Following the launch of our 2020-30 strategy last week, we are delighted to now introduce our funds.
With our updated guidance available from today, Scotland’s charities and community organisations will be able to access funding to support work which aims to alleviate the effects of poverty and trauma on individuals and communities across the country.
We aim to deliver in excess of £200 million in funding over the ten-year strategic period and initially organisations will be able to apply to one of five separate funds:
- Wee Grants: Following the success of our Wee Grants for Wee Groups pilot last year, we have used the learning to inform our Wee Grants offering. These awards are for constituted community groups and charities with an annual income of less than £25,000 and offer funding of up to £2,000 for one year only.
- Small Grants: For registered charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £100,000, these offer restricted or unrestricted revenue funding of between £2,000 to £15,000 per year for up to five years.
- Large Grants: For registered charities with an annual income of between £100,000 and £2 million, these offer restricted or unrestricted revenue funding of between £15,000 to £50,000 per year for up to five years.
- Community Vehicle Grants: For registered charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £2 million, these offer funding of up to £10,000 for a vehicle to support your work.
- Community Building Grants: For registered charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £2 million, these offer funding of up to £75,000 towards ‘community hubs’.
View our revenue funding infographic here and our capital funding infographic here.
What else has changed
During our strategy review period, we asked our grant holders to tell us about how we could better use our resources to meet their needs. Over 600 organisations responded, and these insights were fundamental in how we have developed our funds.
Organisations can now apply for up to five years funding and there are no set closing dates; applications can be sent at any time with an aimed response time of 8-12 weeks.
Meanwhile, match-funding is no longer required for our revenue awards and we are keen to provide unrestricted funding where an organisation’s work is particularly aligned with our key themes. For more details on how we have responded to the feedback we received, please see our blog from last week.
While we have sharpened our focus around poverty and trauma, we know that the causes and solutions to these issues are as diverse as those they impact. We want to support work aligned to our three key themes which are:
We also know that some beneficiary groups are more likely to experience the effects of poverty and trauma, whom our funding will seek to support. These include: women; people with a disability; people from a BAME background; asylum seekers and refugees; people experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage; people living in rural or remote locations; older people; certain family groups; and young people under 25.
Accessibility
Each of our funds is designed to be clear, transparent and accessible to meet the needs of potential applicants. We’ve worked hard behind the scenes to simplify the application process and provide concise information on who and what we will fund in this strategic period.
In order to check whether your organisation could be eligible, we’ve created an interactive funding checker which takes you through a step-by-step process. However, we understand that you may still have questions that cannot be answered from our guidance and support tools. Due to Covid-19, all of the team are currently working from home but we are still accepting enquiries by email to funding@therobertsontrust.org.uk - we have also set up a dedicated voicemail to deal with any enquiries on 0141 353 4321. We are a small team but try to respond to enquiries as soon as possible. We are committed to ensuring we are offering a range of options for getting in touch.
Accessibility is key to our approach going forward and we would encourage you to share any thoughts or suggestions with trtcomms@therobertsontrust.org.uk.
Sign up for our webinars
As part of our commitment to simplifying the application process, we are running a series of webinars to go through each of our funds.
Although we are limited to 100 capacity for each of the webinar, we will share the recordings on our website and newsletter.
Applying for Wee Grants - 1-2.30PM Tuesday, 6th October
Revenue Funding: Applying for Small and Large Grants - 1-2.30PM Wednesday, 7th October
Capital Funding: Community Vehicle and Building Grants - 1-2.30PM Thursday, 8th October
