Resources

 Darllenwch Yn Gymraeg

We’ve been putting together various resources to support organisations running community transport, or wanting to set up a community transport services. The content of these has been informed by conversations at our Transport Innovation Networks as well as listening to what the sector in Wales has told us it needs support with.

Accessing Funding

Funding is more important than ever for community transport providers, especially as they continue to recover from the effects of lock-down and begin to re-start their services. These are challenging times, so it’s become even more important than normal to review your funding streams and consider looking for new opportunities to bring money into your organisation to diversify your income over the coming months.

Contents

• Who is funding Community Transport?
• Top Tips on Funding
• Presentations
• How-To Guides
• Example Applications

Who is funding community transport?

Throughout Covid-19, we know that at least £750,000 of grant funding has been given to community transport operators to help mitigate against the loss of income, make adaptions to vehicles and to continuing providing essential services. More than half of this funding has come from Community Foundations (find your local Community Foundation, here). Vital support has also been received from the National Lottery Community Fund and a number of trusts and foundations. You can find a list of funds which are currently open and some suggestions about where else you can find funding to apply for, here.

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Top Tips for Funding

Our Top Tips are “bitesize” resources which highlight some useful points to consider on a range of topics. They also aim to help you to generate some ideas before you start addressing a particular issue or area of work.

• Top Tips 1: Who can do fundraising in our organisation?
• Top Tips 2: Elevator Pitch
• Top Tips 3: Developing a project proposal
• Top Tips 4: Gap analysis and needs assessment
• Top Tips 5: Community consultation and engagement
• Top Tips 6: Compelling case studies
• Top Tips 7: Setting clear outcomes
• Top Tips 8: Monitoring and evaluation
• Top Tips 9: Building relationships with funders
• Top Tips 10: Increasing unrestricted income
• Top Tips 11: Calculating the cost effectiveness of fundraising
• Top Tips 12: Understanding your legal requirements 
• Top Tips 13: Searching for Funds
• Top Tips 14: Improving your funding know how

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Presentations

Developed as a visual aid and a guide to support some of our other resources, these presentations highlight useful tips and points to consider in a more interactive way.  These can be used as a guide before deciding on a way forward, or you can use them with your trustees or staff team to help bring clarity to what can sometimes be difficult issues.  They are meant to provide some information to consider when addressing a particular issue, helping to generate ideas and build confidence.

• Presentation 1:What to consider before approaching a funder
• Presentation 2: Developing a case for support
• Presentation 3: Developing a fundraising strategy

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How-To Guides

Our ‘how to’ guides are designed to take you step-by-step through the process involved when undertaking a new project or task. They provide a helpful overview of a topic to support you in developing your idea/plan, and signpost you to other useful resources.

• How To: Develop a Funding Bid

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Example Funding Applications

We’ve put together some example funding applications designed to support you when developing an application yourself. Applying for funding can often be a daunting prospect, so seeing an example of a completed application, tailored towards the community transport sector, and being able to adapt the sample text to suit your own organisation, may give a confidence boost when embarking on developing a bid.

• Template 1: Example grant application

We also have templates available for the following funders, which you can access by emailing advice@ctauk.org:

• Template 2: National Lottery Community Fund Awards for All grant application
• Template 3: National Lottery Community Fund People and Places grant application (Wales Only)
• Template 4: Garfield Weston Foundation grant application
• Template 5: Morrisons Foundation grant application

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Find out more about Connecting Communities in Wales:

Connecting Communities in Wales has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.