New grants system at the Community Fund

Howard Lake | 24 November 2003 | News

The Community Fund has announced details of its new “outcomes-based” application system, which is to be piloted in Scotland
from January 2004 and, if successful, extended to the whole of the UK later in the year.

The move was welcomed by the Directory of Social Change, which said that the old ‘scored’ system, “while excellent in its day, has become a bit ossified over time.”

However, the voluntary sector publisher and training company added that it was concerned that the new system might breed an over-zealous emphasis on “measurable short
term outcomes” and thereby disadvantage projects whose outcomes are soft, varied
or long term.

It therefore recommends that the key elements of the new system should be:

• Just two new criteria will replace the existing seven, covering:

  • What difference will the project make to the lives of disadvantaged
    people? and …

  • How likely is the applicant to make that difference happen?

• There will be a two stage application system, with an opportunity for discussion, delay and even negotiation after submission of a brief outline proposal.
• If the outline proposal is judged weak, applicants will not have an opportunity to submit a full proposal.
• The application will ask applicants, and may require them, to offer “short
  term measurable outcomes” for their project (as is already the case for international grants).

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.