The Charity Service has announced upcoming changes to its grant-making policy for its Greater Manchester funds. The changes are being made in response to findings from a recent survey of grant applicants and will come into force on 1 April 2022.
As part of a Strategic Review conducted during 2021, The Charity Service asked grant applicant organisations to complete an online survey about the Charity Service. The survey covered a wide range of questions about their application process, provision of grant funding and support, understanding of organisation and beneficiaries’ needs, and relationships with grant recipients. The Charity Service received 62 responses (a 55% completion rate). Thank you to everyone who completed the survey.
The feedback was generally positive with over 80% of grant applicants holding a very positive view of the Charity Service. There was, however, one important point raised by many respondents, which was the need for multi-year and unrestricted grant funding.
As a result of this feedback, The Charity Service have developed a new grant making policy that will allow them to make multi-year and unrestricted grants, in addition to the one-off restricted grants that they already provide. This new grants policy will be implemented at the start of the new financial year in April 2022.
To facilitate transition to the new grants policy, The Charity Service will close for grant applications under their current (and soon to be old) policy as follows:
- Grant applications over £1,000 – closing date 26 January 2022 (these will be reviewed by a Grant Committee on 4 February)
- Grant applications up to £1,000 – closing date 14 February 2022
The Charity Service will reopen for grant applications under their new policy on 1 April 2022. The Charity Service will publish full details of their new grants policy on 14 March 2022.
The Charity Service are excited to be making these changes and look forward to partnering with many fantastic voluntary organisations in Greater Manchester over the coming years.
If you have any questions, contact Pete Yarwood on 0793 691 7679 or email: [email protected] or [email protected]