Good Cause Community Grant guidance

Guidance notes (January 2024)

Please note that only established Cherwell Lottery ‘Good Cause Partners’ are eligible to apply.

Prior to completing the application form please check the eligibility and scope criteria to ensure that your project meets the requirements.  There is a finite budget for this round ending Friday 23 February 2024.

For an application form, please email grants@cherwell-dc.gov.uk and you will be emailed a copy.  No hard copy applications will be accepted, and all communications must be by email.

1/ Introduction

Ten pence from each £1 Cherwell Lottery ticket sale is assigned to the Good Cause Community Grant Fund.  The Council uses this fund to make one-off grants of up to £1,000 to lottery good cause partners.  Grants of up to one hundred percent of the total eligible costs and up to £1,000 (excluding any recoverable VAT) are available.  The Council reserves the right to offer less than the grant requested in the event of over subscription by suitably scoring applications.

Cherwell Lottery Good Cause Community Grants are designed to support partners with revenue or capital projects that satisfy one or more of our funding priorities. Projects must demonstrate additionality to existing activities, the grant is not available for “business as usual” costs. 

Note:  revenue and capital projects

• Revenue costs constitutes a one-off operating cost such as salaries, utilities, volunteers’ expenses, events costs for the purpose of a specific project (for example an event or specific activity) and will not be awarded for business as usual, generic operating costs.  
• Capital: The grant programme will support the purchase of one-off capital assets.

2/ Applicant eligibility criteria

The following applicant eligibility criteria are mandatory:

• The applicant must be signed up as a good cause partner on the Cherwell Lottery website and have sold tickets prior to the grant application deadline date of Friday 23 February 2024 at 5:00 pm;
•  An organisation may only submit one application per grant round. Any award must be spent and claimed within 12 months of the offer letter date. 

What work will not be supported?

• Projects that do not meet at least one of our funding priorities
• Projects which take place outside of Cherwell District boundaries or do not primarily serve Cherwell residents
• Projects which have already been supported by a Cherwell Lottery Good Cause Community Grant
• Activities promoting or favouring a particular religious or political group, or any radicalised, anti-social or potentially controversial ethos
• Any project which represents a statutory responsibility of, or is led by another statutory body (e.g. schools and education, healthcare, scheduled bus services)
• Retrospective applications i.e. where the project has already commenced, or items have been purchased

3/ CDC Business Plan 2023/24 - evaluation criteria

Your project must address at least one of the following criteria from the Cherwell District Council Business Plan and will be scored according to how well it satisfies each one.  If the funding round is oversubscribed, projects will be prioritised in accordance with their scores and they will be assessed against each other. In the event of an influx of closely scoring applications the council will favour applicants that did not receive grants in the previous round.

• Support our most vulnerable residents
• Support waste reduction, reuse and recycling
• Support and encourage active lifestyles and health and wellbeing
• Support community and cultural development
• Improve equalities, diversity and inclusion

4/ Supporting documentation

To support your application, you should supply the following:

• A fully completed application form
• Supplier quotes or cost justifications in respect of the proposed project costs

5/ Timescales

Application forms and supporting documentation should be submitted electronically before midday on the submission deadline date:

• 5:00 pm on Friday 23 February 2024

Please email to grants@cherwell-dc.gov.uk.

6/ Assessment, award and payment

All eligible applications will be assessed against the criteria detailed above.  Further clarification may be sought from you prior to a final decision being made. 

Applicants will be notified within four weeks from the date of receipt of the application. You will be sent an offer or feedback letter detailing the decision outcome. 

Once you have accepted the terms and conditions of your offer letter, a grantee pack will be sent to you comprising a Request for Payment Claim Form and Claim Guidance Documentation.   A payment claim will need to evidence expenditure on the agreed goods or services.  Evidence in the form of receipts will be required to accompany the payment claim.

7/ Monitoring and evaluation

Once your project is completed you will need to fill in a Project Monitoring Report.  This is required for audit purposes and will comprise questions relating to “lessons learned” to assist with other projects of a similar nature and to demonstrate how the project will meet its original aims and objectives.

8/ Further information

Grant recipients will be required to agree to the terms and conditions for grant funding set out in Appendix 1.  Please read the terms and conditions before completing the application form.

If you have any queries regarding the eligibility criteria or the application process please email grants@cherwell-dc.gov.uk.