the hearts of their communities by giving grants to local good causes. Around 1,400 community groups in around 350 communities will be shortlisted for the public vote due to take place later this year. The shortlisted community groups will be in with a chance of receiving a £3,000, £2,000, £1,000 or £500 Community Fund award.

FLOOD RECOVERY FUND

The fund is available right across Wales to Community Groups and Charities working to support local people to help strength communities as they struggle to recover from the challenges brought on by the storms, floods and tidal surges.
The fund can support community activities and / or community spaces that may need work because of flood damage for example: redecoration/refurbishment/cookers etc.
                                                                          
Please find further information and application forms in English here - http://www.cfiw.org.uk/eng/grants/40-flood-recovery-fund


The closing date for this fund is 02 May 2014.

Tuesday 8 April 2014

PAVO OUTREACH - NEWTOWN 15-4-2014

Do you need some funding support?  Have you got an issue around governance?  Would you like to discuss potential project ideas?  Would your organisation like a health check?

Come along at meet with PAVO Development Officers on the following dates:

Tuesday 15th April 2014             NEWTOWN                                       10am – 3pm
Venue:                                      Plas Dolerw, Milford Road, Newtown

Call 01597 822191 to make an appointment.

Powys Environmental Partnership Small Grant Scheme

The Powys Environmental Partnership’s aims are:
·         To provide a voice for environmental interests across Powys by bringing together representatives from the public, private and third sectors.
·         To seek the protection and improvement of the natural and man-made environments in all the actions of the individuals, organisations and communities of Powys and beyond

The Small Grant Scheme, supported by Natural Resources Wales, can support projects within Powys that will benefit the environment and communities of Powys especially those address Climate Change and biodiversity.

The grant will not fund advertising and direct marketing costs or work that should have been part of regular maintenance.

The maximum size of grants is £750. The closing date for this round of applications is 31st May 2014. All grants must be matched pound for pound either through the group’s own funds or by unpaid volunteer time and the project must be completed by 31st March 2015.

For more details, including the application form, contact pep@powys.gov.uk or on 01597 826165.