City Bridge Trust Stepping Stones Fund Application guidelines City Bridge Trust and UBS want to support high quality work that will help us meet our priorities. These guidelines are intended to help you understand our application process and the information we need to consider your grant request. If you require our application form or related guidance in alternative formats such as large print, Braille or audio tape please contact us at steppingstones@cityoflondon.gov.uk or on 020 7332 3710 to discuss your needs. City Bridge Trust will also hold open information sessions during the application period, so that interested organisations can ask their questions and share their concerns in person. These will take place at the following: 4 th April 2017, time & location TBC 26 th April 2017, time & location TBC 4 th May 2017, time & location TBC The application process Before you apply Before making an application please make sure you have read our Stepping Stones Fund details carefully as we are not able to fund work that does not help us meet the Fund s intended outcomes. We are unable to consider applications received after our published deadline date and time. How the application process works The application process will consist of 3 stages: Stage 1: Eligibility Stage 2: Application form Stage 3: Personal interview Stage 1: Eligibility Before applying for support from the Stepping Stones Fund you need to complete an online eligibility quiz to check whether you meet all our basic criteria. Please be honest when going through these criteria, they will be checked again later as part of the selection process and non-eligible applicants will be eliminated. Is committed to solving social problems Serving beneficiaries of Greater London Has an eligible organisational structure: registered charity; registered Community Interest Company; registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation; charitable company; exempt or
excepted charity; registered charitable industrial and provident society or charitable Cooperative (Bencom) Operational for at least 1 year; able to produce at least one year s audited or independently examined annual accounts Has funding in place (or a very high likelihood of securing such funding) for one year of operation Has at least one full-time or two part-time staff members Is seeking to develop a revenue generating activity, which requires the organisation to take on social investment If all your answers are yes, you will be able to go on to the next stage, i.e. the application form. Answering no to any of the eligibility questions means that you should not continue to Stage 2. Stage 2: Application form Stage 2 asks for an introduction to your organisation and why you would like Stepping Stones funding. The Trust will use this information to shortlist the strongest proposals ahead of Stage 3. You will be asked to fill in the online application form and submit a 3-page outline proposal. You will select the Stepping Stones Fund strand that you wish to apply under and explain how our support is essential for the success of your plans. Accounts, pro-forma budget projections and the organisation s constitution will also be requested. If most recent signed audited or independently examined accounts are not supplied by the end of stage 3, your application will be disqualified from the process. The application form is online and you can start filling it in and stop at any point in time; you can save your answers and return to the form later. Details of how to do this and what documents to include are given below. Completed Application forms and the appendices will have to be submitted by Wednesday 10 th May 2017. These guidelines and the Frequently Asked Questions on the City Bridge Trust (CBT) website www.citybridgetrust.org.uk should help you think about your proposal and complete the application form. Should you have the need for further enquiries you can write to the following e-mail address during the application period or attend one of the information sessions listed above. E-mail: steppingstones@cityoflondon.gov.uk Stage 3: Detailed proposal and personal interview The Trust will identify the most suitable applications at the end of Stage 2. Organisations will then be invited to prepare a Stage 3 application. If you are shortlisted for this stage you will be offered the opportunity for a telephone consultation with the Trust to help you make the strongest possible case for funding. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to submit additional documents for this stage: a detailed proposal or business plan including financial projections, strategic plan, minutes of their Board meeting approving the work towards social investment and any other related documents they deem important. Business plans and financial projections are especially important for applicants under strand 2. Those candidates that do not submit financial forecasts will not be considered. The Trust will review Stage 3 applications and will invite selected organisations to a personal interview. Organisations invited to the interview will be asked to present and discuss their proposal with the Selection Panel in a personal interview of maximum one hour. The Panel will have questions, but applicants should prepare themselves to present and share what they think is important to know about their proposal. Dates and times for the interview will be agreed with every applicant individually. The interview and the detailed proposals will be considered together for the final funding decision. Invitation to the interview does not mean funding has been awarded. The Selection Panel will be looking for:
Well thought out proposals that are a good strategic fit with the rest of the organisation s work Fit with the objectives of the Stepping Stones Fund Leadership and vision To help applicants prepare for interview, City Bridge Trust will offer surgery sessions to shortlisted organisations with the participation of UBS volunteers. The surgery sessions will take place before the personal interview and are aimed to provide constructive feedback to applicants about their presentation and business plans. The Selection Panel will make recommendations about the allocation of funding under both strands to the City Bridge Trust Grants Committee. Feedback to applicants Applicants will be notified in writing whether they have been shortlisted to move on to Stage 3. Applicants who do not make it to the shortlist will be rejected at this stage. Telephone feedback will be available for unsuccessful applicants on request. Shortlisted applicants will be contacted and asked to submit a detailed proposal/business plan and attend an interview to present their findings to a selection panel. A final decision on funding will be made by the City Bridge Trust Grants Committee. Applicants will be informed about the final decisions in writing and can receive telephone feedback if unsuccessful. Timeline for the application process 20 th March 2017 Call for proposals announced 20 th March 10 th May 2017 Inquiry e-mail and phone line open 4 th & 26 th April, 4 th May 2017 Information sessions 10 th May 2017 Application deadline 22 nd May 2017 Shortlisted candidates selected and recommended to Grant Committee End of May 2017 All candidates informed about Stage 2 selection (shortlist) 29 th May 2 nd June 2017 Phone consultation with shortlisted candidates 5 th June 2017 Surgery sessions offered by UBS volunteers 28 th June 2017 Additional stage 3 documents deadline for shortlisted candidates 24 th 28 th July 2017 Selection interviews End of August 2017 September 2017 September 2017 Final recommendations submitted to Grant Committee Final grantees approved Grant offer letter sent
How to complete the application form The application form is your chance to tell us more about your organisation, the work you would like us to fund and why. Please answer the questions in the application form as fully as possible. The questions are not intended to catch you out but help us understand whether the Stepping Stones Fund is likely to be able to support your work. To make an application you will need to set up an online account using an email address. You will be asked to set a password which you will need to access your application. You can save your application and return to work on it at a later time using the save and finish later button at the end of each page. We recommend saving your application regularly whilst you are working on it. We will use the e-mail address provided by you on the online form as the main way of contacting you. It is vital that you let us know if any of your contact details change and that you ensure that the e-mail account remains active and is able to receive messages. You should check your e-mail on a regular basis once you have submitted your application. For some questions there is a word limit. The word count is shown below the text box and shows how many full words you have used out of the limit. For financial and other numerical questions please enter 0 where the answer is nil. We ask for a number of supporting documents to be submitted with your application. We strongly advise you to refer to the Supporting documents guidance on page 13 of this document to make sure you submit the correct information. o A 3-page detailed proposal that provides more information about your project o Signed audited or independently examined accounts o Draft accounts for your most recent financial year: if your audited or examined accounts are not yet ready o A financial forecast for your current financial year o A budget for your next financial year if your next financial year is due to start within 4 months of your submission of this application. We would prefer you to submit documents electronically, but if this is not possible please contact the Trust by e-mail at steppingstones@cityoflondon.gov.uk If you want more information to help you complete your application there are buttons which take you to some helpful links at the top of the online application form on all pages. Tips for completing your application You might find it easier to prepare your answers to the longer text questions in a separate document and then to copy and paste them into the online application. Try to avoid the use of abbreviations (e.g. use European Social Fund rather than ESF ), jargon or technical terms. Answer all questions in full and do not simply refer to attached documents.
Guidance for specific sections of the online application About your organisation Section A: Organisation background Name of your organisation: This should be your organisation's legal name, as it appears on your governing documents, bank account and Charity Commission register. If your organisation has a previous name or is also known as something different to your legal name, what is it? This could include shortened forms of your organisation's legal name or acronyms. Please leave this blank if it is not relevant. Address for correspondence: Please enter the building and street details of your address. Town / City: Please enter the town or city as shown on your postal address. County: Enter the county of your organisation (if applicable). Please remember that City Bridge Trust can only fund work which benefits residents of Greater London. Postcode: Please enter your FULL postcode, including both parts separated by a space. If you are unsure of your correct postcode, please check at: www.royalmail.com/postcode-finder/ In which London Borough is your organisation based? Select a borough from the drop-down list, or select 'Outside London' if your organisation is not based in Greater London. Position within the organisation: Please enter your full position (e.g. Chair or Treasurer) or job title. Phone: Please enter your main contact telephone number. We would prefer this to be a landline where possible. E-mail: It is essential that you enter a valid e-mail address that you will check regularly as this is what we will use to contact you about your request for funding. Remember to update us if the email contact details for this request change. Organisation website: Please enter your organisation's website address (if you have one). Legal status of organisation: Please select the status which most closely describes your organisation from the drop-down list. If you are registered with the Charity Commission but not Companies House choose registered charity. If you are registered with both the Charity Commission and Companies House choose charitable company. Registration number: Please enter the Charity, Charitable Incorporated Company, company or other registration number which relates to the legal status of your organisation. When was your organisation established? If exact date isn't known, enter an approximate date in the correct year. Aims of your organisation: What is your organisation set up to do? These are your aims as set out in your mission statement, articles of association or constitution. Who are the beneficiaries of your organisation? Please, describe their number, location and the social problem they are facing. Main activities of your organisation: What does your organisation do on a day-to- day basis? These are the main activities or services you provide in order to meet your aims. Section B: Number of Staff/Volunteers Full-time: Enter the number of full-time staff employed by your organisation. Enter 0 if none. Part-time: Enter the number of part-time staff employed by your organisation. Enter 0 if none.
Management committee members: Depending on your legal structure this might be your trustees, management committee members or non-executive directors. Active volunteers: Enter the number of volunteers who have a regular and frequent commitment with your organisation, not including trustees. How do you support your volunteers? For example, how do you induct and train your volunteers? How do you recognise the contribution they make to your organisation? Grant request for Stepping Stones Fund Section C: Details of grant request Under which strand of the Stepping Stones Fund strand are you applying? The Stepping Stones Fund was created in recognition of the gap between the grant finance available for organisations and the requirements of organisations that seek to secure social investment. Stepping Stones wants to provide targeted support in the form or grants and risk finance to test out the viability of different propositions. In this way, the fund helps to de-risk any future investment, whether it is the City of London Corporation considering an investment, or any other investor. The Stepping Stones fund will consider applications under the following strands: 1. Capacity building grants for charitable organisations: to provide organisations with human, financial and strategic support as well as supporting access to appropriate expert intermediaries to enhance their overall performance skills to meet their mission, deliver their outcomes and thereby enhancing their investment readiness and long term financial stability. Proposals for the capacity building strand need to show a clear link between the targeted capacity increase and the applicant s sustainability and social investment readiness and how that leads to improved social outcomes. The Trust expects to award no more than 50,000 per organisation under this strand. 2. Grants to pilot better outcomes: to support organizations wishing to pilot new ways of creating improved social outcomes in a specific sector, geography or outcome area; test out new ideas, new business models, new partnerships and ways of working as well as alternative ways of measuring complex outcomes. Proposals for piloting outcomes are expected to be beyond the idea or start-up phase; they should include a clear business concept and hypothesis about the targeted social outcomes. The pilot should lead the organisation to using social investment for expansion or further development; this should be explained in the proposal. If the pilot needs the improvement of certain capacities within the organization, capacity building could be included in the proposal with appropriate justification. The Trust expects to award no more than 50,000 per organisation under this strand. Amount of funding offered There is no minimum amount, but the maximum grant amount under strands 1 and 2 can be expected to be 50,000. However, it is not our policy to award large grants to small organisations. Your proposal and the budget need to be realistic and reflect that you thought through the costs and possible revenues. As a general rule, the Stepping Stones Fund will not fund more than 50% of an organisation's total revenue income. See more details about the proposals for each strand under Section E guidelines in this document. Please describe the purpose of your funding request in 1 sentence: This is used as the title of your work in the summary that goes to our Grants Committee so it is important to make your description as clear as
possible within the text limit of 25 words. You are given the opportunity to provide more details about your request in subsequent questions. When will the funding be required? Please bear in mind when planning your work that it will take up to 4 months to assess your application. The Stepping Stones Fund will use a milestone approach to payment of grants and risk finance and expects to see applications over duration of a maximum of 18 months. How much funding are you requesting? Enter the amount in whole pounds, using numbers only. When deciding how much you are requesting, you should consult our guidelines and bear in mind the caps mentioned above and that we will not fund more than 50% of an organisation's total revenue income. Do you plan to continue the activity beyond the period for which you are requesting funding? If so, how will you resource it? The Committee will need to be satisfied that you are building a sustainable model and will have a reasonable plan for alternative sources at the end of the Stepping Stones Fund s funding period. Section D: Referee Referee: Please make sure the referee is one of your organisation s current or recent funders and that they have given their permission to act as a referee. For example this could be your grants officer from a grant-making trust or local authority. Referee address: Please include the postcode in the address box. Section E: Summary of grant request Please summarise what your grant request is for. It is important that you provide a clear summary of your request. This should include for both strands: the need for the project; how the work will be delivered; what your project will aim to achieve; why you are the right organisation to deliver the work; how your project fits with the priorities of the Stepping Stones Fund. In addition, for specific strands, please, include information about the following: For strand 1: in what areas are you planning to build your capacities and why; what form would capacity building take (adding additional staff, training, consulting, etc); which service provider you wish to work with for capacity building; why you would choose the service provider you choose; how the capacity building fits with your strategy and will help you move towards social investment and/or build a sustainable business; how you will measure the impact of this capacity building on your organisation. For strand 2: why piloting the model is necessary and what you will do with the results of the pilot; how will social investment be used for further development; key assumptions for the new business model, such as what is the service or product you are planning, market size and demand (i.e. who will purchase your outcomes), your ability to deliver, partnerships you may consider and why; evidence of end-user involvement; start-up and running costs, expected revenue, main risks and their mitigation, expected social impact and its measurement. Section F: What are the main activities or outputs you want to deliver? Please include no more than five. By activities or outputs we mean the services, products or facilities you plan to deliver. If you plan to deliver work over more than one year you should include activities over the full grant period requested. Be as specific as possible, for example: Two of our team members will attend a business planning course in March-June 2017
We will pilot delivering 10 workshops to provide disabled young people with information and skills as they move into adulthood. We will approach social business angels with a specific investment request in Q1 of 2018 Section G: What main differences or outcomes would your project deliver? Please include no more than 5. By differences or outcomes we mean the changes, benefits, learning or other effects that result from the work your project would deliver. These might be for your organisation, individuals, families, communities or the environment. For example: Using our new business plan we will be able to apply for a working capital loan to XY bank More disabled young people will be able to find jobs and improve their livelihood as a result of our workshops. We will be able to sell those workshops and our placement services to the local council. We will obtain the first investment from a social business angel, which will enable us to open a new location and thus extend our paid services to 200 new beneficiaries How will you know, whether you are achieving those social outcomes? When responding to this question, please, describe how you plan to monitor your progress and what indicators you would use to measure it. Section H: Funding required All the questions in this section refer to the specific project or area of work for which you are applying, NOT your organisation as a whole. If you have more expenditure or income lines than are available please group these on the form. What is the total cost of the proposed activity/project? In this section you should include all costs associated with the piece of work, even if you are not asking the Stepping Stones Fund to fund the whole amount. Although match funding is not a requirement, we do look at which other funders are already involved or have been approached, especially if your proposal requires more resources than what we are able to offer. We are also interested to see how much of your own resources you are willing to invest in the implementation of your proposal. How much is requested from the Trust? List here all the costs you want the Stepping Stones Fund to fund from those listed in the Funding required for the project question. These may be the same if you are asking us to fund the whole of the project. The 6-month totals and the grand total should equal the amounts you included in section C. Finance details Section I. What is your organisation s reserves policy? This should be the formal reserves policy as agreed by your governing body. If you are a charity your organisation s financial reserves policy should be stated in your annual accounts. This sets out the level of free unrestricted funds that your organisation aims to set by to cover unforeseen circumstances such as gaps in funding, redundancy costs, rental costs and other liabilities. If you are not a charity you may not be required to have a reserves policy. Please state not relevant if this is the case. If your reserves policy is longer than 100 words please provide a summary and let us know this is not the full description. To find out more about reserves visit the Charity Commission website: http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/media/93927/cc19text.pdf Section J: Statutory Funding For your most recent financial year, what % of your income was from statutory sources? This does not need to be an exact percentage - please select the closest range from the drop down list.
Section K: Organisational changes Describe any significant organisational changes to your structure, financial position or core activities since the date of your most recent accounts: This should include any changes in key members of staff or management committee; any major changes to your funding situation; significant changes to your activities or services; change of legal status; or any major changes to your premises. It may well be that nothing has changed substantially, in which case please answer 'none'. Section L: Composition of income and expenditure in previous years Previous funding mix: Please list the funding/revenue received by your organisation from the following sources during the last THREE years. If your financial year is different to the calendar year, please use the year in which your financial year started i.e. if your financial year runs from April 2014 to March 2015 use the 2014 year column. London Councils: Formerly called Association of London Government (ALG). Central Government Departments Other statutory bodies: Housing Corporation, Arts Council. Trusts & foundations: please, do not include City Bridge Trust here Corporations: this refers to corporate grants Individuals: donations or sponsorship received from individuals other than membership fees. This line should include fundraising drives targeting members of the public. Membership fees: for membership organisations only Self-generated revenue: this line should include any revenue from your own income generating activities, for example trading income. Please, specify what the activity is. If you have more than one revenue generating or business activity, please, list them all, but aggregate the income. Other: any other income, which did not fit in any of the above categories. Please specify what it is. Previous expenditure: please list the expenses incurred by your organisation during the last THREE years. List type (e.g. salaries, utilities, inventory, etc.) and annual amounts. Please include the 5 most important and relevant types of expense only. Declaration The declaration and data protection statement should be agreed by an authorised representative of your organisation. For example, this might be the staff member completing the form, your Chief Executive or a trustee. This should not be a consultant working on behalf of your organisation. Supporting documents guidance 1. Detailed proposal (maximum 3 pages) in addition to the online application form This is a separate document that provides more detail on your request for funding. This is the information the staff at City Bridge Trust will use to assess the strength of your application. There is no set format for this and we would expect it to be proportionate to the amount you are requesting and the size of your organisation. A detailed proposal should include more background details in all aspects you summarized in Section E of the Application form; your evidence of why the project is needed; how the project fits in with your organisation s strategy; a project plan with timescales and key milestones; a more detailed budget breakdown which makes it clear how the project has been costed and what revenues are projected (for Strand 2); how you will manage the work; and the risk assessment you have undertaken. 2. Signed audited or independently examined accounts
We need you to send us your most recently signed audited or independently examined accounts. If the accounts are not received by the deadline, your proposal will not be considered further. 3. Draft accounts for your most recent financial year If final accounts for your most recent financial year are not yet ready please send us your draft accounts. We realise that these may be management accounts and are subject to change following audit/examination. However, they will help us better understand your financial position at your most recent year-end. 4. A financial forecast for your current financial year This should cover the 12 months of your current financial year. Please identify separately restricted and unrestricted income and expenditure. By this we mean restricted income that has been given by a funder for a specific purpose and unrestricted income which your management committee can decide how to use. We realise that you may not have confirmed all income shown in the forecast. Please indicate which income sources are confirmed (secured or pledged) and which are unconfirmed. 5. A budget for your next financial year As with the forecast above this should identify confirmed and unconfirmed income; and restricted and unrestricted income and expenditure. 6. A copy of your organisation's constitution. This is your organisation s governing document. For example, depending on your legal status this may be a constitution, Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association or Trust Deed. Please don t forget to include both your memorandum and articles of association. How to submit your documents: You should be able to do this easily using the online application form s upload function. First select the type of document from the title drop-down list. Then click on the 'browse' button to locate the file on your system and then click the 'upload' button. Attachments should either be Word Documents (.doc), Excel Spreadsheets (.xls) or in Portable Document Format (.pdf). We may not be able to open documents that are in other formats. Please note that the attachments cannot total more than 10MB. If for some reason you are unable to attach your documents please contact City Bridge Trust for advice. It is important that you submit all the supporting documents required as we cannot start to assess your application before we have received all the information required. If you are unsuccessful, please contact us. We may advise that you e-mail these supporting document files along with the application form to: steppingstones@cityoflondon.gov.uk