Eligibility

The Community Wellbeing Fund is available to not-for-profit organisations based in East Sussex, with an annual income of less than £500,000.

Your organisation’s project will benefit the people of East Sussex, and not be in receipt of monies from the public sector for the provision of part of the project, unless sustainability is clearly evidenced and the project increases outcomes for the people in the community who are beneficiaries.

Your organisation will have a bank account with at least two signatories who are not related nor live at the same address, and have a set of accounts, or financial records covering one full year of operation if you are an established organisation.

Your organisation will also have in place/be willing to adopt the following documents for your organisation to receive a pledge from Community Wellbeing Fund:

● Constitution – Governing document

● Safeguarding Policy - Children and Adults

● Complaints Policy/Procedure

● Insurance - Public Liability (£5m)/Employers Liability (£5m)

The Community Wellbeing Fund will not make pledges to political or religious projects.

Application Process

You confirm that Your organisation meets the eligibility criteria for the Fund. The eligibility criteria form part of these terms and conditions and You confirm that all information provided in Your application for Funding is true and accurate.

1. Submit your idea through the Community Wellbeing Fund page on Crowdfund East Sussex. This should be done at the beginning of your crowdfunding campaign.

2. Pre-screening – an initial assessment of your application will be completed and if your application meets the criteria of the Community Wellbeing Fund, then this will be forwarded to the Fund Manager for a full assessment. Further information may be requested at this stage.

3. As part of the assessment process your application may also be shared with and viewed by partners with expertise and experience relevant to the project proposal. This will help to inform the decision making and assessment process.

4. If your project meets criteria and eligibility requirements, the project will obtain approval for a pledge.

The Community Wellbeing Fund assessors may choose to pledge up to 50% of the project fundraising target to a maximum of £5,000.

The minimum number of unique Supporters required is:

● 25 supporters if target is up to £2,500

● 50 supporters if target is up to £5,000

If the project fails to reach 100% of the target the provisional pledge will be cancelled. The Project owner will be encouraged to review what went wrong and, if appropriate, to attempt to crowdfund again.

Before a pledge payment can be approved and released to your organisation all checks will need to be completed (policies, insurances, terms and conditions/grant agreement signed).

Before a pledge can be released the full project fundraising target must be reached and the Grant Acceptance Letter is signed by the organisation.

Monitoring and Evaluation

If your Community Wellbeing fund application is successful you will be required to complete an end of project report to confirm how the funds were spent and what you achieved. This will help inform learning for future projects and funding, as well as support other organisations that may have developed similar projects and ideas.

The Fund Manager reserves the right to request invoices or receipts to evidence that match funding has been spent for the purposes intended. For the same reason, the Fund Manager reserves the right to audit project delivery.

Please ensure that no personal information of beneficiaries is included in the monitoring
and evaluation returns.

What we will not fund

We will not make pledges to projects that:

● Only benefit one individual

● Do not promote community cohesion

● Are managed by groups that have had a previous grant which has not been managed satisfactorily

● Are raising funds for works or equipment already committed, bought or completed

● Solely benefit people who live outside of East Sussex

● Include unspecified expenditure (e.g. a campaign with flexible funding)

● Overtly or exclusively promote a political agenda

● Overtly or exclusively promote a religious agenda

● Loans or interest payments

● Purchase of alcohol or illegal substances

Unsuccessful Applications

If your Community Wellbeing Fund application is not successful you will be provided with feedback explaining to the reason why.

Organisations will be advised to consider the feedback carefully before deciding whether to apply again. The Fund Manager will suggest the organisation only applies again for the same project if they can make a much stronger case.