Ragdoll Foundation: Open Grants Programme
Overview
NEW PRIORITY AREA:
Supporting gifted young women from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop their talents and skills in the arts and creative media, with a view to achieving their full potential.
The closing date for stage one applications to the NEW priority area above is 31 March 2022. This is the FINAL main grants round.
The trustees will look for proposals that:
- Are piloting and evaluating a new project
- Reach disadvantaged young women ages 14-25 – depending on the focus of the project, likely grouped as 14-16, 16-18, or 18+
- Identify and respond to the needs of individuals or specific groups
- Demonstrate innovation and added value from the applying organisation
- Support or develop talent, rather than general arts engagement or participation
- Help to open doors for participants to develop their artistic practice, or to follow a more technical path (particularly where women are not well represented), but not other areas of arts management
- Support skills development, including working towards a formal or informal qualification (but not applications that are solely for bursary places on existing courses)
- Widen horizons or raise aspirations (likely more relevant to 14-18 year olds)
Priority will be given to projects that:
- Are high quality, experimental, and innovative for the organisation
- Have a strong commitment to listening to and working with participants (for example by taking a collaborative, rather than top-down approach)
- Take place outside of London
- Are of strategic value for the organisation
- Have the potential to share learning
- Have the potential to become models of good practice
Funding
They anticipate that organisations will seek funding of no more than £15,000 per year for pilot projects of one or two years.
The trustees look for proposals where funding from the Ragdoll Foundation makes a considerable impact.
They would expect to fund between 40%-80% of your total project costs, and only fund above or below this range in rare circumstances. Match funding needs to be in place before any grant is paid. Within the budget, you may include a small contribution to organisational core costs or existing staff posts specific to project delivery.
Eligibility
The Ragdoll Foundation accepts applications from not-for-profit organisations based in the UK. They will only fund work that is legally charitable. Organisations that are not registered charities will need to provide a copy of their constitution showing charitable or social purpose. Organisations must be able to provide a full year of accounts.
As their focus is on funding work that actively involves children and young people, all applicants must have a Safeguarding/Child Protection policy that is regularly reviewed, and be able to demonstrate that adequate processes are in place to ensure the safeguarding of children and young people. If your project will be delivered remotely, your safeguarding policy must reference online safety.