Our Commitment to Open and Trusting Grant-Making

We will explain our funding priorities clearly; we will be open and transparent about all our requirements and exclusions:

• We explain where the money comes from, how much is available, the size of grants and any restrictions.
• We encourage groups and individuals to speak to us before applying where possible to make sure they are applying for the right things and that they meet our eligibility criteria.
• We have created word documents of our application forms with supporting guidance notes that applicants can review before starting an application.
• We review rejected applications and enquiries received looking for “rules” we hadn't made clear in our published information. If applicants do not meet our criteria for funding we will let them know at the earliest opportunity.
• Throughout the application process, we listen to what groups tell us about current priorities and what they find unclear about our information and/or processes.
• We communicate our programmes through a range of different engagement methods such as our website, e-bulletin, online network meetings and external Meet the Funder events with the aim of reducing the number of completed but unsuccessful applications.
• We hold open access online events with recorded videos for programmes that may be more complex to understand.
• We support applicants as much as possible, but where the support required is outside our remit, we signpost to other sources of support where groups require further development before applying.

We will only collect information that we must have to make funding decisions; we will test our application forms rigorously to make sure our questions are clear and do not overlap:

• We regularly review application forms and aim to make them as short as possible.
• We minimise the requirements for supporting documents & we ask groups to contact us if they are unable to provide any required documents.
• We use information from available records (e.g. accounts from the Charity Commission or previous applications to WSCF).
• We explain why we need this information.

We will be realistic about how much assurance applicants can reasonably give us; we will clearly explain how we assess risk when we make our funding decisions:

• We trust what individuals and groups tell us about their needs and existing funding.
• We contact applicants to discuss their application and keep them informed about progress.
• We award grants to groups that are recently established, are new to WSCF or are not registered charities e.g. CICs, unincorporated associations, community benefit societies or similar subject to meeting eligibility requirements.
• Many of our group programmes offer core (unrestricted) funding, and our flagship group grants programme provides multi-year funding.
• For several of our grant programmes we have stopped asking applicants how they will sustain the work once our grant funding comes to an end.
• We encourage applicants to consider the full cost of the work they seek a grant towards and support full cost recovery.
• We are actively discussing risk and the IVAR principles with our various fundholders.
• We have reasonable expectations of what “good” looks like in relation to reserves; income diversity; skills of trustees etc. and communicate our reasons for this.
• Our expectations and support are proportionate to the size of the group, its stage of development, nature of work and the size of our grant. For example, we do not expect small or newly established organisations to be financially stable.
• We have reasonable expectations about what good looks like for applications to our grants to individuals programmes.

We will seek to work at a pace that meets the needs of applicants; we will publish and stick to our timetables; we will make our decisions as quickly as possible:

• Our main grants programme for groups is open all year round with published decision points.
• We publicise open, close, and decision-making dates for programmes that are within our control and if we need to make a change, we proactively inform potential applicants. Where programmes are donor-directed, we encourage the donors to plan dates well in advance so we can keep prospective applicants updated.
• We aim to inform applicants of decisions within a week of the panel meeting and confirm payment dates.

We will give feedback; we will analyse and publish success rates and reasons for rejection; we will share our data:

• We explain how we make decisions.
• Our main grants overview page explains how our grant process works, how long decisions take and what you can expect from us.
• Our eligibility criteria for all programmes and programme specific priorities are publicised on our website. Our application forms include links to these criteria.
• Where programmes are within our control, decision-making is delegated to grants panels with professional and lived experience from outside the community foundation. We continually seek to further diversify our grants panels to improve this external representation. Where decision-making is donor-directed, we work with donors to guide them towards good grant making.
• We give specific feedback to all unsuccessful applicants at every stage of the process and regularly review the feedback we give to improve the communication of our criteria and priorities.
• We publicise our grants data annually on 360 Giving.
• We avoid just saying “insufficient funds available”.

We will enable funded organisations to respond flexibly to changing priorities and needs – we will give unrestricted funding; if we can’t, we will make our funding as flexible as possible:

• We encourage organisations to tell us what they need when applying, this includes core running costs.
• We manage funding for other donors which can limit our flexibility. But, by building relationships and explaining the benefits, we aim to encourage some to give more unrestricted and multi-year grants.
• We make ourselves readily available to grantees to discuss unexpected challenges/changing needs and will be flexible in helping the grantee meet these.

We will be clear about our relationship from the start – we will be realistic about time commitments; we will ensure that our contact is positive and purposeful:

• We speak to all grant applicants as required during assessment and make it clear that WSCF wants to build supportive relationships. We aim to conduct assessment conversations in person with groups that are new to WSCF where possible.
• We make our Terms & Conditions document clear and simple.
• We don’t expect grantees to be in regular contact but encourage them to call us if there are concerns or issues about the work or our grant that they want to discuss.
• We arrange visits to grantees where we can, in order to build understanding of their funding needs and wider impact, and build trusting open relationships with our funded cohort.
• We communicate the importance of speaking to us first, especially newly formed groups, those applying to us for the first time or where there is any uncertainty about fit with criteria or fund priorities.

We will commit to light-touch reporting – we will ensure that our formal reporting requirements are well understood, proportionate and meaningful:

• We have reviewed our end-of-grant report forms and reduced the number of questions. We will continue to review these forms and ensure consistency and proportionality across our grant programmes.
• We help groups to complete monitoring forms if required.