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Community Wealth Fund terms and conditions

These terms and conditions are only an example of ones we use. If you're awarded funding, your specific programme's terms and conditions may differ from these.

A. Purpose and use of the grant

The grant must only be used for Community Wealth Fund purposes.

1. Up to £1.05m of the funding will be for you as the Community Anchor Organisation (CAO) to establish the infrastructure to deliver the Community Wealth Fund in [area].

2. Up to £1.5m of the funding will be a Community Budget to implement changes decided by the community, in accordance with the provisions of this Grant Agreement in furtherance of the Community Wealth Fund aims.

B. Co-operation with the Fund

1. We will agree with you, acting as the CAO, ways of working and a regular meeting/monitoring schedule during set up meetings. These will take place after this Grant Agreement has been signed.

2. At our request, you will:

  • provide us with such further information, explanations and documents as we may reasonably require in order to determine whether the terms and conditions of this Grant Agreement have been complied with;

  • permit any person authorised by us such reasonable access to your employees, agents, premises, facilities and/or records, as we may reasonably require in order to determine whether the terms and conditions of this Grant Agreement have been complied with.

3. You will retain copies of all papers and minutes of Community Decision Maker meetings and management committee / resident group meetings whenever these papers and minutes relate to work funded by the grant. Copies of such information must be made available to us, on request.

C. Community Anchor Organisation (CAO)

1. Insurance

You must ensure that you have adequate and appropriate insurance in place at all times which covers all the activities within your CAO role and within the Community Plan, including any assets you have purchased or leased, and employee and public liability and insurance.

2. Preventing Discrimination

You must ensure that you do not discriminate in any way on the grounds of age, disability, gender or gender identify, race, religion and sexual orientation and avoid committing any act of unlawful discrimination, harassment or victimisation prohibited by the Equality Act 2010.

You shall ensure that when services are provided by or through this grant, due regard is given to the need to:

  • eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010;

  • advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it; and

  • foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it.

3. Conflict of Interest

You shall maintain appropriate procedures to require your members, decision makers, volunteers, employees to declare any potential or actual conflicts of interest in any matter concerning your activities which are funded by the grant.

4. Compliance with Employment Law

You must be aware of and comply with employment law, which covers pension rules, payroll, the minimum wage, and health and safety.

5. Safeguarding

5.1. If you work with children, young people or vulnerable adults, you must:

  • comply with our safeguarding expectations

  • take all reasonable steps to ensure their safety

  • have and implement an appropriate written policy and set of procedures in place to safeguard vulnerable people

  • undertake DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks necessary on all those individuals who are required by law or best practice have them.

5.2. Failure by you to:

a) comply with our Safeguarding Expectations or your safeguarding policy for staff in relation to the Project;

b) ensure that any onward grant agreements require Grant Recipients to comply with our Safeguarding Expectations;

c) fully investigate allegations of misconduct in relation to safeguarding whether in relation to your staff safeguarding policy or our Safeguarding Expectations;

d) report to us any safeguarding complaints in relation to the Project (excluding any personal data) where such complaint could risk causing reputational damage to us and/or the Dormant Assets Scheme; and where appropriate, to report safeguarding complaints to the relevant authorities (including the police);

e) take the appropriate action in accordance with your safeguarding policy for staff regarding any safeguarding concerns that are connected to the Project,

shall be an event of default of this Grant Agreement and shall entitle us to terminate the Grant Agreement.

6. Environment

6.1. You shall comply in all material respects with all applicable environmental laws and regulations in force in relation to the project. In particular, you shall:

  • perform the activities funded by this Grant Agreement in accordance with our environmental policy, which is to conserve energy, water, wood, paper and other resources, reduce waste and phase out the use of consumer single-use plastics, ozone depleting substances and minimise the release of greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds and other substances damaging to health and the environment.

  • pay due regard to the use of recycled products, so long as they are not detrimental to the project or the environment, to include the use of all packaging, which should be capable of recovery for re-use or recycling.

  • take all possible precautions to ensure that any equipment and materials used pursuant to the project do not contain chlorofluorocarbons, halons or any other damaging substances. You shall endeavour to reduce carbon and fuel emissions wherever possible

7. Organisational Governance

7.1. Subject to compliance with the terms and conditions contained in this Grant Agreement you must follow your own policies and procedures when administering the CAO.

7.2. You will notify us of any change to your constitution, legal form, membership structure (if applicable) or ownership, and of any complaint or investigation by any regulatory body or the police into your activities or those of your staff or officers or volunteers.

D. Community Anchor Organisation (CAO) Budgets

1. The CAO will have a budget for management and community support and community development in accordance with clause A (1) above. This being for infrastructure and core costs, including:

  • administration costs;

  • investments in a community development function;

  • investments in systems;

  • investments in people;

  • investments in infrastructure;

  • dedicated capacity development;

  • staff salaries;

  • project activities;

  • running costs;

  • small-scale refurbishment (up to the sum of £20,000);

  • equipment;

  • organisational development; or

  • contributions to fixed costs.

2. If you are not sure whether a cost falls within our criteria of eligible expenditure, you should check with our Funding Team colleagues prior to incurring that cost.

E. Community Decision Makers

1. You will ensure that you have appropriate decision-making structures and processes in place to facilitate Community Decision Makers including:

  • recognising and managing conflicts of interest, ensuring you are following your own policies and procedures and meeting the criteria and ethos of the Community Wealth Fund;

  • encouraging a range of people in your area to be involved, in a thoughtful, inclusive, open and meaningful way.

2. The decision-making structure must have been co- designed with residents of the XXX area.

3. You will send us, within 24 months of acceptance of this Grant Agreement, the draft terms of reference for the Community Decision Makers, for us to consider and agree before the Community Decision Makers are recruited.

F. Approval of Community Plan

1. You will ensure that the Community Plan is developed with and approved by the Community Decision Makers.

2. The Community Plan is subject to our approval. Before we release payment for the Community Wealth Fund projects we will need to see evidence of the community led decision making and the final approved Community Plan with clear timelines and actions showing what actions will be delivered when, where and by whom.

3. As part of our approval process, we will check that the proposed projects in the Community Plan are eligible for funding in accordance with the terms and conditions within this Grant Agreement.

G. Changes to the Community Plan

1. We understand that things change and evolve as the project does. Any changes to the Community Plan must be in response to community led decision making and be approved by the Community Decision Makers and is subject to our approval.

H. Role of the Community Wealth Manager

1. A Community Wealth Manager will be appointed by us to act as a key liaison and support for any Community Wealth Fund project. The Community Wealth Manager will provide guidance and support on the development of the Community Plan.

2. You will permit the Community Wealth Manager to observe your Community Decision Maker meetings where decisions are made on the allocation of grant funding and your Community Wealth Fund management / resident / steering group meetings whenever these meetings are to discuss the project.

3. You must keep the Community Wealth Manager informed of any matters which may affect the success of the project.

I. Disputes Resolution

1. Where there are any significant changes, complaints, investigations, disputes or difficulties within [area] which may affect the success of the Community Wealth Fund programme/and or harm the reputation of the programme and/or the Fund and/or the Dormant Assets Scheme you must advise us immediately.

2. The Community Wealth Manager will try to resolve disputes amicably but if they cannot be resolved then they will be escalated to our Funding Team colleagues.

J. Additionality Principle

1. The Additionality Principle refers to the principle that Dormant Assets Money and National Lottery funding (including this grant) shall only be used for projects, or aspects of projects, for which funds would be unlikely to be made available by a Government department.

2. It is your responsibility to ensure this grant will be used to fund projects, or aspects of projects, that are additional and distinct from public funding and that the grant does not substitute or replace public funding and provide written confirmation of this when requested to do so.

3. If you are not sure whether a cost falls under the Additionality Principle, you should check with our Funding Team colleagues prior to incurring that cost.

K. Local Delivery Partners

1. You should conduct due diligence on your partner(s) to ensure that each partner has the same standard of financial management, governance, prevention of bribery, corruption, fraud and other irregularities as you do. This is to ensure the appropriate and prudent expenditure of public funds.

2. You must keep clear and accurate records of all due diligence investigations, and all spend evidence collected, and share these with us if required.

3. It is your responsibility to ensure that you enter into a signed project delivery agreement with each partner and that your partner/s accept and comply with our terms and conditions and follow any guidelines issued by us. If they fail to do so, we may exercise our rights including to terminate this grant and/or require repayment or part repayment.

L. Onward Granting and Community Engagement Grants

Any onwards grants must comply with this clause (L).

1. Onward Granting

1.1. Unless an Onward Grant qualifies as a Community Engagement Grant under clause (L)(2) all projects that include Onward Granting must be made in accordance with a process that ensures the Fund can comply, in its absolute discretion, with its Financial Regulations and Delegations Policy and the Fund’s Delegated Decision Framework. 

1.2. Funding Team colleagues will be in touch to discuss how this applies to you and the relevant process to be followed, where you will enter into either a Collaboration Agreement (CA)/External Delegation Agreement (EDA) with the Fund.  This additional agreement will provide you with delegated authority to make and manage grants on our behalf. Without this additional agreement no Onward Grants can be made other than in accordance with clause (L)(2)

1.3. Please note that the terms and conditions of the CA/EDA, will supersede any terms and conditions of this Grant Agreement. For the avoidance of doubt, the CA/EDA will only apply to the funds given to you to onward grant.

1.4. If for any reason, you are unable to satisfy the terms and conditions of the CA/EDA, then we reserve the right to vary the amount of this grant and award funds to another organisation who can fulfil the requirements of the Community Plan in compliance with the terms and conditions of the CA/EDA.

2. Community Engagement Budget

2.1. Payments under the Community Engagement Budget of up to £5,000 (per payment) may be awarded without entering into a CA/EDA provided that the terms of the Community Engagement Budget Policy (as amended from time to time), are complied with in full. Ask our Funding Team colleagues for a copy of Community Engagement Budget Policy.

2.2. The purpose of the Community Engagement Budget is to help to engage local people in a Community Wealth Fund project by empowering them to do activities that are important to them.

3. Compliance

Any onward recipients of our funding must accept and comply with the terms and conditions of this Grant Agreement (where relevant).

M. Direct Award/Investment into Capital Items

1. If you wish to access funding for an asset project please contact our Funding Team colleagues. We will ask for further information depending on the nature of the asset. You should not commence spending on the asset until you have received our prior written consent.

2. You must not set up a separate company or other legal entity to hold property or an asset of any kind purchased using the grant funding without our prior written consent.

3. Any funding for capital items will be subject to the Standard Capital Terms and Conditions.

N. Ineligible Expenditure

1. You will not use the grant, and will ensure that any Onward Grants/ Community Engagement Budget Payments are not used for the following activities:

  • input VAT reclaimable from HMRC;

  • payments for activities of an exclusively religious nature which includes the practice of religion or activities that actively promote religion or particular belief systems (or indeed the lack of belief). For the avoidance of doubt, religious organisations can receive funding if their project benefits the wider community and doesn’t include religious content;

  • salaries of existing staff for activities they undertake as part of their normal employment that are not related to the funded programme or project

  • payments reimbursed or to be reimbursed by other public or private sector grants;

  • gifts to individuals other than promotional items with a value of no more than £25 a year to any one individual;

  • entertaining (entertaining for this purpose means anything that would be a taxable benefit to the person being entertained, according to current UK tax regulations);

  • statutory fines, criminal fines or penalties; o activities that happen or start before the grant is confirmed unless agreed in writing by us;

  • costs reimbursed or to be reimbursed by funding from any other source;

  • activities that make profits for private gain;

  • investment or other application with a view to obtaining a purely financial return (for example, by creating an endowment);

  • projects or activities which the state has a legal obligation to provide – the Additionality Principle;

  • campaigning activities or political activities, unless those activities are not party political (this means that it must be about policy, practice, or legislation rather than supporting a political party) and are meant to help the cause of the community and benefit the public or society; or

  • loan payments.

O. General

1. We reserve the right to introduce further terms and conditions to this Grant Agreement as necessary if we believe such conditions are necessary or desirable to make sure that the project is delivered and/or if we have reasonable grounds to believe that it is necessary to protect public money. (2)

2. We reserve the exclusive right to determine, at our sole discretion, acting reasonably, whether any submission meets our standards. All approvals are based entirely on our judgment, and we are under no obligation to accept any submission that, in our subjective assessment, falls short of our expectations. (3)

3. If your organisation fails to comply with any of the Additional Conditions we might suspend payment of the grant and/or take legal action to recover all or part of the funding.