General Feedback
- When applying for project funding, ensure your answers specifically talk about that work and not generally about your organisation
- Be clear and concise - make sure it's clear what will be achieved with the funding and/or what the impact will be
- Clarify who will benefit from your work or activity (including their involvement, specific needs and evidencing those needs)
- Have a clear mission statement/vision
- Keep answers brief and succinct; longer answers tend to be difficult to follow
- Ensure your budget balances
Equalities, diversity and inclusion
- Ensure you support your answer with data/evidence if you are an existing group/project
- Those who include an action plan and monitoring information may score more highly
- Clearly demonstrate how you will actively include those experiencing inequalities
Partnership working
- Clearly demonstrate how you support organisations or collaborate with them
- Include how partnership working contributes value to your project
Health and wellbeing
- Be specific about how your work or activity will provide meaningful health and wellbeing benefits and how it links into the community insight profile outcomes and recommendations
- If you have evidence of impact clearly state this in your application
Application prompts to consider
Equalities, diversity and inclusion
We expect every grant applicant to consider how they can use the Oxford Community Impact Fund to help to reduce inequalities in the city. Please give more information about how you plan to do this. Please also supply your equalities policy, or similar.
Environmental sustainability and zero carbon Oxford
In January 2019, Oxford declared a climate emergency, and in autumn 2019 became the first UK city to hold a Citizens Assembly on Climate Change. How will you mitigate the environmental effects of your Big Idea/s? Please also supply your environmental policy, or similar.
Additional scores are available for activity which reduces carbon emissions and increases biodiversity in the city. If relevant, please explain how your Big Idea/s will support this goal.
Partnership working and cross-sector support
We encourage applications which involve more than one organisation. This can help reach more people, encourage a wider range of thinking and enable resources and learning to be shared. Those working across and between different sectors will score more highly
We will expect organisations applying for larger levels of funding with bigger budgets to support grassroots organisations e.g. by offering venue space and equipment, helping with marketing and fundraising, providing mentoring opportunities for people to gain more skills and experience etc. How does your work or activity meet these criteria?
Health and wellbeing
Given the global pandemic context, we are keen to support applications which will benefit the physical and/or mental wellbeing of residents and Oxford’s environment. How will your work or activity support this?
Leverage and match funding
We are looking to support organisations who will bring in additional funding to the city and use our grant to generate/earn additional income. Applications that attract larger levels of funding will score more highly. Please explain what additional funding/income your work or activity will generate.
Innovation
We have all had to change our ways of working during the pandemic and we are keen for the organisations we fund to continue to test new ideas and share the results. This could include, for example, piloting different technologies, processes, service delivery or any other aspect that could result in better quality, social benefit, value-for-money or community reach. Please tell us more about how your Big Idea/s is/are innovative.
Inclusive economy
We encourage applications which will increase opportunities for disadvantaged groups to have a fair share in the city’s economy. This could be by offering apprenticeships/internships and work experience; sharing space, skills or equipment; contracting locally and supporting independent businesses and by remunerating staff fairly.
Organisations paying the Oxford Living Wage will score more highly. How will your work or activity support these goals? It would be helpful if you can provide an estimate of your local spend as a percentage of your turnover.
It would also be helpful if you can confirm how many current and new paid and/or volunteer roles will be protected/created with this funding.
