Doosan Babcock Grassroots Fund

Grants for small voluntary, community groups and grass-roots organisations to enable them to continue or expand their work in advocacy, community voice, and service provision for local people in Doosan Babcock’s employee residence areas of Allerdale, Barrow, Carlisle and Copeland.

Donor Doosan Babcock Limited

Examples of projects supported: • scenery hire for production of a musical in a local theatre • DIY equipment for Men in Sheds • astro-turf rebound boards for a community sports ground • activities to help young people learn about setting up their own companies • coaching costs for members of a junior cricket club

What the Fund will not support in addition to our normal exclusions: • individuals

How much can you apply for?

Grants will normally be less than £1,000 over one year, however, there is no minimum or maximum award amount.

What we will fund:

• Projects where the majority of people who will benefit are disadvantaged
• Groups working with children where the majority are disadvantaged or have special needs
• Groups with 12 months or less running costs in unrestricted reserves
• Groups operating within the county of Cumbria (Except Beckburn Windfarm and Cumberland Building Society Community Fund – please refer to the fund pages for the full area of benefit) Groups with a registered address and/or local voluntary management committee or Board of Trustees in Cumbria (Except Beckburn Windfarm and Cumberland Building Society Community Fund – please refer to fund pages for the full area of benefit)
• Core costs and overheads for your organisation
• Salaries and equipment purchases
• Capital projects that meet our fund criteria

What we won’t fund:

• Animal welfare
• Contact boxing, except where donor-advised
• Businesses and personal profit
• Deficit funding
• General large appeals
• Medical research and equipment, except where donor-advised
• Activities that are normally the responsibility of central or local government
• Awards from the same fund in a 12 month period
• Projects which duplicate an existing service in an area
• Fundraisers and fundraising events
• Advancement of religion including buildings solely for religious purposes, except where donor-advised -political activities
• Purchase of vehicle, except where donor-advised
• Groups or individuals who have not returned th eir monitoring form
• Beautification projects, except where donor-advised
• National organisations that do not have a local presence within Cumbria

Safeguarding relates to the actions taken to promote the welfare and wellbeing of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and to protect them from harm, abuse and neglect.

The trustees of an organisation have the primary responsibility for safeguarding beneficiaries, staff and volunteers, and must take all the necessary steps to ensure that their organisation is operating in a safe and secure environment. This includes staff and volunteers receiving appropriate training and support to prevent safeguarding issues arising, or to spot signs of abuse; robust procedures for reporting abuse in a timely and objective manner, and clear accountability structures, including a named contact for any safeguarding issues.

Cumbria Community Foundation takes the safeguarding of children and adults at risk seriously and we expect organisations applying for our funding to have a safeguarding policy that is up-to-date and relevant to their beneficiaries.

Who can apply?

Voluntary and community groups in the priority areas which support community services and projects areas that:

• help people learn new things and increase their personal confidence • get people involved in their community • make the community a better place to live

We make grants to a wide range of organisations. We are particularly keen to help grassroots community groups and small-to-medium-sized voluntary organisations. We do not normally make grants to large UK-wide charities, but we might do so where there are strong relationships in our area and the proposal has the potential to achieve a substantial impact.

You do not have to be a registered charity to apply, but the work you ask us to support must be legally charitable.

Volunteer-led organisations, registered charities and CIOs must:

• Have a management committee with a minimum of three unrelated members
• Have a bank or building society account in the name of the organisation/group, with a minimum of two unrelated bank signatories
• Have charitable aims, evidenced by the governing document.
• Provide evidence of good governance practices and sound financial management including being registered with the Charity Commission, Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) or other governing body, depending on the size of the organisation, annual accounts.
• Register with the Charity Commission if your charitable organisation is based in England or Wales and has over £5,00 0 income per year.

Social enterprises, Community Interest Companies (CIC) and other companies must:

• Have a management committee with a minimum of three directors, or four directors if two are related. The majority of directors should be unpaid. Directors should have equal voting rights.
• Have a bank or building society account in the name of the organisation/company, with a minimum of two unrelated bank signatories
• Have clear charitable purposes and a defined social benefit, evidenced by Articles of Association and community benefit statement. Please also supply your CIC 34 report (if this has been made available).
• Provide evidence of good governance practices and sound financial management, including having a recognised status (e.g. a company limited by guarantee), and be registered with the necessary relevant body (e.g. Companies House, CIC regulator, annual accounts.
• Ensure an Asset Lock body is named and has objectives both charitable and similar to the CIC, ensuring benefit to the community.

NB: We will ask you to provide evidence of the above as part of your funding application For most funds, you can apply whatever your income level. Some funds may have more specific requirements about the size and type of organisation eligible.

Please note if you have previously had a grant from us we will not consider any new application unless you have submitted any outstanding end of grant monitoring reports.