We are delighted to announce that our Wee Grants fund will reopen again at the end of this month. We will also be opening our new-look Transport Fund on the same date.
This is the first stage of a phased return of Our Funds and we will be sharing more information in the coming weeks around the application process and timeline, as well as details of when our other funds will be returning.
We paused to new applications on 31st May this year as part of our commitment to embed cycles of learning and continuous improvement across all our work. The purpose of this was to look at where we can have the biggest impact within our themes and ensure we are clear externally about what’s in and out of scope for funding aligned to our Mission. In other words, to sharpen the focus of Our Funds to achieve our strategic aims, rather than changing those aims.
Over the summer, our team has also been working hard to assess the significant increase in applications we saw in the quarter leading up to the 31st May closing date. Applications numbers rose to 211% the level we saw in previous quarters, with a particularly high increase in applications for our Large Grants. These have been assessed using the same criteria and assessment guidelines as before, with additional decision-making meetings held in August to ensure decisions could be sent to applicants as soon as possible.
Despite this significant increase, we are pleased the phased return of Our Funds will begin by the end of September as we had committed to.
We will soon be in a position to share the updated guidelines for Wee Grants and Transport Grants and we invite all those interested to keep up-to-date with our social channels, website and mailing list for the latest information.
