Typical Small Grants Process

Once funding has been identified PB can be used as a method of deepening and strengthening community relationships and partnerships. 

A typical small grants process would normally follow an 8-stage process:

Identify and form an appropriate planning group

Who should be in the planning group?  Ensuring that it is equitable and representative, how will the group build the skills, knowledge, and confidence of those to be involved?  

The next 7 stages should be the responsibility of the planning group collectively.

Give the PB process a name

What will the PB process be called? Make it snappy, memorable and meaningful to local communities.

Agree fund criteria and themes

What are these going to be? Think about upper funding limits, voting age, geographical area, community of interest etc.  These should be integrated into designing appropriate application documents.

Communicate your aims and market the funding

Let people know about the funding, its purpose and encourage people to apply.  Think about ways and avenues for how you can promote it to maximise exposure.

Process the applications

How will you process applications, who will be involved, what timescales are preferable?

Host Decision Events 

What type of decision event(s) will you hold? It could include voting days and/or online processes. Think about how these would again be advertised.

Results - Community Feedback

How will you feedback the results to applicants and to the winder community, what methods will you use? Is there any follow-up support available for unsuccessful applicants?

Evaluate PB process and Community Impact

How will you evaluate the PB process and the impact it has had on the community? What was the process like – could it be better? What has it meant to communities; what difference has the funding made to local people?