Funding Information - phase two
How much funding was available?
The GLA had a grant pot of up to £556,900 to support civil society organisations to deliver awareness raising activity between August 2023 and February 2024. Grants were between £25,000 and £50,000. There was also an extra £27,000 accessibility pot managed by Groundwork London, to provide accessibility support to grantees during the application process and beyond.
Find out more info on the Groundwork website https://www.groundwork.org.uk/london/gla-voter-id-grants/
PHASE TWO PROSPECTUS
HOW DID YOU DECIDE WHAT TO FUND?
We assessed applications against a few key criteria:
- The organisation’s previous experience in this space and understanding of democratic participation and the barriers impacting some groups
- How the project reaches groups most under-registered and under-represented and how project activity meets the aims of the fund
- How projects ensure the involvement of the community in the development and delivery of the project
- How accessibility has been considered and factored into the budget
- The organisation’s ability to demonstrate impartiality, and deliver in a neutral and non-party political way. As mentioned, activity will need to meet the legal guidance and remain impartial at all times
- How clear the organisation is on how to make their proposal happen, including a well thought-out budget and timeline, including any risks and how they will mitigate them
- Whether the organisation has provided evidence of being equity-led
- How the organisation plans to monitor delivery and impact, as well as report via intermediary and final evaluation reports
WHAT COSTS DID THE GRANT COVER?
We funded a broad range of activities and the costs associated with running the project.
Costs could include (but were not limited to):
- Project management costs
- Staff and volunteer costs
- Venue hire
- Professional fees, such as cost of hiring people to help with the project (e.g. graphic designer, video maker, BSL interpreter, etc)
- Production of materials and resources to support the delivery of outreach activity (as long as they do not duplicate materials already produced by the GLA)
Grants were expected to include costs to support accessibility requirements for project activities.
WHAT COSTS DID THE GRANT NOT COVER?
The following costs could not be covered by the grant:
- General overheads not related to the delivery of the project
- Retrospective costs, including any costs incurred in community consultation and/or submitting your application
- Large-scale capital costs or routine repairs and minor improvements to community buildings
- Activities that have already happened or taken place before we had reached a decision on the application
- Activities and resources that had not been vetted by the GLA to meet the impartiality test
- Activities outside of London
- Profit-making activities
- Loan repayments
- Recoverable VAT – if grantees were not VAT registered, they needed to include VAT costs as part of the funding request for their programme
DID ORGANISATIONS NEED TO REPORT ON GRANT FUNDED ACTIVITY?
Yes, all grant funded organisations had to report on their projects. This included the following:
- High level mid-delivery reports by mid-October 2023 and early December 2023
- Final detailed evaluation report by end of March 2024
Some of the key metrics included:
- Total number and the demographics (age, gender, ethnicity and other key protected characteristics) of under-registered and under-represented Londoners who participated in online and offline grant funded activity and the locations and boroughs where activity happened
- Total number of applications to register to vote, for an accepted form of photo voter ID or the free Voter Authority Certificate made via in-person events run via grant funded activity
- Reach and engagement via social media channels so Londoners from under-registered and under-represented communities understand and have better awareness about the changes to their civic and democratic rights.
- Feedback/ case studies from Londoners from under-registered and under-represented groups who participated in grant funded projects who say they feel they belong to their neighbourhood and/ or London and are ready to use their voice and their vote.
For the full information included in the prospectus, check the Groundwork website https://www.groundwork.org.uk/london/gla-voter-id-grants/