Sunderland Participatory Grant Making Fund

We are looking for steering group members with a wide range of lived and human experience, including different race/ethnicity, genders, sexualities, ages, religions and disabilities.  Applicants do not need to have any grant-making experience but they must demonstrate that they:

1. Live or work in an area of Sunderland that experiences disadvantage
2. Have local roots, and are actively involved in addressing the needs of their community
3. Are happy to share their knowledge of a community and the wider city
4. Are willing to learn about participatory grant making to help deliver an equitable/transparent programme and contribute positively to the development of a local funding model.
5. Understand and will commit to data protection both in principle and in practice
6. Understand and will openly declare potential conflicts of interest
7. Can commit the time to fully engage in the programme over the next year, including attendance at in-person events, planning workshops and meetings across the city
8. Commit to working respectfully and productively alongside other people of all ages, gender identities, physical abilities, ethnicities, sexualities, political and agency affiliation
9. Can objectively consider the needs of other communities and their demographics.

We encourage and welcome strong applications from grass roots community members who can bring their lived experience and can help form a diverse panel to steer the programme and allocate funds fairly and impartially.

Applicants should show how they represent their community and promote inclusion. We will prioritise applications from individuals that support and enable disadvantaged areas/communities, work directly with disadvantaged groups and seek broad social impact.

Steering Group members are expected to commit approximately eight to ten days in induction, training, designing, planning, implementing, making decisions on grant applications and reviewing the programme over the course of July 2023 to August 2024, approximately.

Steering Group members are not paid but may claim up to £250 as a contribution toward any dependent care costs, travel, subsistence and other costs directly associated with their involvement.

To be considered for Steering Group membership, you should complete an application form and return it to Nils Stronach at ns@communityfoundation.org.uk by 3pm on Friday 30th June 2023.

Yes. If you’d like more information or want to talk about applying you can talk to Jen on 07917 203127 or email her at jmckevitt1963@gmail.com , or talk to your Sunderland Voluntary Sector Alliance (SVSA) or Voluntary & Community Action Sunderland (VCAS) contact.  Please note that we require you to complete the application form – it shouldn’t be completed by someone else.  

We will:

1. advertise Steering Group roles on all our websites and social media channels

2. respond to queries and provide pre-application support where we feel this is required

3. treat your application with respect and consider your information carefully

4. invite you to attend an informal interview

5. ensure our process favours those with lived experience over learned experience

6. be explicit that no previous grant-making experience is required.

Selection of successful applicants will be assisted by local voluntary sector support agencies, SVSA and VCAS.

Once the selection process is completed, Jen will let you know if we’re able to offer you a place on the Steering Group by 14th July 2023.

If invited to join the Steering Group, we will provide you details of the next steps and liaise with you and other members shortly after that to agree a timetable for training, programme design workshops and grant-making meetings.

If invited to join the Steering Group, you will be provided with full induction and training to enable you to work with other members to co-create the Fund.

You will be asked to attend design and planning workshops at dates and times to suit the whole Group. We encourage members to attend every session, but know that people have busy lives, so can offer one-two-one catch-ups if sessions are missed.

As a minimum we will run the following sessions:

1. A ‘get to know each other’ session with ice-breaker activity and co-creating ground rules
2. A session on Participatory Grant Making
3. A session on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
4. A session on Safeguarding in Participatory Grant Making
5. A session on managing conflicts of interest, confidentiality agreements and a code of conduct
6. A session on the charity sector and funding, with context from the Community Foundation. For those unfamiliar with the sector language/key terms which they will come across when reviewing funding bids, additional support can be provided
7. At least one session focussing on what the Steering Group wants to prioritise for their funding. Steering Group members will agree if they, for example, wish to support advocacy work and that they particularly want to fund work that is being led by people with disabilities
8. A session teasing out questions that might come up in a grants meeting, for example “Do you want to provide intense support for a small number of people or light-touch interventions for lots of people?” and “What do you think is effective outreach?”.

We ask all Steering Group members to read and review every application in advance of grant making meetings.

The Group will discuss each application’s merits and challenges, then anonymously vote on whether the application is a ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘maybe’. Once this is complete we review the ‘yeses’ and whether they meet the initial aims of the fund, if there is anything missing and if we’ve overspent, what could be removed.

We will try to make the meeting as simple as possible and build up members’ confidence to make decisions without us ‘leading’ them.

The Community Foundation staff team will carry out all due diligence on grant applications in advance of the Steering Group meeting, so you don’t need to worry about that.Occasionally a Steering Group member may be a member of staff or trustee of an applicant. When that application is discussed, we’ll ask you to leave the room; from experience conflict of interest doesn’t have any impact on the outcome of the application.

Decisions need not be unanimous – where there are differing opinions, decisions will be made by consensus. It may be that some people who may not have lived experience of a particular issue change their vote and say “I don’t agree with funding this, but I know that this other person’s opinion is better informed than mine, so I am voting to fund it”.

Hopefully, you will find the process interesting, challenging and productive. Steering Group members will make all the key decisions and will be supported throughout.

We want to learn from the approach, so at the end of the programme, members will also be invited to give their opinions on how it has worked, whether it has increased local power and what could be done differently.

The Community Foundation will only share your contact details contained in your application with Jen McKevitt and VCAS or SVSA contacts if you are shortlisted. Up until shortlisting, only anonymised details will be shared.

Please note that if you choose to contact Jen McKevitt or your VCAS or SVSA about your potential application you are therefore consenting to any personal information you discuss being shared with Jen and/or VCAS/ SVSA.

For more information, please refer to the Community Foundation Privacy Policy: www.communityfoundation.org.uk/privacy-policy/