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Funding Information - phase three

Phase Three of the Grants Programme closed for applications on Tuesday 6th August 2024.

How much funding is available?

The GLA had a grant pot of up to £250,000 to support civil society organisations to deliver awareness raising activity between September 2024 and June 2025.

Grants were awarded between £10,000 and £25,000. There is also an extra £12,500 accessibility pot managed by Groundwork London, to provide accessibility support during the application process and beyond. 

Find out more info on the Groundwork website at https://www.groundwork.org.uk/london/gla-democratic-participation-grants/

PHASE Three PROSPECTUS

HOW Did YOU DECIDE WHAT TO FUND?

We assessed applications against a few key criteria: 

  •  An organisation’s previous experience in this space and understanding of civic and democratic participation and the barriers impacting some groups. 
  • How the project plans to reach groups most under-registered and under-represented and how project activity meets the aims of the fund.  
  • How the project will take part in and deliver during London Voter Registration Week (16th-22nd September 2024). 
  • How the project will ensure the community is involved in the development and delivery of the project. 
  • How accessibility has been considered and factored into the budget. 
  • An 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 an organisation was 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 an organisation has provided evidence of being equity-led.  
  • How an organisation plans to monitor delivery and impact, as well as report via intermediary and final evaluation reports.  

WHAT COSTS will THE GRANT COVER?

We fund a broad range of activities and the costs associated with running the project. 

Costs could include (but are 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) 

We expect grants to include costs to support accessibility requirements for project activities. 

WHAT COSTS will THE GRANT NOT COVER?

The following costs will 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 and resources that have 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 

Will ORGANISATIONS NEED TO REPORT ON GRANT FUNDED ACTIVITY?

Yes, all grant-funded organisations will need to report on their projects.  

We will give successful applicants more information about the monitoring and evaluation information that we will want them to collect at an induction meeting before the project starts, but some of the key metrics include (this is not an exhaustive list):  

  • Total number of under-registered and under-represented Londoners reached through online and offline activity and the demographics (age, gender, ethnicity and other key protected characteristics), and the locations and boroughs where activity happened  
  • Total number of applications to register to vote, for accepted forms of photo voter ID made via in-person events run via grant funded activity  
  • Reach and engagement via social media channels  
  • Feedback/ case studies from Londoners from under-registered and under-represented groups who participated in grant funded projects.  

Grantees will be provided with a range of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools that can be used to gather this data in different settings. 

For the full information included in the prospectus, check the Groundwork website at https://www.groundwork.org.uk/london/gla-democratic-participation-grants/

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