Investor Programme 2009-12

‘Money Matters, Homes Matter, Families’ Matter’

The programme supports 10 charities and their partners with grants of around £300,000 from 2009-12.  This support is made in accordance with the Foundation’s funding criteria for the period.

Funding Criteria Applied

“To tackle financial exclusion and address housing issues affecting survivors of domestic abuse, and older people, who are one of the following:

• Aged 70yrs and over
• Aged 50yrs and over who have dementia
• Aged 50yrs and over from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups
• Aged 50yrs and over who are carers for family members or partners who are also 50 years or older
• Aged 50yrs and over who have experienced or are experiencing financial abuse
• Aged 50yrs and over who are rurally isolated.

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Priorities

During the assessment process, the following priorities were applied:

• Joint bids from registered charities which had formed partnerships with other organisations (not necessarily charities e.g. academic bodies, think tanks, researchers, social enterprises) to address the issues identified in the funding objectives; or which intended to form partnerships to do so.
• Innovation e.g. we were interested in funding:
  • new work
  • pilot projects
  • work based on successful pilot projects
  • the delivery of existing services in new ways
  • work which seeks to develop effective models for replication
  • continuation or roll out of existing pioneering work.
• Nature of support:
  • Research
  • New projects, pilot projects and existing work (based on previous evidence of need / research)
  • Awareness raising / campaigning to promote change.

Priority was given to applications for work which encompassed two or three of these.

We were happy to fund core costs and contribute towards the salaries of finance staff for the charity.

MORE THAN MONEY

Added Value of the Investor Programme

In addition to grant support, the Programme has the following characteristics:

• Partnership

  As part of the grant conditions, successful applicants commit to work in partnership with other successful applicants, which the Foundation brings together. The commitment includes a requirement for successful applicants to attend partnership meetings one or two times a year and a commitment to visit other successful applicants to share learning.

  This is a key part of our Investor Programme and has the aim of achieving wider benefits and creating a stronger voice to help bring about positive social change in the areas identified in the funding criteria.

  All costs associated with partnership working are covered by the Foundation.

  We have a legacy of encouraging charities which work in the same fields to work in partnership with one another to:

  • share experience and learning
  • identify ways of reducing duplication to save valuable charitable resource
  • achieve greater outcomes for their beneficiaries e.g. through signposting them to one another's services, to forming awareness raising projects together.

  This work was first piloted though a grant programme which we operated from 2001-2005 called the New Generation Initiative, NGI. This programme won the grant making category at the Charity Awards 2006. It was independently evaluated and the lessons learned helped to shape our previous Supporting Families Investor Programme, which in turn has helped to shape this strategy.

• Building Resilience

  We are committed to building the resilience of charities we fund, to help them become more robust and therefore operate more effectively and to help ensure that they continue successfully after our grant support ends. We are therefore committed to:

  • Funding core costs
  • Giving grants which incorporate Full Cost Recovery (www.fullcostrecovery.org.uk)
  • Offering the deployment of exit strategy consultants during the third year of funding to prepare charities for the withdrawal of our support and assist them with seeking replacement funding.

  We are also prepared to consider support towards the following, determined on a 'needs basis' as identified whilst working with successful applicants:

  • Ways to increase financial resilience and competence e.g. funding of finance staff
  • Training for trustees and staff (finance, governance, HR and strategy related)
  • Fees of conferences/seminars to 'plug' charities into the networks in the fields in which they operate
  • Membership of umbrella support organisations e.g. offering governance support
  • Strategy days for trustees, staff and volunteers
  • Risk reviews.

  All costs associated with building resilience are covered by the Foundation.

• Monitoring

  Grantees receive quarterly monitoring and support visits from a dedicated Foundation staff member. This is for the following reasons:

  • To ensure the charities are meeting the agreed objectives and outputs
  • So the Foundation can build a positive, transparent, relationship with the charity
  • So the charity can communicate any current or potential issues which may affect the delivery of the work being funded
  • So the Foundation can offer more hands-on support as and when needed
  • So the Foundation can meet staff, volunteers and beneficiaries of the charity and witness 'work in action'
  • So the Foundation can better understand the needs of the charity and its beneficiaries so it can respond more effectively.
• Measuring and Evaluation

  Following a tender process, the Foundation is delighted to have appointed Cass Business School’s Centre for Charity Effectiveness to:

  • Conduct a four year evaluation of the work funded and the grant programme itself. The evaluation will run for the three years of grant funding and a year thereafter to capture any longer term benefits achieved
  • Provide the Foundation with an independent evaluation on its performance as a funder so it can improve its future grant programmes. The evaluation may also be used to share lessons and good practice with other funders
  • Provide grantees with an independent evaluation of the work which the Foundation is funding and assist them to measure outcomes.  Charities will be able to use the independent evaluation to help improve their work and evidence the benefits of their work to other potential funders.

  All costs associated with the independent evaluation are covered by the Foundation, in addition to the grants.

• End of Programme Event

  The Foundation will consider organising an end of programme event with the charities supported, to promote positive change e.g:

  • To share the findings of the independent evaluations
  • To raise awareness of work funded and share learning on how best to address the issues and promote change for the better.

  All costs associated with such an event will be covered by the Foundation.

• Application Process and Time-line

  The complete application process took six months from April until September 2009.

  • We invited Expressions of Interest on one page of A4 during April and May with copies of applicants’ latest annual accounts
  • We conducted site visits and detailed interviews to those charities whose Expressions of Interest were successful, during June and July 2009
  • A sub-group of Foundation Trustees and staff then met to shortlist those visited. A small number of applicants were then invited to submit detailed funding bids
  • Applicants wrote their funding bids, containing clear objectives, outputs and outcomes to be achieved, during August 2009. The charities received assistance from Foundation staff
  • The successful funding bids were approved by the full Board of Trustees at their quarterly Board Meeting in mid-September 2009.

  The Foundation’s next large grants programme is expected to be open to applicants in 2012.

The Nationwide Foundation is a registered charity (no 1065552) and has limited liability being a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 3451979). Registered office address: Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon, SN38 1NW.
Site updated: July 2010