Motability Foundation: Expanding Access to Driving Tuition for Disabled People
Overview
This funding round aims to increase disabled people's access to driving, by funding organisations that provide driving lessons and car adaptations tailored to people with different disabilities.
It funds organisations that provide driving tuition for disabled people. Organisations can apply for funding to support the continuation or expansion of existing services and support others to access this provision.
Requests can include the costs for vehicles, adaptations, staff costs, approved driving instructor (ADI) costs, training, communication materials and overheads.
Who your project can support
Grant funding must be used to support disabled people living in the UK.
Projects can provide support on a national scale or focus on specific regions, addressing local needs and challenges.
They're particularly interested in funding projects that deliver meaningful impact in deprived areas, or to underrepresented groups.
Who can apply
They're particularly interested in applications from DDPOs (Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations).
They can accept applications for funding if your organisation has been active for at least three years and is one of the following:
- Incorporated Charity
- Company Limited by Guarantee
- Community Interest Company (CIC)
- Community Benefit Society
To be considered for funding, your organisation’s Board must:
- be made up of at least three members, and
- the majority of Board members must be unrelated to each other.
Applicant organisations should have:
- an annual income of at least £50,000 for each of the last three financial years. This is assessed against accounts filed with the relevant regulator. We cannot accept management accounts as evidence of this.
- free reserves equivalent to at least three months’ worth of unrestricted expenditure at the point of application.
They will review the latest set of accounts filed to determine the level of free reserves you hold as part of their financial due diligence. The widely recognised definition of free reserves is:
(total unrestricted funds – unrestricted fixed assets) / total unrestricted expenditure
If your organisation’s turnover and reserves meet these requirements at the point of application, but falls below them while waiting for your grant to be assessed, they'll still consider your application provided the difference between your new position and the requirement is not material (10%+).
They also ask that your organisation holds the following policies and keeps them regularly updated. Copies of these will need to be submitted as part of the application process:
- Safeguarding policy
- Whistleblowing policy
- Equal Opportunities policy
How much funding is available?
They’re awarding grants through this funding round from £50,000 to £1 million over a period of up to three years.
Your application can be for one, two or three years’ funding. For example, you could apply for £750,000 in total over three years, which would be £250,000 per year.
What they fund
- Driving tuition for disabled people.
- Driving theory test support.
- Vehicles with appropriate adaptations for ADIs.
- Staff and ADI costs.
- Staff and ADI training.
What your grant can be used for
Your grant can be used for:
- Activity which reduces or mitigates barriers to disabled people driving.
- Schemes, programmes and initiatives that already exist, and provide best practice solutions, but need support to remain operational or scale up the service they provide to help more disabled people.
- Staff and volunteer training or costs.
- Full cost recovery grants which include indirect costs.