As the Third Sector Interface (TSI) for the Falkirk and District area, the CVS Falkirk team prioritise listening to the local third sector about the types of help and support that they need so they can get the best from the services we offer. We have always heard loud and clear that securing funding to continue their valued services and activities, and to develop new projects to meet emerging local needs, is a focus for the third sector in Falkirk.
Support for organisational development, including funding support, is one of CVS Falkirk’s 4 strategic priorities and helping the sector secure investment and make good use of access to our website’s free grant search function is a large part of our day to day activities. In addition our hugely popular annual Falkirk Funder’s Fayre has become a mainstay of the local third sector’s calendar, each year the Fayre attracts hundreds of people: third sector staff, volunteers, partners, stakeholders and of course a diverse range of funders from across the UK who want to speak to Falkirk groups and organisations about how they can support them.
However we know from our engagement with and support for the sector throughout the COVID pandemic that this need to find appropriate and sustainable funding options only intensified as a greater number of people in our communities came forward to ask their local third sector groups and organisations for support.
Led by the needs of communities and the sector, during the pandemic CVS Falkirk took on a role as a local grant funder so we could help ensure that food groups could respond to demand for their services (COVID Emergency Food Provision), that volunteers could be reimbursed for expenses they incurred whilst supporting the community response to COVID (Volunteer Expenses Fund), and latterly that more community based mental health and wellbeing support options would be developed and made available for Falkirk folks of all ages (Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, and the Bairns Wellbeing Fund).
Sustainable Thinking Scotland CIC, a Bo’ness-based social enterprise, is one of the groups who have received a recent award from our Falkirk Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund. Steve McQueen, a Director of Sustainable Thinking Scotland, told us:
“We were awarded £15k from the last Communities Health and Wellbeing Fund which has helped us develop and deliver our services tremendously. We found the application reasonably straightforward and found CVS Falkirk to understand the continuously evolving landscape of the third sector which was invaluable in applying for and delivering the project.”
Ahead of the next round of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund open for applications, we are delighted to share with you a project we have been working on to make accessing CVS Falkirk’s grant funds quicker, easier and more streamlined. Considerable investment from CVS Falkirk, and support from our third sector partner Forth Environment Link and the Scottish Government’s Digital Boost Development Grant, has allowed us to develop our brand new online CVS Falkirk Grant Funding Portal (GFP). The GFP is a totally bespoke digital solution developed with the benefit of CVS Falkirk’s extensive experience of delivering funding support and the needs of Falkirk’s third sector in mind, and includes the following features:
- Dedicated web portal with detailed information on grants managed by CVS Falkirk
- Fully secure online application facility
- Single view dashboard showing pending and submitted applications across multiple grant programmes
- Update on application status including feedback and decisions through email and SMS notification
- Secure storage of application and supporting documentation
Tariq Mahmood, CVS Falkirk Team Leader, has a wealth of experience supporting the third sector to identify, apply to, and secure funding and has led on the development of the GFP. Tariq said:
“Supporting so many groups as they navigate applying for funding from a variety of sources has given us invaluable information and insight into the common challenges they face. This has very much informed the design of our CVS Falkirk Grant Funding Portal (GFP) and helped us to develop it with the third sector user’s experience in mind.”
Victoria McRae, CVS Falkirk’s Chief Executive Officer, said:
“Developing and bringing to fruition a bespoke solution to respond to the funding needs of Falkirk’s third sector has been an incredibly worthwhile investment for our organisation. The support we have had from local partners is very much appreciated, they saw the value in this piece of work from the beginning and we know they are as pleased as we are to see the Portal be made available to use – and the timing is perfect as another big Falkirk funding opportunity comes up, with another round of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund opening for applications in early October. We know that having the Portal available for this will make applying to the Fund easier and faster for everyone.”
The GFP is now live (linked for your convenience), and we invite all Falkirk third sector groups and organisations to visit, explore and register for their account, and of course to use it to make an application to a CVS Falkirk grant fund.
If you have any questions about accessing or using the GFP, or would like to share any feedback about your experience, please contact Tariq Mahmood by email: tariq@cvsfalkirk.org.uk
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