Comic Relief: Change Makers

Archived Active citizenship Age Children (0-12) Community and neighbourhood development COVID-19/Coronavirus Education and learning Family and parenting Gender equality and sexual orientation Health promotion Health, wellbeing and sport Healthcare services Housing and homelessness Human rights and equality Human rights and justice People with disabilities Policy, advocacy and campaigning Pre-school education Racial equality Refugees and asylum seekers Social partnership Voluntary and community infrastructure Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Fermanagh and Omagh Great Britain Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Large (over £60,000)

Track grant Notes

Overview

What is the Change Makers Programme?

Coronavirus has had a huge impact on daily life, and Comic Relief has been distributing emergency funds in a number of ways to support organisations surviving and adapting in response to COVID-19.

This call for proposals is different. It’s about looking to the future and making change.

That your organisation makes change for individuals is taken as a given. The focus for this call is about creating change in the wider world, whether that’s locally or nationally. They’re looking for organisations that will make a significant contribution to their sector, whether that’s forging new ways of working in the wake of COVID-19, contributing evidence that will move things forward, cross-sector collaboration which recognises the way issues intersect, advocacy and campaigning work, or other change making efforts that are relevant to Comic Relief’s social change themes.

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown much of what they think they know about the world and the way it works in the air. It’s exacerbated issues of poverty, impacted on domestic violence and their mental health, and highlighted inequalities notably around race, gender, disability and sexuality. With the funding available they anticipate being able to fund approximately 30 Change Maker proposals. That’s why they’re being clear about the level of ambition they’re looking for. They want to support the game changers.

They’re not saying you need to be a national organisation, they know significant change is people powered and can come from strong, passionate, determined community organisations whose turnover is smaller. They welcome proposals from organisations whether you're big or small, national or local. They also want to hear from and support organisations led by, working with and for those who are hardest hit and systematically excluded in society: BAME communities, the LGBTQ+ community, women, those living with disabilities.

Who Can Apply?

They are inviting organisations to apply in one of two categories:

Small and medium-sized organisations that focus on equalities and are user-led. Your organisation must have an annual income of at least £75,000. User-led organisations are considered to be those where the majority of the leadership (i.e. at least half of senior team and trustees) are from the community(ies) the organisation serves.
Other medium-sized organisations based in the UK. In this case your organisation needs to have a minimum annual income of £250,000.
They will not accept applications from larger organisations with annual income greater than £10 million.

20% of the available funding is ring-fenced for efforts led by and working with BAME communities

Applications can be made by single applicants. Organisations can also apply in partnership, with a lead partner holding the funding.

What work is supported?

Your proposed work must contribute to change for more than your organisation or your direct beneficiaries.

Some ways you might do this include the following – though this is not an exhaustive list:

working with others directly in partnership
creating shared learning, evidence, research
producing and sharing evidence of effective models of working
working with others to model new ways of working

The contribution can be to any forum or area that feels appropriate, for example:

enhance commissioning in your local area
provide a cross-sectoral response to issues in your local area
shift the understanding within your sector or allied sectors on an issue, model, approach
influencing communities, charities or the public sector to be more responsive and effective
shift policy or legislation
shift public attitudes

Finally you’ll see that they are welcoming requests for core funding alongside funding for project delivery costs. During the application process they’ll invite you to tell them what combination of core and project costs you need. They know organisations can feel hesitant about applying for core funds. They also know how much it’s needed.

Sport for Change and Tech for Good proposals

They welcome applications from organisations using Sport for Change and Social Tech approaches that cut across their core issues and respond to the priorities of the Change Makers funding call.

Please follow the links for more information about Sport for Change here and for Social Tech here.