Once our Trustees have approved a grant, we will write to you outlining the terms and conditions, as well as what we need in terms of reporting. This letter will be sent by email and sets out what financial information we need from you in order to make electronic payments. We aim to make payments quickly (usually within one month) of making a decision.
We monitor grants throughout their life cycle and will ask you for reports and financial information at specified intervals, usually on a yearly basis.
Learning
We want to learn from the outcomes of the grants we make, which means keeping in touch with the organisations we fund. We like to fund those who are thoughtful and reflective about their work.
We expect you to monitor and review progress and not be afraid of changing course if necessary. You should let us know promptly if anything significant changes during the course of the grant, such as the financial condition of the charity, the senior management team, or something which could materially affect the purpose for which the grant was made. You do not need to wait until the formal reporting point to inform us of such developments.
Your successes are important but we realise that we often learn most when things do not go according to plan, or even fail. If this happens, we need you to be open with us so that we both learn from the work we fund.
The practicalities of reporting
If the grant is a single payment, we will ask you to send us a report after one year.
Most of our grants are for two or three years. You will need to provide reports one year after the previous payment was made to trigger the next instalment. We also expect a final report at the end of the grant period. We ask that Progress Reports and Final Reports are ideally no more than four sides of A4.
One month before the report is due we will send you an email. This acts as a reminder and includes some standard questions. We want to hear how things are going and how the work has made a difference.
The following information is requested for Progress Reports:
• Your organisation: Outlining any major changes in management, staffing or policy since the application; and telling us briefly about your organisation's main activities and achievements during the past year
• The last year: Outlining the difference the grant has made, e.g. by summarising what you said you planned to achieve in the application/last year's report, and tell us about the progress toward this; outlining what has gone well and why; telling us about any outcomes that you have not intended or anticipated, and how you dealt with these; and if you have not achieved what you intended, telling us why.
• The year ahead: Sharing whether your plans remain the same or have changed, and if they have changed telling us why and what you now intend to achieve.
• Anything else: This might include other things you would like us to know like any work with others, and how you have shared your experience.
We also need a financial update, and this comprises:
• A breakdown of income and expenditure for the work funded against your original budget. If this differs from your original income and expenditure budget please explain why. If our grant was for core costs, you should simply send us your management accounts covering the last 12 months.
• A copy of your latest approved annual report and accounts (if you have not already sent them). If they are not yet available, please send them to us as soon as they are.
The following information is requested for Final Reports:
• Overview: Outlining what has changed across your organisation since you first received the grant - in terms of the work you do, the strength of the organisation and your financial position; and any key developments in the final year of the grant
• Difference the grant made: Outline of what has been achieved since the grant started based on what you originally identified as outcomes in your original application, along with a summary of changes and whether this has resulted in your achieving something different instead; and what difference you think the Foundation’s contribution made.
• Learning: Outline of what you have learned, e.g. what has gone well and why; any outcomes that you had not intended or anticipated that may have been positive or negative; any problems you've faced and how you've tackled them; the main things you have learned; how might you do things differently in the future; and any plans to share your experiences more widely.
• The future: Outline of how you plan to continue the work, or if it was a time limited project, how you have wound it down
• Anything else: This might include other things you would like us to know.
We also need a financial update, and this comprises:
• A copy of your latest approved annual report and accounts (if you have not already sent them). If they are not yet available, please send them to us as soon as they are.
Reapplying
If you receive a grant you are welcome to apply to us again as soon as that grant comes to an end. We encourage new applications to be made once the grant has come to an end, as this means that we will have all of your grant reports available to support decision making. If you need the new grant to start as soon as your current grant comes to an end, then we ask that you speak to the member of the team who manages your grant for advice on this. if you are not sure who manages your grant, then please contact Stephanie Santiano, Grants Officer on stephanie@ellerman.org.uk to request this information.
If you have applied unsuccessfully, you must wait one year from the date of the decision before you reapply.
Publicity
If you wish to use our logo in an annual report, advert or elsewhere, please contact Stephanie Santiano, Grants Officer via email on stephanie@ellerman.org.uk. We have no specific requirements for acknowledging our grant.
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This section is for those who have a grant at the moment. It explains our grant conditions and what we need from you when you receive a grant.
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