Know Your Neighbourhood Fund: Invitation for Intermediary Grant Makers
Information on how to apply to be the Intermediary Grant Maker for the Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Update Tuesday 20th September 2022
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Please note that clarification points and an accessible version of the engagement event slides are now available in the Documents section of this page.
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Please note that the deadline for applications has changed from 10am Thursday 29th September to 10am Tuesday 4th October 2022.
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For shortlisted applicants the interviews are scheduled to be held on Wednesday 19th October 2022.
All other details regarding the application process remain the same.
Introduction
The Government is launching a new Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund.
As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper published in February 2022, the Government is committed to ensuring everyone across the UK has the opportunity to flourish. The White Paper includes specific missions to improve pride in place and wellbeing.
Taking part in volunteering and having strong social relationships play an important role in protecting our wellbeing, but we know that some of the most disadvantaged areas are missing out. People living in areas of high deprivation are less likely to volunteer regularly, and more likely to experience chronic loneliness.
Up to £14 million will be made available through the Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund for activities enabling volunteering and tackling loneliness in targeted high deprivation local authority areas in England. Our ambition is to develop our understanding of what works to improve wellbeing and pride in place in these communities through volunteering and community initiatives tackling loneliness. Citizens will be able to participate in local projects which build their skills, wellbeing and social networks.
The objectives of the KYN Fund are, by March 2025:
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To build the evidence to identify scalable and sustainable place-based interventions that work in increasing regular volunteering and reducing chronic loneliness.
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To increase the proportion of people in targeted high-deprivation local authorities who volunteer at least once a month.
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To reduce the proportion of chronically lonely people in targeted high-deprivation local authorities who lack their desired level of social connections.
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To enable targeted high-deprivation local authorities, and the local voluntary and community sector in these places, to implement sustainable systems and processes that encourage volunteering and tackling loneliness.
Outline of Intermediary Grant Maker role
This invitation is for grant making organisations to apply to be appointed as the Intermediary Grant Maker (IGM) to deliver up to £14m of funding over three financial years from December 2022 until March 2025. The funding available for each financial year is:
- Y1- 22/23- £1,600,000
- Y2- 23/24- up to £6,200,000
- Y3- 24/25- up to £6,200,000
Note: For each financial year (1st March - 31st April) the actual value of onward grants for the IGM to administer is the figure stated above, minus 10% for evaluation (both evaluation elements, as outlined in the application guidance) and minus the requested % administration fee included in your bid.
Funding cannot be carried across financial years. All DCMS funded activities must have taken place and the expenditure incurred by onward grantees by 31 March each financial year of the programme i.e. in year 1, £1.6m must have been delivered and onward grantees must have completed DCMS funded activities by 31 March 2023.
Our Intermediary Grant Maker will need to work with local areas to help nurture interest and capability in the target areas to access funding. They will need to make best use of existing local skills and spaces, and may choose to work with local partners to strengthen their access to local knowledge, networks and expertise. We also request they work closely with evaluators to embed high quality evaluation methods for funded projects into the programme to help us to learn what works.
The Intermediary Grant Maker will run a competed fund and ensure a well balanced distribution of funding across the core objectives of the programme. Grants will need to be awarded to projects that generate volunteering opportunities, support social relationships and form new networks in high deprivation areas with low levels of regular volunteering, with a focus on testing scalable interventions.
As an illustration, if we successfully achieve our objectives:
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People living in high-deprivation neighbourhoods will access enriching projects. These projects should aim to help improve their wellbeing, skills, confidence, or social connections and enable access (or remove barriers) to these opportunities to volunteer and participate. For example, activities to support children and families (eg. play sessions, support for parents) or befriending, or mentoring initiatives (online or in person).
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Systems and partnerships will be stronger between local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sectors, statutory partners and local citizens in these neighbourhoods. We hope that through the programme, more systemic change will take place. For example through investment in an asset-based community development (ABCD) approach, or establishing stronger links between Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations and the health system to enable social prescribing.
Who can apply
DCMS is inviting nonprofit grant making organisations, such as charitable foundations, philanthropic institutions and Arms Length Bodies to apply to be the Intermediary Grant Maker for this fund. We also welcome bids from a consortia of charitable organisations, of which a lead organisation should make the application.
How to apply
Please follow the links at the top of the page to access the application form and guidance. If you are successful, you will need to deliver the grant in compliance with the standard DCMS terms and conditions which you can find at the top of the page.
Key dates
The deadline for applications is 10am on Tuesday 4th October 2022.
Applications received after this date and time will not be considered. You will receive a confirmation email to acknowledge receipt of your application. Please get in touch if you have not received this to ensure that your application has successfully been submitted before the deadline.
Applications should be submitted by email to KYN-Fund@dcms.gov.uk. Enquiries about KYN Fund should also be directed to this address by 5pm on Friday 2nd September. We will respond individually to clarification questions up until this date and will update this page with anonymised clarifications to questions we have received shortly after this.
DCMS will hold a virtual engagement session for clarification questions from 10:30am - 11:30am on Wednesday 31st August 2022. Please contact the Volunteering and Tackling Loneliness team at KYN-Fund@dcms.gov.uk to request further information or to sign up for this event.
Shortly after the engagement session we will update this page with information shared at the engagement session, anonymised clarifications to questions asked at the session and to questions received by email before 2nd September. Please check this page for the clarifications before submitting your application.
Please note, as the application process is competitive, the DCMS team is not able to respond to requests for support in completing the application.
We may invite the leading organisation from up to 3-5 of the highest scoring bids for clarification interviews in mid October 2022.
Please be aware that there will be a pause between the interview stage and informing applicants of the outcome of up to two months. We expect to inform the successful applicant by late November/ early December.
Any changes to this timeline will be communicated on this page.
Last updated 20 September 2022 + show all updates
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Please note that the deadline for applications has changed from 10am Thursday 29th September to 10am Tuesday 4th October 2022. Please also note that clarification points and an accessible version of the engagement event slides are now available in the Documents section of this page. For shortlisted applicants the interviews are scheduled to be held on Wednesday 19th October.
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First published.