Criteria your project must meet
To be considered for funding, your project must meet all 4 of our criteria. These help us understand whether your project is ready to scale, has a strong track record, and can make a lasting difference for communities. We’ll also ask you to think about how you’ll evaluate your work, keep people safe, and promote equality.
Funding criteria
To get funding, your project needs to meet all of these criteria:
- benefit communities across the UK
- scale up proven impact
- support people experiencing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
- help create lasting change to services or systems
Benefit communities across the UK
Your project should have a UK-wide reach. This could mean:
- running activities in more than one UK country
- working in partnership across countries
- showing how what you learn can be used to inspire systems change in other areas of the UK
Scale up proven impact
Your project should build on work you already do and know is effective. It must be based on strong evidence of what works. We will not fund completely new ways of working.
We’re looking for projects that are growing or developing. For example, you might be:
- reaching more people or expanding into new areas
- strengthening your organisation’s infrastructure
- improving support for the people you already work with
Whatever your focus, you’ll need to show clear evidence of impact to support your approach.
Support people experiencing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
Your project should aim to make things fairer for these groups – this is sometimes called improving equity.
Help create lasting change to services or systems
We’re interested in projects that aim to change how services or systems work. This is often called systems change. We want to fund work that leads to transformational change. The kind that lasts, not just short term support.
Ways to do this include:
- tackling the root causes of issues and helping prevent problems before they happen
- changing rules, habits or ways of working
- giving communities more control over decisions and resources
- helping people and organisations work together differently
- challenging what’s seen as important or possible
What we mean by ‘communities’
When we say ‘communities’, we mean groups of people who either:
- live in the same area
- share a common identity, interest or experience
Community involvement and voice
We’re interested in how these communities are involved in your organisation. This includes children, young people and people with lived experience.
Tell us how they’ve shaped your project and how they’ll continue to influence it. We’ll ask about this during the assessment process.
It’s okay for your project to change over time
We know projects can evolve, and we’re comfortable with some uncertainty. We’ll be flexible and support you to keep meeting your community’s needs. We also want to learn from your experiences and understand how we can help build capacity in communities.
Learning and evaluation
When you apply, tell us:
- how you know your work so far has made a difference
- how you’ve used what you’ve learned to improve
- how this funding will help you grow your impact
If you’re funded, we’ll ask you to:
- measure the difference your project makes
- share your learning with others, including any partners we bring in
We know this work can be challenging, and plans may change. We’ll agree together on what’s realistic and practical. You can include learning and evaluation costs in your budget, including external support, if needed.
If you’ll be working with children, young people or vulnerable adults
You need to have a policy in place that explains how they’ll be safe. If you get funding you’ll need to follow our expectations on safeguarding children and adults at risk.
The NCVO website has safeguarding advice and information services.
Equality, equity, diversity and inclusion
We expect the organisations and projects we fund to:
- be open and accessible
- promote equality
- challenge discrimination
We may ask to see your equalities policy as part of our assessment. Read more about our equality principles.
Consider your environmental impact
We're committed to helping you protect the environment. You can check our guidance on:
Our environmental sustainability pages also have information about our approach to tackling the climate emergency, including learning and insights, stories and funding.