Grants & Donations Policy & Application Form
The policy aims to simplify and quality assure Tattershall with Thorpe Parish Council’s procedures for donation and grant making. No differentiation is made between grant and donation but acknowledgement that the latter is the usual form of award. For reasons of accountability it is necessary to formalise the application process to ensure access, openness and fairness to the many groups and organisations which we are asked to support. The policy is informed by a number of key principles aimed at making our process more orbust and user friendly.
Aim:
To ensure that all our award making activity is;
- Open
- Transparent
- Fair
- Competitive and
- Supports local organisations
Our yearly budgeting process is completed in November/December and offers for the following financial year cannot be made until Council approves the budget estimates, usually by the end of January. Our awards are open to established voluntary or community groups, as well as new or informal groups of parishioners who are or intend by the date of application to become formally constituted.
Who is eligible to apply?
To be eligible for an award an organisation should;
- Be established for charitable, benevolent, social, cultural, recreational or philanthropic purposes
- Have a constitution, or set of rules, which define its aims, objectives and operational procedures
- Be able to provide a copy of its latest annual accounts and/or most recent Bank Statement. Accounts are to be checked and signed by a person independent of the group, if requested.
- However, applications do not have to be from groups that already exist. Help will be given to new or informal groups who have come together to undertake new projects and priority will be given to those whose aim is to add value to the community, rather than applications for running costs
What can be funded?
The project should be something that makes the local community a better place in which to live, work or visit.
- It should benefit people who live in the Parish. (see s.137 included with this policy) and be commensurate with the expenditure.
- Each group may only make one application per financial year
Tattershall with Thorpe Parish Council support should be acknowledge as appropriate on all publicity and promotional material including posters, advertisements, press releases and leaflets. Financial support can only be used for the purpose for which the grant is given.
Preference will be given to loval groups.
The following are not eligible:
- Support for individuals or private business projects.
- Projects that improve or benefit privately owned land or property.
- Projects that have already been completed or will have been by the time the grant is issued
How will decisions be made?
All applications may not receive a grant, as there may be more applications than there is money available. However, all applications will be considered carefully. They will be assessed based on the following criteria:
- General eligibility
- Community support
- Value for money
- Environmental impact
- Community involvement
- Impact on key local need
- Feasibility
- Likely effectiveness
Tattershall with Thorpe Parish Council reserves the right to vary the application of this policy in circumstances where significant economic benefit to the Parish is demonstrated.
Section 137 Power of local authorities to incur expenditure for certain purposes not otherwise authorised.
(1) A local authority may, subject to the provisions of this section, incur expenditure which in their opinion is in the interests of, and will bring direct benefit to, their area or any part of it or all or some of its inhabitants, but a local authority shall not, by virtue of this subsection, incur any expenditure—
(a) for a purpose for which they are, either unconditionally or subject to any limitation or to the satisfaction of any condition, authorised or required to make any payment by or by virtue of any other enactment; nor
(b) unless the direct benefit accruing to their area or any part of it or to all or some of the inhabitants of their area will be commensurate with the expenditure to be incurred.
(1A) In any case where—
(a) by virtue of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) above, a local authority are prohibited from incurring expenditure for a particular purpose, and
(b) the power or duty of the authority to incur expenditure for that purpose is in any respect limited or conditional (whether by being restricted to a particular group of persons or in any other way),
the prohibition in that paragraph shall extend to all expenditure to which that power or duty would apply if it were not subject to any limitation or condition.
(2) It is hereby declared that the power of a local authority to incur expenditure under subsection (1) above includes power to do so by contributing towards the defraying of expenditure by another local authority in or in connection with the exercise of that other authority’s functions.
The following link will allow you to review and download the application form: