Watch the webinar
Speakers
- Gina Crane, Director of Communications and Learning
- Veda Harrison, Director of Creative, Confident Communities
- Genevieve Ford-Saville, Funding Manager
- Luna Dizon, Communications Manager
Welcome and housekeeping
Gina Crane
Okay, good morning, everyone, and welcome to this pre application, Question and Answer webinar. We're so pleased so many of you could join us today and we hope you find it useful. I'm Gina Crane. I'm Director of Communications and Learning at Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. I'm here with my colleagues Veda, Genevieve, and Luna, who will share more detail on the way that we work. My colleagues, Alison, Simon, and Shemain are also on hand in the background and they'll be helping with answering questions as we go.
For accessibility, we have Louise, who will be providing BSL interpretation and interpreting what is spoken live. We've also asked speakers to describe themselves and where they are. So I'm going to start. I'm Gina. I'm a middle aged white woman. I'm wearing glasses and I have quite a loud dress on and we're sitting in a sort of a library room. I'll hand over to Veda.
Veda Harrison
Thank you Gina. Good morning. My name is Veda Harrison. I'm Director of Creative, Confident Communities at Esmée Fairbairn. I'm also a middle aged woman, but I am a Black woman with short afro hair with tinges of red and wearing glasses, and I'm wearing a red and white striped top.
Genevieve Ford-Saville
Good morning everyone. My name is Genevieve Ford-Saville. I'm a Funding Officer and I work primarily on our A Fairer Future programme. I am a Black woman, with light brown skin and dark brown hair and brown eyes. I am wearing a flowered headband in my hair and dangly earrings. And I'm wearing a white shirt.
Luna Dizon
And I am Luna Dizon, I'm the Communications Manager at Esmée. I am a Southeast Asian woman with long dark hair and I'm wearing a flowery jumpsuit.
Gina Crane
Thanks, everyone. So just a few details on practicalities. Before we start, live captioning is available for this session, Luna has shared a link in the chat. If you'd like to see captions in a separate window, you can also click the live transcript button at the bottom of this window to see them within zoom. You can post questions at any point using the Q&A facility which you can find at the bottom of your screens. And I'd encourage you to also vote for questions submitted by another participant rather than add a similar one. Also, if you'd really like to see that one asked. And you can do that by clicking the thumbs up icon next to the question. So as mentioned, we've got a team of people typing responses to the questions in the Q&A. And we aim to try and answer as many questions as possible. We'll prioritise questions that are up voted, but if there are questions we miss, we'll try to answer them afterwards. And we'll be adding this as an update to our Frequently Asked Questions on the website. You might find the answer to your question is there already. We are expecting a lot of questions, there are loads of you here, which is brilliant. And so please don't worry, if you miss anything. We are recording the webinar, and we will share the transcript with additional questions covered on our website, if what you want to do is just listen to what we're saying. You can look at all the questions later. You don't need to worry about that. So yeah, let's we're going to start with some slides. And hopefully we'll allow lots of time for questions.
Presentation
Introduction - slide 2
Gina Crane
Welcome to this pre-application Q&A webinar. And this is a trial. So applicants have told us that being able to ask questions before they submit an expression of interest will be really helpful. And we have considered different ways of offering this. And this pre-application Q&A webinar will be a chance for us to test out this format, with the aim of holding them more regularly. So your honest feedback is really helpful. And we'll be gathering it after the session. We do want to use most of the time to answer questions. So we'll try to limit our part leaving time for your questions.
The session is a quick intro to Esmée, then what we don't fund and what we're looking for, what we consider when we're making decisions, and a bit about our application process. And we'll have a video there. And then lots of time for Q&A.
We're aware that, today, we need to strike a really tricky balance. We want to be more transparent. But we also want to be absolutely honest, we are not holding this webinar to encourage more applications, I'm afraid. Need is rising in the sectors we support. And in the past few months, we've already been receiving more funding applications, way more than we could possibly fund and we're still making the same number of grants so we need to do more to save people from spending precious time applying to us when it is unlikely that we'll fund their work. We hope this webinar will help you understand better whether it's worth investing your time in applying to us, or if you want to focus your efforts elsewhere. We want to answer as many questions as possible. But we know the main question for many of you will be: will Esmée fund my work? And I'm sorry, for most of you, the answer is probably no. And we won't be able to give you one to one advice and feedback about your own organisation's work today. But we really hope we can give a clearer picture of what we're looking for, how we make decisions, and how we use our application process to do that.
About Esmée - slides 3, 4 and 5
Gina Crane
Next one, so a bit about Esmée. There's loads of information on our website. So I'm not going to go into lots of detail about our strategy or what we do. But we're in the first half of a five year strategy, which focuses on three main aims, improving Our Natural World, securing A Fairer Future and strengthening the bonds of communities - that's Creative, Confident Communities in the UK. As well as assessing and managing grants, funding managers are exploring other ways we can be more proactive in making progress towards our goals, that might be doing things like commissioning research, convening, co-design, using our influence and inviting applications for work ourselves. And this is a picture of our strategic framework, which has the aims on the left hand side, Our Natural World, A Fairer Future, and Creative, Confident Communities. Some very lofty impact goals that we want to see happen by 2030, we hope we can contribute to with our funding. And some more specific priorities that we're looking at working on in the first five years. You can find all of this information on our website. And I'm now going to hand over to my colleague Veda to talk about some numbers.
Veda Harrison
Brilliant. Thank you, Gina. So in terms of numbers, our grant numbers you can see there on the screen. In practical terms, these are numbers that show the size and the shape of our grant making towards the aims and priorities. In our strategy. We've chosen to focus on funding mostly of relatively small number of long term core grants. So last year, we made 188, of which 28 came in to us cold. And what we mean by cold is that they came through the website with no previous contact from anybody at Esmée. We have funded for a long time, and we have fairly wide existing networks and knowledge. But we're also keen to extend those. 39 grants made last year were made to organisations we haven't funded before, with the remaining 71% by number going to organisations we funded at some point in the past.
What we don't fund and what we're looking for - slides 6, 7 and 8
Veda Harrison
In terms of what we don't fund, so because of our focus on large long-term grants, we don't fund very small organisations, those with a turnover of less than £100,000, or those without well established governance. I'm not going to go through the exclusions in detail, you can see that on screen. It's all also available on our website, so you can have a look at your leisure after the webinar.
In terms of what we're looking for, what we're looking for from our applicants, you can see there are organisations that are leading the way themselves or are part of a collaborative movement or partnership. And that partnership can be made up of a range of different partners. Really interesting partnerships is something that we're interested in. We're also looking for applicants to show that they are driving change for the future, that they're breaking new ground, or by using tried and tested models to push things forward. So it's not always about doing something new. But it's about using what you have learned through your work to begin to see that change that you are seeing, but also for other organisations that work in similar sectors. And we're also looking for applicants to show how they are making a lasting difference, reaching beyond those directly engaged to influence policy, practice and behaviour. And this is where we're looking to see how supporting an organisation really is able to make that systemic and long-term sustainable change.
We're also interested, as I said, in unusual collaborations and ambitious partnerships, those operating regionally and nationally, those involving or engaging a large range of charity, public sector or corporate stakeholders, and this is where you're really starting to see some really interesting connections. In between these types of organisations that in some cases don't work together. We're also really interested in watch, which makes connections across our three aims. So we have Our Natural World, A Fairer Future, and Creative, Confident Communities. We recognise that organisations don't always work in those siloed ways. And we don't work in a siloed way either. So when you're presenting your work, don't worry too much about slotting yourself into a particular strategic aim. Because if your work naturally flows through all three, that's really interesting for us to see. We're also really interested in communities or people most affected, involved in leading the charge. And this is where lived experience becomes really important for us, because communities who are most impacted by challenges within within their organisations within their communities, if they're empowered, and they're given the right level of capacity to lead the change, this is where you're leading, you're beginning to see much more long-term sustainable change for those communities for themselves. We're interested in work, which takes a preventative approach, so not working at the kind of reactive end, but at the preventative and the kind of upstream work that we're interested in. Because that, again, is where you're starting to stem the problems that we're seeing across society. And we're also interested in work that has practical plans to achieve and sustain change over the long-term. And I think that underpins all three of our strategies at Esmée.
What we consider when making decisions - slide 9
Veda Harrison
When making decisions, we consider a range of different things. We're looking at track record, we look at successes, but also what you've learned when things don't go to plan. This is something that we see quite regularly. And learning from those times is really important for you. But it's also important for us, we're an open and flexible funder. And when things aren't going to plan, it's okay to talk to us. We want to hear from you. When also making decisions, we're thinking about connections, how could this link to and complement other work we support to increase that combined impact? Thinking about the broader context, what are the opportunities and barriers? Who are your allies, your partners, your collaborators? What influence or leverage will the work have that you're pursuing? And when we're making decisions, we're also looking at the difference our support could make, what value could our funding and extra support add to this work?
Application process - slides 10, 11 and 12
Luna Dizon
We're just going to share a very short video now on the six steps to apply and give our voices a little bit of a break. And yes, we'll be back in a couple of minutes.
Genevieve Ford-Saville
There are six steps to apply. One, take a quiz to check you meet the minimum eligibility criteria. You'll be asked quick questions on the funding you're seeking and your organisation. The quiz takes a few minutes.
Two, read our funding guidance. It has three sections. A, more detail on how to apply. B, what we do and don't support. And C, our strategy and funding priorities. Sections A and B take 30 minutes to read. For C, our strategy: read the parts relevant to your work. You'll find information on the outcomes we are focusing our support on.
Three, if you think Esmée is a good fit for your work, submit an expression of interest. Use this to tell us briefly what work you would like me to support about the change you're focused on achieving and how your organisation is well placed to deliver it. You'll have 300 words. We'll also look at your website to learn more about your organisation and work. You'll hear from us within four weeks to let you know whether we'll take your application further.
Four, if your work is a potential match, we'll invite you for a conversation to learn more. The conversation will cover: fit to our strategy, your approach and your track record.
Five, if your plans are a strong fit, we'll invite you to submit a proposal. You'll have three months to submit a proposal. If you already have a document that describes your work, and shows how your work aligns with our strategy, you can use this.
Six, after receiving your proposal, we'll invite you for a follow up conversation. We'll then do a detailed assessment of your application. We aim to give you a decision within three months of receiving a proposal.
Genevieve Ford-Saville
I hope that was helpful for everybody to understand a bit about what goes on behind the scenes, and to start the process behind the scenes is the expression of interest. And we use this as a basic screening tool. As I said in the video, it's only 300 words. So we aim that it's not too onerous for you to complete it. And what it asks you to tell us is whether or not you meet our minimum eligibility criteria, and whether you're a good fit for our funding priorities, with your work is leading the way and driving change for the future, and whether it aims to make a lasting impact and difference. And as our video also said, we will as well as look at your expression of interest, look at your website, and any other publicly available information about your organisation to get a bit of a broader picture of who you are and what you do. And for those organisations that we do consider that are a good potential match to our impact goals, we're going to invite you for a phone call. And that's an opportunity to spend some time with a Funding Manager and explore in more detail what it is you're aiming to do, what your organisation does, and whether or not you would be a fit for our priorities.
So we want to be clear about the number of applications we receive. We were closed to applications for part of last year. So our numbers were lower. We had 832 eligible expressions of interest reviewed, 53 of those were withdrawn by the applicant. 152 of those were invited to move forward into submitting a full proposal. And 4.4% of those we call cold expressions of interest, and which as has referenced, means are organisations that we had no previous relationship with, and weren't aware that they were going to put an application in through our website. And as you can see that usually results in a lower chance of success at the moment. Over to Luna.
Q&A - questions are in bold
Luna Dizon
We are actually going to start the Q&A now. We'll move on to some further information that can help you with looking for funding afterwards. And I just want to say sorry about the slides, I'm not quite sure what's happened, I seem to be able to use the link, but it doesn't seem to be working for some of you. And we will send it afterward. Apologies again for that. So we are going to start with the questions.
First one is from Jenny:
How a small organisation with under £100,000 turnover, can get them onto our radar, if it meets all our aims?
Gina Crane
I'm going to take that one. Thanks, Jenny, for your question. And it's one we get a lot. And I hear frustration in that question, which I totally understand. From our point of view, we've looked at the organisations that we regularly fund, and the reality is the majority, the vast majority of organisations we fund have a turnover of over £100,000. We want to save people from applying when there's very little chance of them getting funded, and we found having an absolute limit on something that definitely applies to you or doesn't apply to you is the only way to stop people from applying who we're just realistically not going to fund. However, we absolutely recognise that some organisations are smaller for lots of reasons that might be about inequity, that might be about their kind of development, where they're at, where they're based, lots of different factors. So we do fund some small organisations. And yes, we have gone out usually and found them ourselves or they've been recommended to us by other people we found, or we're getting out there and finding them. And we do think that we've got some more work to do in how open those networks are, how easy it is to talk to us. We're looking at that at the moment. And it is something we're thinking about. We're working with partners and our Involving Young People Collective particularly, to explore alternative access routes to Esmée. And we also really welcome feedback. You can always send us an email, let us know about what you're doing. And if you think we need to know about this work, then you can send us an email: communications@esmeefairbairn.org.uk. Do get in touch and tell us. But yeah, the reason we have the £100k limit is to stop lots of people from wasting their time, essentially.
Luna Dizon
There are a couple of questions here about how organisations can not be cold. Basically, how they can put themselves on our radar. This isn't limited to organisations with a turnover of £100,000.
I am going to go to Veda.
Veda Harrison
Yes. I mean, it's a challenge, because we are we are a small team. And what's really important to us is equity, we do get a lot of inquiries saying, can we have a conversation with you. And if we had a larger team, we would be able to resource that which is one of the reasons we're having this webinar today, is to be able to answer some of the questions. As I say, equity is really important to us. So we don't generally have pre-EOI application sessions with our funding team. Because we do recognise that not all organisations are resourced to do that. And we want to make sure that when it comes to accessing our funding, that we are as equitable as possible. So even with some larger organisations, we generally say no, if you're interested in submitting an application, that we encourage people to submit an EOI, because that is, as we said, during the earlier session, that's when you submit an EOI, you are putting yourselves on our radar. And our funding team will then look at your organisation, then we'll assess that. And that will give us an indication of who you are, where you are based, the type of work that you're doing, and the type of work that you're interested in us actually supporting. We do have, you know, we're increasing our networks and finding different ways to increase our network so people can come to our attention. But as you can see on this webinar, we've got over 200 people, and to be able to keep connections with all 200 people across a year, a given year is quite challenging. So the EOI process is really, really important for us. And for you to actually get on our radar. And like I say, your EOI is assessed by somebody from our funding team.
Gina Crane
Just to clarify, I looked into this because I love some data and numbers. And we have funded since we since Esmée began, we funded more than 12,000 different organisations. So to say that we funded someone before or that someone is genuinely cold to us, we have actually funded a lot of people within the sector. So there are lots of people who've had a relationship with Esmée at some point in the past. I guess that should also kind of that sort of cold in inverted commas description.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. I'm going to move on to this question from Dave:
Is your definition of community, a community of place and interest or just place? For instance, they work alongside young people of colour spread across the region, so community largely of interest.
Veda Harrison
So we recognise that within our strategy, say for example, A Fairer Future we have a number of priorities that are very thematic. But I always say that organisations delivering work in A Fairer Future exists somewhere, they exist somewhere in the UK. Within Creative, Confident Communities, our definition of community is of place. But we also recognise that within that we will be supporting and have supported organisations that are taking a specific thematic approach to address issues within that community. There is a kind of connection between. For Creative, Confident Communities, we are talking about place that the organisations that we have worked with before do bring forward - almost like the theme is the vehicle through which they are addressing various different issues. But it is very relevant to that place. And what we often find is even within a place, be at a street or a city or a town or in a rural community or a coastal community, the issues and the challenges that you're dealing with are also relevant to other places, but with a slightly different nuance, obviously, of that particular place. So for us, when we define community as part of Creative, Confident Communities, we are talking about place. But we do also understand that people will be using particular kinds of themes and issues to address the challenges that they actually face within that place. I hope, Dave, that answers your question. We do get questions about that quite a lot, but it's very clear between the two A Fairer Future and Creative, Confident Communities.
Luna Dizon
Thanks, Veda. I'm just going to ask Gina just to say a little bit more about the year Expression of Interest in terms of how we use it?
Gina Crane
I guess I'm seeing lots of questions about how do we stop being cold? And how do we get a relationship with you? And how do we do this, and I think Veda was talking about this in her description of wanting to be more equitable. We're choosing not to have a system where we speak to absolutely everyone who wants to talk to us. And I guess if we did want to do that, we'd have to have lots more staff, and we'd have to spend lots more money on them. And that would sort of take away from something from our grant making budget. So we're not, we're not opting to do that, what we're saying is, we've got a specific strategy that we're sharing, we're making less than 200 grants a year, across all of those priorities in that strategy, we have quite specific ideas about what we want to achieve, the kinds of things we want to fund. So you can submit your 300 words, talking about your work, and how you want to describe that and how you think it fits to our strategy. We will look at that. And we if we think there's a really, really strong fit, we will talk to you about that. But the reality is, for most people, that is not going to be the case. But that's our judgement. You will definitely think that - otherwise, you wouldn't be wasting your time putting in your application. I guess this is about us, knowing what we're funding at the moment, what we're also funding where this work could complement it and fit where we've got gaps, we're already funding some things. And we are choosing to back that. And rather than funding a new thing that's doing something quite similar. These are all choices we're making. So what you can tell us in your expression of interest, hopefully is enough for you to get yourselves really on our radar and telling us about your work. And that's the best place to start.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. And hopefully that answers lots of people's questions. You know, if you need clarification, or you have further questions around that, do just put them in the Q&A facility or send us an email. And we will we will do our best to respond to you. And so I'm just moving on to the next question. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to choose a question that team in the background isn't already responding to.
This is a nice, quick and easy one. Alison's asked if an EOI hasn't been successful, is there is a time limit of when you can submit an application again. We know some funders put a limit on this. Gen, do you want to answer that?
Genevieve Ford-Saville
Some others do put a time limit on it, we don't have a stand down period. But I think we will offer you some basic information on why the application wasn't successful. There may be contained within that some things that you would need to go away and look at and attend to before you would be able to come back to us. So depending on what the feedback is, it may take your organisation some time potentially, and you will give yourselves up the space to work through those things appropriately. So I wouldn't start coming back straightaway. But really considering what the reasons were, having another look at our guidelines. And if there are things that we're suggesting that you would need to change in order to fit our guidelines. And those things are things that you want to do and fit within your organisation is, not suggesting that you change yourselves to fit us. And then you would go and take the time to do those things and maybe come back to us once you've thought about when those things have changed. I hope that helps.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. And so I'm going to ask another question to Veda. Someone's project fits the Creative, Confident Communities aim - our communities together working for change priority, and also our A Fairer Future aim. However, the A Fairer Future aspects of the work won't be focused on young people. Will they be eligible to apply?
Veda Harrison
So this is what we recognise with our strategies. And there is some reason for this is that we don't want to work in silos. So a lot of the work that we're doing will in some way or form sit across a number of strategies. If you feel that your work sits strongly in one area, that's the area to apply for. We recognise that you're working with a range of different partners within a place which may include young people, it may not include young people. But if you think about which of the strategic aims or which of the priorities you feel is the strongest fit, that's absolutely fine, you would be able to submit there. It's for us to understand and assess and make those connections across the different aims. And if you want to bring that to the fore, as part of your EOI, that will be really helpful as well. But we have knowledge of across, you know, working across the three strategic aims, and like I say, we don't work in a siloed way, we don't expect you to work in a siloed way. So bring forward anything that you think is really strong, and really interesting that you want to share with us.
Luna Dizon
Thanks, Veda. I know there are a couple of questions around match funding. So Does somebody want to take that one? What our approach is to match funding?
Genevieve Ford-Saville
Sure, happy to do that. Thank you for the questions. So we're most interested in the impact that you're going to make. And the practicalities of how that is going to be funded is a conversation that we would have a bit further down the line, usually after the expression of interest has already moved forward into proposal stage. And so we are happy if you have other funding from other funders, that's great. It's not a requirement that you have much funding from other funders in order to apply to us. And we look at a broad range of factors when we're considering application and the patchwork of funding you have to support the work is one of the things that we consider. We would look at that at the proposal stage. So further down the line, but match funding is not a requirement in order to be able to apply to us.
Luna Dizon
Thanks, Gen. I'm moving to Pamela's question: 300 words is great from a less work angle, but requires incredibly strong drafting skills to get across complex cross silo work. Any tips on what is good to include?
Genevieve Ford-Saville
I can maybe help with that. Thanks, Pamala, for the question. I appreciate what you are saying - that it's a particular way of communicating that we're asking people to engage with this in. I would say, be authentic, tell us about your impact and what you want to do. Sometimes, people worry that if they're not professional bid writers, it won't sound as good. But if you are close to the work and passionate about the work, you'll come across on the page, it doesn't matter that you're not a professional fundraiser. What's most important is you really understand what it is you're aiming to achieve. And you tell us what it is you are aiming to achieve and how you're going to do that. That's the most important thing. So your authenticity on the page is the most important thing.
Luna Dizon
Anybody else want to add to that?
Gina Crane
I would also say if what you are doing in that 300 words, is trying to come up to something that is a version of your work that is as close to Esmée Fairbairn's strategy as you can, because you want us to fund you, which absolutely is a fundraising impulse, and I get it, we will look at your website, we will open some reports, we will check what you're doing. And if it doesn't match, we will wonder why that is. We want you to tell us what you really do. Like it is really important. And we're making choices, we're funding very few organisations really. We want to fund people who are genuinely doing the work that does match exactly what we're doing. So please do tell us honestly what you're doing and what's important to you. That would be really good.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. I'm just going to quickly answer Rory's question about once after being invited to submit a proposal, how many receive funding.
Luna Dizon
So after we've invited applicants to submit a proposal, the success rate again for people who come in cold so they submitted a cold application to us initially, the success rate to being awarded a grant is 70%. Hopefully that answers your question.
Luna Dizon
I also want to ask Veda to answer Helen's question about cold and non-cold applications. Helen asks: is it accurate to say we prioritise existing grantees and once we have submitted an EOI that has been assessed, we are then non-cold?
Veda Harrison
We don't prioritise existing grantees. Obviously having been previously funded by Esmée, we have clearly a better knowledge of the work that they've done as part of the new strategy and as you know, holding sessions like this, we are seeing more organisations coming through that we haven't funded before. And as with the response to the EOI question, you know, being able to share what you're wanting to do in a way that is authentic about who you are is really important to us. So in terms of prioritising existing grantees, we're taking a strategic approach, we're moving towards being more proactive in our approach. So there will be some organisations that we have worked with before, that we do know or will meet a particular need or address a particular issue that they need support to continue doing. But equally, if there isn't a sense of well, this application, this EOI that we've received from an organisation we know before is better or should be prioritised over someone who is approaching us for the very first time. The important thing is, as you're addressing that in the those questions in the EOI, as Gen has said, is that you're able to put across strongly the work that you're seeking to do, and that you as an organisation in the way you're particularly interested in doing now.
Gina Crane
Just to add to that, I think it's absolutely accurate to say that we don't actively prioritise the organisations that we're funding. Obviously, the reality of how or who gets funding is that we are more likely to fund those organisations partly because we know more about their work, but also because we've been active in the areas in which they're working for quite some time. And sometimes they will be the key organisations in that issue or sector. So that is probably not something that's going to go away. But we're we are very aware of trying to make sure we have the same fair process for new people and people that we're already funding. And we're taking steps to think about how bias might show up, how existing networks might have preference, and thinking about how do we get out of that. We're doing some work at the moment thinking about how would we create new connections funding for people that were not on our radar. And what might that look like? And how could that change the way we work? So we are aware of those things. But yes, you're right to ask that question.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. I'm going to move on to Debbie's question, who is asking about whether we have geographic or regional funding allocations. Veda, do you want to take that?
Veda Harrison
Yeah, happy to. Thank you for your question, Debbie. And we do know who you're referring to down in Plymouth. And hello to the people down there in Plymouth. No, we don't have regional funding allocations. Creative, Confident Communities, as a strategy, is really interested in how we can fund across the whole of the UK. And it's a big geographical area that we're having to cover. We do know from previous data that we have had more funding that has tended to go into London and the southeast. But if you were to talk to any national funder, you will find that something that's quite common across the funding sector. How our funding can reach parts of the UK that might not have had much funding before. But we don't have a strict allocation, we are looking at different ways as to how we can better cover the UK. You know there's a lot to cover and there are a lot of particular issues in places that other places are facing. So there's a lot of sharing, which is why we're focused very much on impact and sharing the learning across the UK and in different cities and different regions. So, in answer to your question, we don't have funding allocations for regions. But we are increasingly interested in how we can work in specific areas in very proactive ways, collaborating with other funders and local authorities in place as well.
Luna Dizon
Thanks Veda. I'm gonna take Hannah's question: do we fund work that takes place in schools? And she says that many funders have restrictions around this. What is our approach? Gen, do you want to take that?
Genevieve Ford-Saville
Many founders do have restrictions around schools. Primarily, we generally have the same reason why, which is that we consider the basic function of schooling to be a statutory responsibility, and that our funding shouldn't be replacing that. But we're obviously aware that there are circumstances in which that doesn't work for everybody. And there were things that happen around the edges of that. So there are some circumstances in which we have funded education work, especially when it's addressing needs of people who have been underserved by the existing systems because, for example, systemic racism. We will consider applications for pieces of work that are looking at changing existing systems because it hasn't served people well. It would need to be a piece of work that looks at reframing the way in which education is currently working. Quite a bold prospect potentially, but we would consider it if you have an idea like that. Hope that helps.
Veda Harrison
Can I just add something to that because there's a really strong example currently who we're working with in Scotland, which is Sistema. Now, this is an in school music programme. But it's not purely that. The main ambition of Sistema in Scotland is to have an impact on the whole community. They're using school and the connection to education and communities and families connection to education, and music to see what change would happen over a significant amount of time. If the organisation funded by us and others were to invest significant amounts of time, effort and funding to support the development of young people through music, and its broader impact on that community and also the long-term outcomes for those young people and community. So that's an example of how we have supported work in schools. But it's very unique in that it's taken a much broader perspective on the role of education within a community and how it can change outcomes for that community.
Luna Dizon
Thanks, Veda, I'm just going to answer Kat's question about the upcoming changes to the expression of interest form.
They're relatively small changes. What we've tried to do is clarify what we want in the two questions that we ask. So we've added a little bit more guidance to help applicants focus their answers. And what we've also done is added a little bit more flexibility in terms of the 300 word count. So instead of having 150 words for each question, you will have a 300 word total for both questions, which we hope is helpful. As colleagues have said, we welcome feedback. Let us know how it's working. And yes, hopefully, it's better. But yeah, do give us feedback. (Learn more about the updates to the form)
I'm going to go to Hattie's question. She would like a piece of advice from the panel to give to applicants that isn't on our website.
Who wants to go first? Hopefully, this means we've done our best to put the best advice on the website!
Veda Harrison
Yeah, thank you for that question, Hattie, it's quite challenging, because I think we have put a lot of thought into the information that we do have on our website. And as we've said previously, our position as a funder, we're really keen on equity. Whatever advice we give everybody, we're hoping, is accessible to everybody. I think the points we've made previously in the webinar are really, really important. It's about authenticity, in terms of how you put yourself across. I think one thing I would say from some of the things that I have seen is the use of buzzwords can sometimes I know what, as an organisation you're trying to get across, and there are certain, you know, references as part of your work in the sector that you will use quite regularly. And there's an assumption that we will know what they are. But I think sometimes that can erode your authenticity in terms of what you're trying to say. So I would say that it relates to what Gen said earlier. It's about how you represent yourself and being as authentic to who you are as possible. I know that's not advice that's clearly on the website. But it's a sentiment that's really important for us as we as we look at applications.
Genevieve Ford-Saville
I guess what I said before about authenticity. And obviously, you know, you need funding, you want funding, we have money, I understand the power dynamic there. But please don't pretzel yourself into shape to try and fit our guidelines. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. And if it does, then please put an application in and we can we'll see where it goes. But yeah, I think be honest with yourselves and be authentic with us. And hopefully that helps.
Gina Crane
I think mine is a more slightly more depressing version. Sorry. Ultimately, really be honest with yourself, does it really fit? Are we going to are we likely to fund it? Do not spend loads of your time crafting a perfect 300 words when realistically it's you're stretching yourself or it's not quite what you do or it's not exactly how you'd like to express yourself, We will we will pick up on that. That will happen. And we are choosing, you know, we've got lots more demand than we can meet, we are choosing the kind of work that we think fits the best. It's, you know, it's not a fair process. It is what's happening. And I guess be honest with yourself about what's the best use of your time to think about this? I'm sorry, that's not more cheery.
Luna Dizon
So Ros' question, would you say that our grant support is more strategic? And that we're looking for more strategic outcomes than direct delivery?
Veda Harrison
Yes, thanks Ros, for that question. And actually, the answer to that question is yes. If you take a look, as part of, you know, assessing whether you should be applying to Esmée or not, if you take a look at our funding guidance, you'll see very clearly that all three strategic aims across Our Natural World, A Fairer Future, and Creative, Confident Communities are really focused on those strategic outcomes. And it's because, as a funder, as with a number of funders across the sector, we're really interested in how the support we give an organisation really makes systemic shifts in society and for the issues that you're seeking to address. Direct delivery is something that we recognise a lot of organisations will do as part of their day to day work. And they will draw on some of that insight in order to develop more strategic pieces of work. But if your work is primarily direct delivery, it is not something we're going to support. There will be elements of what you do that might be direct delivery, our focus is very much on being more of a proactive funder, because a lot of the issues that organisations like yourselves and others on this webinar are facing are issues that society has been tackling for a very, very long time. And when we made the strategic change a few years ago, we recognise that there is more we could and should be doing in terms of how we use all of our assets, and all of our knowledge and skills, and our collaborations with other funders, and with you in the sector, to make real systemic sustainable change. So we're not seeing the same issues come back over and over again. We know that it takes a lot of very heavy lifting to do this work, which is why our focus is really about those strategic outcomes. And that's a long winded answer to a question of, yes, we don't do direct delivery, but it's just really to help you understand where we are now in terms of our three strategic aims.
Luna Dizon
Thanks, Veda. And moving on to Erin's question about the £100k turnover. So in the previous year, their accounts showed around £50k turnover, but this year, they are looking at a £200k turnover. So do they need to wait until they've signed the accounts that shows that they have over £100k turnover before submitting an EOI?
Genevieve Ford-Saville
I can try this. Well, Erin, thank you for the question. So coming back to what Gina said earlier about the way in which we are realistic about who is successful with us. We are aware that organisations below £100,000 pounds hasn't usually ben successful with us. And that's one of the reasons why we have that in place as an eligibility criteria, it's to help you save time as well as us. It's about the scale of an organisation. The £100,000 number is an indicator of scale, an amount of money that you've been able to work with, possibly the amount of staff that you have, or the infrastructure that you have in your organisation. It's sort of a metaphor for that in a way. And it's almost more about that than it is about the number to some degree. But yes, we do check your accounts. So I would, I would suggest waiting until you do publish them because that then means that you've got it verified by your accountant. But if you think that's likely to be consistent, and you're likely to continue to have that level of income going forward, you could potentially mention it, when you're applying, we're going to have a look and see a little bit of what you've been doing to date. But as I say that £100,000 criteria is really an indicator of a wider structure and infrastructure within the organisation. So the question is about that as well as the number. Does anybody else want to add to that?
Veda Harrison
No, I think that's fairly, pretty clear. I think those accounts are really, really important. And we know in various times of the year when you're getting your account audited, that will be a kind of golden moment when you're looking to submit that, you know, it's important that we have that information before you proceed.
Luna Dizon
Thanks. I just want to go to a follow up question about work in schools. This question is from Hannah: is work carried out by an organisation within a school environment, but not by the school acceptable?
Veda Harrison
I think the Sistema example, kind of answers that question. So the question was, if work was taking place in a school, but not by a school, is that correct? I'm hoping I'm reading that correctly. Fantastic. Like I said earlier, the Sistema example is a really good example of a response to that question. It's taking place within the school environment, it's not delivered by the school, obviously, it will use a lot of the resources within the school. It's quite unique in that it's kind of built around the schools within the area have historically over a period of time developed to utilise the knowledge and resources of Sistema because they've seen a real change in their communities. So yes, work that takes place in a school as well, as part of a broader strategic piece of work to demonstrate the change you're wanting to see. That will be something interesting to see. But work that's delivered by a school kind of leans more towards work that should really be delivered by your local authority so statutory delivery. That's not something we would then necessarily support.
Gina Crane
And I should probably say, just to add to that, an individual school or even a couple of schools, probably not. I think we're talking about where we have funded work that takes place in schools, is at scale, it is in order to demonstrate or show a bigger change. So yep, so we have done that in the past, rarely. And it will be about demonstrating something that has the ability to be scaled or replicated elsewhere at that sort of system change angle.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. We've only got a few minutes left, I'm going to answer Olivia's question. But I thought I might also just share the last couple of slides that we have. So, Olivia, this question is about accessibility related support.
We do offer additional support. So access payments of up to £500 for people who might need a scribe or for whatever reason, they need additional support to access our application process. The link is in the slides, I will also share it in the chat, so that you can see where to find that information.
There is also, on our website, more information on our FAQ page, which has a number of answers to questions we most get. And also a couple of tips in terms of understanding the sorts of organisations that we fund. So you can search our funding data on GrantNav, which is provided by 360Giving. It's not just useful to people finding information on our funding, there's lots of funders who share their funding data on there. There's links to how to use that as a search tool on our website. Under each of our funding priorities, if you go towards our aims section, you'll also find case study examples of work that we funded under each of those aims. And we also have held webinars on each of our strategic aims to talk a little bit more about our strategy and our thinking behind each of those areas. So I just wanted to share that.
And these links are also on our website. If you go on to the apply page, you'll find them there. We've got information and useful links to other funding sources, and also other useful sector resources on a range of topics including campaigning, digital, safeguarding and fundraising. And so hopefully that is all helpful.
Just going to have a quick check to see if there are any questions that we've missed. There's a question from Helen about sharing stats around percentages of new applicants funded. We are hoping to share more information about our application figures on our outside, I'll include some information in the follow up email to this webinar. And we, again, like we said, throughout, we really welcome feedback. If there's something about our funding data that you think it will be useful for us to share, let us know. In terms of another question about the recording of the webinar, we will be sharing this on our website, probably later this week. Got to check the transcript is all correct.
Gina Crane
Just to say some words to finish. Thank you fellow panellists, people answering questions and to Luna for putting it up. And to all of you for coming. Just some closing thoughts. Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is also a charity. We have our own aims, we have our own strategy. And if we're not funding you, it's not because of something you're doing wrong, it's because of the choices we're making. What you're doing is needed, it's really important. We salute you. And thank you for your interest.
And yeah, I hope you have a good day and thanks for coming.
Luna Dizon
Thanks everyone, thanks Louise also. Thank you.