Comic Relief: Smiles Fund by Walkers

Overview

Research during the Covid-19 pandemic shows that some groups have been the worst affected in terms of mental wellbeing and they are particularly keen to reach them as the effects of the pandemic continue to be felt. This includes, but is not limited to, people facing

• discrimination and disadvantage
• prolonged uncertainty and unemployment
• emerging mental wellbeing challenges
• loss and isolation

They expect to only fund 8-12 proposals in total.

Funding Priorities

If you make an application to The Smiles Fund, please clearly outline in your proposal how you will use an arts or comedy based approach to specifically and deliberately reach people who are currently experiencing the effects of the issues listed above, as well as raise awareness of the emerging signs and challenge stigma associated with poor mental wellbeing.

All proposals should clearly demonstrate how they’ve been shaped by people with lived experience of the issues they are trying to address.

They intend to facilitate and prioritise learning opportunities between funded partners, and beyond. They want to design these opportunities in consultation with organisations who are involved with the fund; more detail on this will follow as the timeline for the fund progresses.

They are happy to fund proposals which include a mixture of project delivery and core costs.

As they expect demand to exceed the funds available, they will use the following additional criteria to help them to prioritise which proposals to fund:

• Priority will be given to proposals reaching people with prolonged or ongoing experience of the issues outlined above.
• Priority will be given to proposals offering opportunities to actively participate in creative activities rather than just watching or visiting.
• Priority will be given to organisations or partnerships with previous experience of using the arts and comedy in the context of social change (although you can be testing new work developed in response to learning from previous work).
• Priority will be given to ensure they fund a geographical spread of projects across the UK.
• Priority will be given to proposals which include plans to share learning with other organisations who could benefit or contribute to research in this area. This might be through webinars, digital resources or in person events (government restrictions permitting).
• Priority will be given to ensure they fund a balance of comedy based and arts-based projects.
• Priority will be given to work shaped by people with lived experience of the issues the work is trying to address

Eligibility

Charities

Comic Relief predominantly funds registered charities. They will ask for evidence of registration during the application process.

They will always prioritise applications from organisations that are registered in the country where the work will take place. Applicants are welcome to include partners not registered in the country, but must be able to clearly demonstrate the added value of all partners included in the proposal.

Other types of organisations

They do also fund other types of organisations. In these instances, the governing documents of the organisation must clearly outline the organisation’s social purpose, demonstrate that any profit or assets are used for this social purpose, and show that an asset lock is in place. They will ask for a copy of your governing documents as part of your application.

Private providers

Where proposals include the engagement of private providers (e.g. as service providers or consultants) as part of a project to deliver specific objectives, applicants must demonstrate the use of a private provider is ultimately resulting in public good, rather than solely private profit for those private providers.

Available Funding

Applications are welcome from organisations in the UK with a minimum annual income of £250,000 and a maximum of £10 million.

In general they will not award funding to organisations that is more than an average of 2/3 of their annual income per year. For example, if an organisation has an income of £300,000 they could apply for up to £600,000 for a 3 year grant.

They cannot support projects that include significant resources for capital costs. They cannot support capital costs over 25% of the total funding request, and we generally expect to see amounts that are far lower than this.

They are happy to fund up to 100% of costs for a proposal, but are equally happy to support applications for a match or co-funder.

They are a Living Wage Funder and expect all UK salaries covered by proposals to reflect this.