In This Section
How to Apply
The Trust is closing its programme and website from Friday 25 November 2011 until 1 March 2012. This means that organisations cannot apply for funding bewteen 25 November and 1 March 2012. Current pending applications will be dealt with at the Trustees' next meeting, on 16 February 2012. From 1 March the Trust will have new criteria. These will be publicised as widely as possible. The focus is likely to remain on young children and their families, and details will be available in the new year. Grants already committed for three years will be maintained. Applications will be online only after the re-opening.
The Trust no longer has application deadlines, but works on a rolling programme.
Trust meetings are listed and you should allow around 10 weeks for your application to reach a meeting. However, you will be told during the assessment process which meeting will consider your application. The Trust receives many more applications than it can fund, and we cannot guarantee that applications will be dealt with at a specific meeting.
Applications must be made using our application form, which should be completed online from this website. The Trust does not accept hand-written applications - please phone if you do not have access to a computer. If you have any problems with the online application form, the Assessor should be able to help by phone or email. The Trust will shortly move to online applications only, although you may for the moment complete an application on a downloaded form if for some reason you cannot use the online application.
Please read these guidelines carefully.
The Cattanach Charitable Trust has adopted the following theme which will influence its grant-making for the next few years:
The Cattanach Charitable Trust believes that improving the well-being of young children can bring about healthier and happier communities. The Trust will focus on organisations and projects which offer hope of a better life to children, especially those under 10 years of age, and to their families and communities. By targeting its grants in this way, the Trust means to address the needs of young children living in difficult or deprived circumstances, and to help them make the most of their talents and opportunities.
Who can apply
The Trustees will consider applications from charities working in Scotland. Organisations should be registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. The Trust does not fund individuals, or organisations which are not registered charities.
What we will fund
Your organisation must be working with children, preferably those under 10 years of age, and their families. We will consider projects which work with children only, as well as those which take the needs of the parents into account; similarly we will consider applications focussed on parents of young children, provided the needs of the children are also considered.
We prefer to make grants which make a sizeable contribution to a project. We are unlikely to make a grant which is only a small proportion of a large project. Most grants are between £3,000 and £15,000 a year, although applications which are exceptional, innovative, and based soundly on need, may be awarded a larger amount. The Trust makes multi-year grants, for up to 3 years. We will make grants for revenue or capital funding (although we fund capital projects only rarely), and for project or core funding. As a general rule, we prefer you to say what you need and we can then make a decision about what the grant might be.
We welcome appeals from charities working in both urban and rural communities. Applications should give a brief summary of the nature of the community, especially with regard to need, population, deprivation etc. You will be expected to show that you know your local area, that you are familiar with other organisations and services within your area, and to show how your efforts fit in with other provision and do not duplicate what other people are doing. We want to know why you think the work needs to be done, what evidence you have of the need from the organisation’s own experience, and how you go about setting a baseline from which you can see what your work achieves.
We want to fund organisations which work with the young children who are most in need, whether because of isolation, poverty or other disadvantage. We expect users or local community representatives to be involved in the organisation in a suitable way, and we recognise the extra demands that this can make on staff and volunteers. We recognise that some groups and individuals need long-term help before they can move on in their lives, but we expect clear and realistic outcomes to be set, and these should include numerical targets and real change over time.
The Trust wishes to encourage appropriate training for staff and volunteers, and may recommend specific training as part of a funding package, e.g. with Evaluation Support Scotland. This will be discussed at the assessment stage.
Please do not send documents by recorded delivery, as the Trust does not have a full-time office. Applications will not be acknowledged, but you will be told the result of your application, whether successful or unsuccessful.
What we will not fund
We will not fund individuals, hospices and palliative care, appliances for illness or disability, organisations concerned with specific diseases, or animal charities.
When to apply
The Trustees meet 4 times a year, normally in February, May, August and November. You may apply at any time and the Trust no longer publishes deadlines for meetings. Your application will be dealt with as quickly as possible, usually within 4 months. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application as soon as possible after a meeting, usually within 2 weeks. This means that, depending on when you apply, it may be up to 4 months before you receive a response. If circumstances change, or you need to know urgently about an application, it is best to e-mail the Assessor.
Whether successful or not, you cannot re-apply within 12 months of your original application, unless the Trust asks you to do so. We may make a multiple grant for up to three years, or we may invite you to re-apply when you report back on the spending of the grant.
Help with the form
If you have read these pages and consider that you are eligible to apply, please complete our online application form. If you apply online - and we encourage you to do this - you can uplload the necessary supporting documents of annual accounts and a budget. You do not need to send a paper copy of the application form in addition, although you will need to post supporting documents if you do not have them in electronic form. If you produce an annual report, please post one copy.
Answers can be in the form of bullet points.
Under "Organisation Details", the question about investigation by OSCR refers to investigation because of complaint, suspicion of malpractice, non-compliance or other legal reasons. This question does not refer to the normal process of registration with OSCR, or to OSCR's routine reviews of charities.
"Outcomes" are not what you do, or want to do, but what you expect the results or effects of your action to be. They are different from "targets" although you will want to include targets in the form of numbers of people you will work with. For example, a target might be the number of training sessions you wish to run; the outcome would be the changes in the specific number of people attending these sessions, how they felt, what effect that had on their lives. Outcomes have to be demonstrated, and to do this, you will need a way of assessing people at the beginning of the activity. Ideally this will involve the people themselves at all stages. Outcomes must also be specific to your own work, and show how you have helped particular people in a specific way. It may not be enough to say that the activity "increased confidence in young people"; you want the young people to do something with this increased confidence. We are also interested in unexpected outcomes! Letting us know about these may be educational for the Trust and for other organisations undertaking similar activities.
You should keep a copy of your application so that you can answer questions about it. Applications completed on the website will automatically store a copy for you. The Assessor is happy to be contacted by telephone or e-mail to discuss a possible application.
Application Checklist
You must send the following documents: -
- an application form online (or as an email attachment or by post if you have agreed this with the Assessor )
- your most recent full annual accounts, audited or independently examined, and signed. These should be uploaded unless they are very long.
- a budget for the project, or if you are applying for core costs, a budget for the organisation
- If you do not yet have annual accounts, 1 copy of a recent bank statement and a list of board/management committee members' names and addresses
- If you produce a separate annual report, please send this by post
You do not need to send a paper copy of your online application. Please do not send any documents by registered post as the office is not staffed full-time. Please do not send any other documents (e.g. job descriptions, photos) unless the Assessor asks you to do so.
