How to develop your full proposal for Creative Horizons
Now your application for Creative Horizons has reached stage 2, it's time to develop your full proposal. This is a chance for you to give us more details about your project and answer any questions we have.
You'll have 6 weeks from the date we sent your stage 2 invitation email to complete this. The deadline will be included in the email.
When developing your full proposal, you should refer to the criteria on the Creative Horizons webpage.
What a full proposal should look like
Your full proposal should be no more than 10 pages. We can accept this in Word or PDF format. If you’d like to use another format, check that we can accept it first by emailing EveryChildCan@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.
You do not need to repeat the information you’ve told us in your stage 1 application.
In your proposal we’d like you to give us more detailed information about:
1. Your organisation and partners
We want to understand your organisation, its strengths, experience and the work you’ve done. Tell us about the communities you work with and your experience of supporting care-experienced young people. Provide examples of previous programmes or projects that demonstrate your ability to deliver this type of work successfully.
If you're applying in partnership, tell us about the organisations involved, why you're working together and how the partnership will operate. If relevant, provide examples of your previous experience of working together, including what you achieved and learned.
Tell us about:
your organisation, its aims and mission
the communities you work with and the work you are doing to support care-experienced young people
your experience of working with young people, particularly those facing barriers to opportunities
your experience of delivering mentoring, coaching or one-to-one support programmes for care-experienced young people
the partners involved in your application, and the role each partner will play
your governance and structure of your organisation and partners and how decisions are made
how and why the partnership was formed
the strengths, expertise and resources each partner brings
How you’ll work with others
We want to know about the partnerships, networks and stakeholder relationships you'll bring to the programme.
Tell us about:
your links with community groups, education and training providers, and other relevant services
who else you'll involve in delivering the project, such as families, virtual schools or community organisations
2. What you plan to do
We want to understand your vision for the project, how you'll deliver creative mentoring, and support care-experienced young people to access meaningful opportunities and make progress towards their goals.
We recognise that organisations may use different approaches and models. We want to understand how your approach will deliver high-quality support and positive outcomes for young people.
Tell us about:
your vision and long-term goals for the project
the activities you’ll deliver
the communities and geographical areas you’ll focus on, and why
your safeguarding arrangements for young people and mentors
Your approach
Tell us about your approach to creative mentoring and the methodology, evidence or learning that informs your approach.
We want to know how you’ll:
identify, engage and reach young people and how they’ll be referred to you
reach young people who are not already engaged in services or opportunities
assess young people's needs, aspirations and circumstances
recruit, train and support mentors with relevant experience in one or more art forms
match young people with creative practitioners
remove barriers to taking part
support young people to identify, access and progress towards further cultural activities
connect them to further learning, training, volunteering or creative careers
ensure opportunities and progression pathways are meaningful and appropriate for each young person
support young people sustain their progress after the programme ends
ensure quality and consistency across different locations
The difference your work will make
Your work might make a difference to young people throughout the time you work with them, not just at the end of the project. We're interested in the difference your project will make throughout its delivery, as well as longer-term outcomes. This could include changes in confidence, relationships, skills, aspirations, participation or progression.
Tell us about:
the care-experienced young people who will benefit from this work
what outcomes you expect care-experienced young people to achieve through the programme
how your approach will support improvements in confidence, skills, aspirations and progression
examples of outcomes achieved through previous work with young people
how your project will create a legacy beyond the funding period, including any improvements to systems, services or pathways that support care-experienced young people
how your project will strengthen the capacity, capability and confidence of partners, staff and the wider sector to improve outcomes for care-experienced young people
The information you provide on the difference your project will make will form part of your grant agreement if you are successful. You will need to report on progress against these outcomes throughout the project.
4. How young people with lived experience will shape your project
We want to understand how care-experienced young people will be at the heart of your project and help shape its development and delivery.
We are particularly interested in how you will create meaningful opportunities for participation, ensure activities are inclusive and accessible, and support young people to influence decisions, learning and improvement throughout the project.
Tell us how you have or will:
involve young people with lived experience in project design, development and delivery
involve young people in learning, reflection and improvement processes
use learning from young people to improve systems, processes and your wider approach
meet the diverse needs of children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
demonstrate a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion through your approach
build on young people's strengths and ensure they have the skills and confidence to get involved
supporting care-experienced young people to have their say and be heard, so they can influence and shape your project
5. How you'll share evidence and learning
If your application is successful, you’ll need to update us on your progress throughout the project.
For guidance, you can read:
You will not have to measure everything in your project, but we want to know what evidence you’ll use and how you’ll gather it.
Tell us:
how you'll gather evidence about the difference you are making for care-experienced young people in ways that are accessible and flexible
what changes you expect to see and who will benefit from them
how will you learn and share what you learn
We expect you to have a plan for capturing, using and sharing learning throughout the project.
Tell us:
how you will regularly learn from the project and any partnerships involved
how you will share that learning with others
who you will share it with
What support you would need from us to do this effectively
6. Your project resources and management
We want to understand how your project will be staffed, managed and supported to ensure it is delivered effectively. This includes the roles and responsibilities of the people involved.
It can sometimes be useful to include a structure chart to show how all the various roles are connected and will work together, especially if you are applying as a partnership with roles being hosted across multiple organisations.
Tell us about:
the roles and responsibilities of the people delivering the project
how different roles and organisations will work together, including partnership arrangements where relevant
your staffing structure (you may include a structure chart)
the policies you have in place (we will let you know if we need to see a copy of these policies)
any people or organisations you will commission to support specific elements of the work
The National Lottery Community Fund is a Living Wage Friendly Funder. This means that we encourage our applicants to pay their staff the UK Living Wage. To find out more about the Living Wage, visit the website of the Living Wage Foundation.
Sending us your full proposal
To send us your proposal, reply to your stage 2 invitation email and attach:
your full proposal document
your budget – using the template provided
current finances spreadsheet – using the template provided
a signed partnership agreement, if you are applying as a partnership
If you cannot send a copy of your partnership agreement with your full proposal, we will ask for it as part of the grant set-up process if you are awarded a grant. We cannot start making payments to partnerships until we have a copy of your partnership agreement.
You may also want to send us:
a copy of your organisations most recent impact report, and/ or current strategy
a structure chart for your organisation
You do not need to send us copies of your organisational policies. If we need to see any of these we’ll let you know.
After you send us your full proposal
We’ll email to let you know we’ve got your proposal.
We'll review your proposal and may ask you to clarify some areas or provide additional information. We'll let you know when we have enough information to present your proposal to the decision panel.
We'll let you know our decision. If we’re not going to fund your application, we'll give you feedback explaining why.