Applications can only be accepted from voluntary, ‘not for profit’ organisations, associations, groups and clubs or consortiums/partnerships which have a strong community focus for their activities.

The range of organisations eligible to apply are:

• Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations (SCIO)
• Unincorporated Associations
• Companies Limited by Guarantee
• Trusts
• Not-for-profit company or asset locked company or Community Interest Companies (CIC)
• Cooperative and Community Benefit Societies
• Community Councils
• Unconstituted Groups*

(*Unconstituted Groups have the opportunity to apply for Level 1 grants (up to £3000). If your group doesn’t have its own bank account, an alternative constitute group or third sector organisation (such as a local community centre) would be allowed to hold the grant on your behalf. The group would be expected to seek and manage this arrangement. The organisation ‘hosting’ the grant would simply need to complete the ‘Bank Account Host’ form, and this would be submitted to ACVO along with the application form.)

• Parent Councils**

(**Parent Councils are eligible to apply, subject to the funded activities meeting the aims of the Fund and specifically focusing on supporting young people aged 16 or over or supporting adults rather than their children. Any Parent Council applying to this fund must have a statutory duty to keep proper accounts, for which there may already be legal and regulatory requirements for them to do so depending on the status of the Parent Council, for example, some parent councils are registered with OSCR as a charity.

ACVO encourages applications that will support one or more of the following groups:

• Women particularly women experiencing gender-based violence.
• People with a long-term health condition or disability.
• People from a Minority Ethnic background.
• Refugees and those with no recourse to public funds.
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) communities.
• People facing socio-economic disadvantage.
• People experiencing severe and multiple disadvantage.
• People with diagnosed mental illness; people affected by psychological trauma (including adverse childhood experiences).
• People who have experienced bereavement or loss.
• People disadvantaged by geographical location (particularly remote and rural areas).
• Older people (aged 65 and above).
• Unpaid Carers.
• People with Dementia/Alzheimer’s disease.
• Neurodiverse groups.

The focus of the Fund is to support the adult population (defined as members of the population aged 16 years and over). Children can be a secondary beneficiary of the Fund; however the primary beneficiary must be adults from the targeted ‘at risk’ group. The Children and Young People’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports Fund, managed by local authorities, focuses on supporting the ‘Fit Like? Family Wellbeing Hubs in Aberdeen City.

We Can Fund

• Equipment.
• One-off events.
• Hall hire for community spaces.
• Staff costs (these should be one off, fixed term and hourly rate should be paid at a minimum of the Real Living Wage of £12 pr/hr).
• Training costs.
• Utilities/running costs.
• Volunteer expenses.
• Small capital spend up to £5000 – e.g. construction, refurbishment and/or purchase of buildings, amenities or vehicles.

We Cannot Fund

• Contingency costs, loans, endowments, or interest.
• Electricity generation and feed-in tariff payment.
• Political or religious campaigning (please note that faith-based organisations are eligible to apply with the exclusion of any religious campaigning activities or activities restricted only to members of the faith-based organisation. TSIs should undertake due diligence around these matters).
• Profit-making/fundraising activities.
• VAT you can reclaim.
• Transport.
• Statutory activities.
• Overseas travel.
• Alcohol.
• Direct therapeutic interventions, such as counselling or CBT.
• Initiatives whose primary beneficiaries are under 16 years old.

Please see the Year 4 Application Guidance PDF for more details

NEW APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT PROCESS FOR YEAR 4

In previous years, the Fund opened to Level 1 and 2 application, they were submitted and members of the Fund Partnership Group for Aberdeen City aimed to assess applications within 5-10 working days of submission to ACVO.Grant offers and grant payments were then made following confirmation of grant approval of each eligible application.

However, in Year 3, with the funding landscape being extremely competitive due to the cost-of-living crisis, the increase in the awareness of the Fund and many funded organisations in year 1 and year 2 applying for continuation funding, an overwhelming number of excellent applications were received in just a couple of weeks, resulting in the fund closing very quickly and lots of organisations sadly being disappointed as they were still preparing their applications.

Unfortunately, the funding landscape is equally challenging this year.In response to feedback from organisations and to ensure that those groups less experienced in applying for funding and/or needing time to develop their application, the Fund Partnership Group has agreed to change the application and assessment process for Year 4. This will allow organisations time to access support from ACVO’s Funding Officer, plan and submit their applications.

THERE WILL BE TWO ROUNDS OF FUNDING IN YEAR 4.

Round 1 of the Fund will open to Level 1 (up to £3000) applications on Wednesday 25th September 2024 and to Level 2 (£3001-£15000) applications on Wednesday 2nd October 2024. Round 1 will close to all applications (Level 1 and Level 2) on Thursday 7th November 2024.

Constituted organisations and Unconstituted Groups can submit one or two applications to Round 1 of the Fund. The maximum grant funding that can be awarded to constituted groups is £18000 (two Level 1 applications, one Level 1 and one Level 2 application or two smaller Level 2 applications). The maximum amount of funding an unconstituted group can apply for is £6000 (two Level 1 applications).

Round 1 of the Fund can support Level 1 and Level 2 applications for the maintenance or expansion of existing activity and innovative new activity that provides additionality.

If you are submitting two applications to the Fund in Round 1, they must be for separate projects / activity as only one of your applications may be successful and be awarded grant funding.

Although there no defined limit on maximum income of groups applying for a Level 2 grant, please note that the Scottish Government has asked the majority of grants to go to small or medium sized groups with incomes less than £1million. Applications from large national organisations must demonstrate that the application aims to provide specific community-based activity within Aberdeen City.

Round 2 of the Fund will open on Monday 13th January 2025 and close on Friday 7th February 2025.

For year 4, the Scottish Government has encouraged TSI’s to ringfence and distribute a proportion of funding to ‘at risk’ groups that have been underrepresented in receiving funding in Round 1. The Partnership Group has agreed that 10% of the Fund will therefore be ‘ring fenced’ for a second round of funding and will be open to Level 1 (up to £3000) applications only to support new and innovative projects from underrepresented communities or communities of interest. Additional guidance, including information about the underrepresented communities who are eligible to apply will be shared when this second round of funding opens in January.

Small organisations who have not applied or received funding in Round 1 will be given priority in Round 2 to strengthen the ambition of the Fund in Aberdeen City outlined by the Scottish Government.

“The ambition of this Fund is to support initiatives which promote mental health and wellbeing at a small scale, grass roots, community level.”

If you are unsuccessful in receiving funding in Round 1, you will be able to submit a Level 1 (up to £3000) application to support new activity in Round 2.

Assessment of Round 1 applications will take place in November (after the closing date of the 7th November). The Partnership Group will then assess all eligible applications. The constitution of this group includes representatives from the Third Sector, Aberdeen City Council, NHS Grampian and Aberdeen Health and Social Care Partnership. New for year 4 will be the establishment of a Lived Experience Panel who will sit alongside the Partnership Group. Collectively members will score each application using a clear scoring criteria that aligns with the Scottish Governments guidance.

ACVO’s Funding Officer will be responsible for conducting an initial quality assurance check to ensure applications are complete and eligible to be put forward for consideration, due diligence checks, overseeing compliance and management of conflict of interest throughout the assessment process.

Notification of Round 1 funding decisions are dependent on the number of applications that have been submitted as this will impact on the amount of time that needs to be dedicated to assessment. ACVO anticipates that demand for funding will be high, however it is hoped that organisations will receive notification of funding decisions and Grant Offer Letters will be issued in late November. Grant payments will then be made before Christmas.

Notification of Round 2 funding decisions will hopefully be in mid-February, with grant payments being made before March.

To access further advice or support relating to the Fund, the application process, or for any other reason, please email ACVO’s Funding Officer, Claire Shaw at claire.shaw@acvo.org.uk. Claire will either contact you directly or forward your request onto the appropriate team member to help you with your enquiry.