When you establish a fund with County Durham Community Foundation, we guarantee that every time a grant is approved from your fund, each applicant has been through our strict 7-stage selection process, making sure that every single applicant is eligible for your help and only the most deserving causes are put forward to your fund.
Applicant assessment
Each person or group wishing to apply is asked to fill out Part A of our application process with basic details of their request for funding. If they pass this stage, all applicants must then complete a detailed application form, especially designed to be easy and straightforward to complete, whilst getting the information we need to make informed decisions.
The financials
For group applications, we always investigate whether they’re solvent, are sitting on large amounts of their own money, or have any deficits that are not being adequately addressed. This is vital to ensure your money is used correctly by an organisation with the skills to financially manage the project. For individuals, we make sure that their ideas are costed out appropriately and they are genuinely in need of financial assistance.
A cast-iron constitution
To ensure that the group is well governed and run effectively, we insist that they have a set of rules outlining their responsibilities and area of work. We check that they are democratic, and legal, working to help good causes rather than themselves.
Policies to protect
We ensure that comprehensive equal opportunities and child protection policies are in place, so you are assured that we have children and vulnerable people’s best interests and welfare at heart. Hopefully, this helps them avoid incidents, but should one occur the applicants are trained and equipped to deal effectively with the situation.
Other safeguards
In order to safeguard your interests, a set number of compulsory checks are carried out to ascertain that an applicant is genuine and in real need of your support, ensuring your Fund is only used for what it is intended.
Interviewed
Once all of the above stages have been satisfied, the applicants are interviewed by telephone by our assessors who will review their application and explore their ideas in more depth (we are looking for good ideas and the ability to deliver, not just applicants who are good at filling in forms).
Applicants eligibility
It is only after this detailed process that we put applications forward to your Fund, allowing you to make informed decisions about your grant making.
By making sure we follow this process every time, we can absolutely guarantee all applicants put forward to you are entirely eligible for your support. In addition, by sticking to this procedure we can ensure that your money is unlikely to be misused, taking away any distress or embarrassment this might cause you. If you choose to support the applicant, you can be absolutely certain your money is being used in accordance with your wishes, whilst enabling the implementation of genuinely good ideas that will make a real and effective change to the lives of local people.
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