When you establish a fund with Devon Community Foundation, we make sure that your money is only used by groups making a genuine difference to local people. We do this by ensuring that every applicant for a grant from your fund goes through our strict 7-stage application process:
Applicant assessment - each person
or group wishing to apply is asked to fill out a detailed application form,
especially designed to be easy and straightforward to complete, whilst
getting the information we need to make informed decisions.
The financial's - we always
investigate whether groups are 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.
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, where appropriate, 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
to avoid incidents, but should one occur the applicants are trained and
equipped to deal effectively with the situation.
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, applicants are interviewed by
telephone when we 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 has been completed that we put applications forward
to your Fund, allowing you to make informed decisions about your grant
making.
By making sure we go through
this process every time we can absolutely guarantee every group put forward
to you is entirely eligible for your support. In addition, by sticking
to this procedure with every application 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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