Grant Policy
Grant Awarding Policy
Criteria:
1. Requests for grants will only be accepted for consideration provided that the council’s ‘application for grants’ form has been completed and appropriate supplementary information provided.
2. Applicants may be required to attend the meeting to answer any questions councillors may have about the project.
3. Grants will be available from £30.00 to £1000.00 and will not be made retrospectively.
4. Applications for grants of less than £500.00 can be made at any time but please allow at least 8 weeks for your grant application to be considered by the parish council.
5. Grant applications over £500.00 will need to be made prior to October each year for consideration by the council when preparing its budget for the following financial year.
6. The council requires all recipients of grants in excess of £500.00 to provide a written report of how the grant money has been used within 3 months of receipt of the grant. This may take the form of an annual report or set of accounts that clearly identify the manner of spending. The written report must be deposited with the clerk to the council, and becomes a document which members of the public have a right to inspect under the provision of Section 228 of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).
7. Grant recipients may be requested to provide evidence of purchase.
8. Recipients may be asked to acknowledge council support on stationery/promotional material.
9. The parish council will consider only one application for each project in any one financial year. However, an organisation may apply for funding for more than one project within a financial year.
10. If the organisation making the grant application owns or leases property which other bodies hire for use, the council will expect them to demonstrate that they make a distinction between not-for-profit and for-profit hirers in the rates they charge (businesses should not be subsidised with public funds).
11. Organisations that do not have a child protection policy, will, if deemed appropriate, be required as part of the conditions of grant aid to adopt a policy within. months of receipt of the grant.
12. Extended grants – ie. grants that run over a period of more than one year will not be considered.
13. Factors the council will take into account when considering an application:
- Has the parish council the power to make the grant?
- Will all or part of the parish or all or some of its inhabitants benefit?
- Has the applicant demonstrated some degree of fund-raising on a ‘self-help’ basis?
- If the applying group employs paid staff, is it a registered charity?
General Guidance for Applicants:
1. The council will not normally make grants to organisations outside of the parish, unless there are direct benefits to the parish
2. Applications should be made for ‘one-off’ grants (ie. applications for small capital items or ‘one-off’ projects should not result in recurring expenditure for the parish council)
3. Applicants will be expected to show a degree of ‘self-help’
4. When the council considers the grant applicants, it will arrange for applicants to attend the evaluation meeting if necessary to answer any questions.
Application form
Applicants must request a grant form from the clerk to the council and return it to the clerk, together with appropriate supplementary information. Only an original, with original signatures, will be accepted.
Payment of grants
In the case of organisations/projects receiving a single grant from the parish council, they have the choice of a single one-off payment, or the funding can be retained by the parish council and released by the clerk on receipt of an authorised request.
Resolved by Middle Rasen Parish Council: March 2013
Reviewed and Updated by Middle Rasen Parish Council: August 2019
Next review date: August 2020