Building Change Trust: Exploring Change

Overview

Building Change Trust will invest in Northern Ireland’s community and voluntary organisations to achieve positive change.

• They will invest their resources to
• Increase active citizenship and support community development
• Develop new ways of working and effective cooperation
• Enable the sector to develop and realise an inspiring future vision
• Help create a more independent, confident, risk taking and effective sector

The Exploring Change Programme

They are now seeking partners from the community and voluntary sector to join them in

Exploring Change. Their Exploring Change programme is open to charitable community and voluntary organisations working in Northern Ireland. It will make 60 Building Change Awards in four phases with 15 awards per phase between 2010 and 2013 up to a maximum of £20,000 per award.

The awards will enable organisations to complete a project exploring options for change and future sustainability in the context of making a contribution to one or more of their aims.

Awards will be made for projects that in addition to assisting individual organisations and parts of the sector explore change will also help highlight possibilities for the rest of the sector.

Their funds are limited and given their focus on change, They will make awards to projects

which do more than take an orthodox approach to problem solving. They are particularly interested in:

• innovative projects
• projects which have the potential for learning within the organisation and outside it
• projects which have the potential to be shared with and influence the wider sector and other stakeholders including the Trust itself.

Whilst the programme is open to a range of project ideas, They are interested in projects which explore new models of financing, structure and development within the sector projects which explore new and different ways of doing things projects which build on and take further previous work on considering and implementing change within the sector.

Projects can be proposed by individual organisations or groups of organisations although one must take the lead and be eligible for funding. They expect to develop significant and mutually beneficial relationships with organisations in receipt of Exploring Change, Building Change Awards and will only fund projects where this can be demonstrated to be important and beneficial.

Those in receipt of awards will be expected and required to make a significant time commitment estimated at on average 10 days over the life of the award to working with them and their structures and participating in sharing and learning events.

They will not be proscriptive in terms of types of projects that might be funded. They expect to fund a variety of projects reflecting the diversity of the sector and the wealth of skills, experience ideas and opportunities within it. A project could be for example:

• Exploring a social enterprise opportunity
• Identifying ,investigating and trialling new ways to enhance volunteering
• Looking at models of organisational restructuring, the use of new systems, processes and procedures, organisational efficiency and effectiveness
• Strategic development and future planning
• Development of a training and skills development strategy
• Exploring better marketing, communication and engagement with a range of stakeholders
• Exploratory work in respect of partnerships/collaboration and mergers with others
• Provision for ongoing reflection and best practice seminars and workshops
• Action and other research in respect of change issues and possibilities for the sector
• Other exploratory actions that can be shown to address one or more of the Building Change Trust aims

Applicants must be a community/voluntary organisation operating in Northern Ireland with charitable recognition from HM Revenue and Customs. Applications can be made from individual organisations or on behalf of consortia or partnerships that could involve organisations from the private and public sector. The applicant must however be a charitable community or voluntary organisation. Applicants must be in a position to complete their project within 18 months of receiving their Letter of Offer and produce a final report within 20 months of receiving their Letter of Offer.

Applicants must be willing to participate in any added value work carried out by the Trust in support of the programme.

Through funding this programme they wish to consider the implications for their own future strategy and also enable lessons to be learned that have the potential to influence the rest of the community and voluntary sector into the future.

An organisation can be involved in more than one application but can be the lead partner in only one successful application. An organisation can apply for and hold on an individual basis or as a lead partner an Exploring Change and a Deliver Change Award. Assessment will be carried out on their behalf through a 2 stage process. Stage 1 will confirm eligibility. Stage 2 will assess the application against the criteria with applications scored against a scoring matrix.

They wish to add value to the programme for both their and projects mutual benefit by for example enabling participation in their structures, bringing grantees together for specialist seminars and workshops, arranging visits and developing case studies.

They will not be proscriptive in terms of how an award can be spent to complete the project. They expect applicant organisations to make a contribution to the project costs. This might be through meeting overhead or other costs associated with project delivery.

Awards could cover the following types of costs:

• Internal actual costs associated with a staff member(s) carrying out the project
• Hire and costs of short term staff or internships to complete the project
• Venue hire and catering
• Transport costs required to complete the project
• Marketing and publicity costs associated with getting engagement in respect of the project and/or disseminating costs
• External consultancy costs. These might be for technical/legal advice, strategy development and/or facilitation
• Study and best practice visits, seminars and workshops in respect of a particular aspect of work
• Other expenditure on items specifically required for project delivery