Webinar recording and additional questions
- Watch the recording and download the presentation
- See the additional questions we gave typed answers to (which aren't included in the recording).
Speakers
- Gina Crane, Director of Communications and Learning
- Alison Holdom, Funding Manager Lead - Creative, Confident Communities
- Hannah Lim, Funding Manager - A Fairer Future
- Luna Dizon, Communications Manager
Welcome and housekeeping
Gina Crane
Good morning, everyone. And welcome to this pre-application Q&A webinar from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. This is about our general funding. And we have a specific webinar next week on the seventh of February if you are looking to apply for our youth led creativity fund.
We're really pleased so many people could join us today, and we hope you find it useful. And we're just going to start with some introductions. So I'm Gina crane. I'm Director of Communications and Learning here at Esmée. And I'm here with my colleagues, Hannah and Alison, who are going to share more detail about our work, and Luna, who will facilitate the question, section.
And we've got colleagues Jen, Gillian and Laura and Meron, who are also on hand in the background, and Simon, I believe has joined us as well, to help with the questions and answers.
For accessibility, we also have Nana and Altan, who will be providing BSL interpretation and interpreting what's spoken live. And we've also asked speakers to describe themselves and where they are. So I'm going to start with myself. I'm Gina I'm a middle aged white woman, and I'm looking a little bit tired today after not very much sleep last night and some very bad train travel this morning. I'm gonna hand it over to Hannah to introduce herself next.
Hannah Lim
Hello, I'm Hannah. I'm a white woman with brown hair and a blunt fringe. It's a little bit Claudia Winkleman, styled slightly too long at the minute. I'm wearing a navy jumper with some golden necklaces. I'm gonna pass to Al.
Alison Holdom
I'm an older white woman and I've got shoulder length fair hair, and I'm wearing a blue jumper.
Gina Crane
Luna, do you want to introduce yourself.
Luna Dizon
Hi, everyone. I'm Luna. I'm a Southeast Asian woman with long black hair, and I've got some very bright yellow tassel earrings and I'm wearing a black jumper.
Gina Crane
Thank you. So just a few details on practicalities before we start. Live captioning is available for this session, there's a link in the chat if you'd like to see the captions in a separate window. You can also click the closed captions button at the bottom of the window to see them within Zoom.
You can post questions at any point using the Q&A facility, which you'll find at the bottom of your screens. And I'd encourage you to vote for the questions submitted by another participant if you'd really like to see that one answered. And you can do that by clicking the thumbs up icon next to the question. As mentioned, we also have Jen, Gillian, Laura and Simon typing responses to the questions in the Q&A. We'll try to answer as many questions as possible like that, or live, and we'll prioritise questions that are up voted.
If there are questions we've missed, and there probably will be some, we'll try to answer them afterwards. We'll also be using whatever we do here to update the frequently asked questions on our website. So you might find the answer to your question is already there. We are expecting a lot of questions. There's a lot of you here, so please don't worry if you miss something it can be really difficult to follow everything at the same time. We're recording the webinar and we'll share the transcript. And we'll answer any additional questions on our website in due course.
Okay, let's begin. We're going to share some slides now for our presentation, which have already been shared with you, I think, so you can also look at them separately if that works for you.
Okay, so this is the welcome. This is the third time that we've run a webinar like this. applicants have told us they like to be able to ask questions before they submit an expression of interest. We considered different ways of offering this. And that we hope that a pre application Q&A webinar gives you a good chance to ask questions, make sure we have to answer them, and is a good use of everyone's time. However, this is just the third one we've run. So we really value your honest feedback. We've used feedback from previous sessions to make changes to this one. So we hope that works. And we'll be asking for feedback after this session, too.
We want to make want to use most of this time to answer your questions. So we'll try to limit our part. But as we said, we have introduced a couple of extra bits to this one to answer some questions we had last time. So hopefully, that's helpful.
About Esmée - slides 3, 4 and 5
So this is a quick introduction to Esmée. We're going to talk about what we don't fund and what we're looking for, a bit about what we consider when we're making decisions about funding, an overview of the application process, which includes a very short video, and then it's over to the questions.
So we're aware that today, we need to strike a tricky balance. We want to be more transparent. But I want to start really by saying we want to be absolutely honest, we are not holding this webinar to try to encourage more applications, even though we know need is rising in the sectors we support. And over the past year, we have been receiving more funding applications, we are still making a similar number of grants, hopefully with for more money for each organisation. But what we want to do with this webinar is to save people from spending precious time applying to us when it is unlikely that we would fund their work. So we hope this webinar will help you to better understand whether you should invest time and applying to us or if your efforts might be better focused elsewhere.
And we want to answer as many questions as possible. But we know the main question for many of you will be will you fund my work? And I'm sorry, but for most of you, the answer will be no. We won't be able to give you one to one advice or feedback about your organisation. But we hope to give you a clearer picture of what we're looking for, how we make decisions and how we use our application process to do that.
So sorry for that big intro. But here's a bit about Esmée as a funder. Our strategy, which now runs until the end of 2027 focuses on three aims. Improving our natural world, securing a fairer future and strengthening bonds and communities in the UK. And as well as assessing and managing grants, our funding managers are also exploring other ways we can be a bit more proactive in making progress towards our goals - such as commissioning, research, convening and co-design, using our influence and also inviting applications for our goals, for our work. Thank you.
And so don't worry, you don't have to read this slide. But this is a summary of our strategic priorities. And all this information is on our website, as well as full funding guidance and more information under each of those priorities, including the outcomes we're looking to see to our strategy and examples of work we've funded. I'm just going to hand over now to my colleague Hannah to share a bit more about our grant making.
Hannah Lim
Thank you Gina. In practical terms, this slide shows you some numbers that show the size and shape of our grant making towards our aims and priorities and our strategy. As you can see, we aim to focus our funding mostly on a relatively small number of long term, core cost grants.
Last year in 2023, we made 227 grants in total, and 82 grants last year were made to organisations we haven't funded before. The remaining 64% going to organisations we've funded at some point in the past either directly or some time ago. Again, don't worry about reading everything on this slide in one go. It details the areas that we don't fund: our exclusions.
What we don't fund and what we're looking for - slides 6, 7 and 8
Because our focus is on long term grants for work with a more strategic focus, we don't fund very small organisations. By which, we're looking at our turnover of less than £100,000, or those without well established governance.
I'm not going to go through all of these [exclusions] in detail. These are all on the website. Hopefully they're clear there. And we're very happy to answer any questions or receive any feedback about anything that is not.
So what are we looking for then. We're looking for applications that show that they are leading the way themselves, or as part of a collaborative movement or a partnership. We're looking for work that's driving change for the future. So it could either be by doing something new by breaking new ground, or by using tried and tested models to push things forward and achieve impact for the future. And we're looking for work that aims to make a lasting difference - reach beyond those directly engaged, implements policy, practice and behaviour. So they're the things we're absolutely looking for.
We're looking for communities, or people who are most affected to be involved in leading that change. And we're looking at work that uses a preventative approach. So top of the cliff rather than bottom of the cliff, and work that has practical plans to achieve and sustain change over the long term, that really has some quite practical ideas about how that's going to happen. Again, it's still very challenging for us to be able to find work that meets all of these. So I'm going to handle you with Alison, who's going to give you a bit more detail about what we're looking for in applications when we're assessing.
But we can't still can't find everything that's going to meet all of those criteria. These are the areas that we're also interested in. We're looking for unusual collaborations and ambitious partnerships. They could be operating regionally or nationally, involved in or engaged in a range of charity, public sector, or corporate stakeholders. So really looking across sectors, we're looking at work that makes connections across our aims. It's absolutely not a must to fit more priorities than one. But it's quite exciting when we see things that that can make those connections.
What we consider when making decisions, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - slides 9 and 10
Alison Holdom
Thank you. So when we're making decisions, we obviously have to make the judgement about the applications. And when you're submitting an expression of interest (EOI), you're putting your work on our radar, and letting us know that you think it fits our strategy. And our strategy is the important thing here because we're obviously going to be looking at EOIs from our point of view, and how they link into our strategy.
These are the four really key areas that we look at more when making decisions. We look at track record, successes, but also what you've learned when things don't go to plan. We look at connections, how this can link and complement other work we support and increase the combined impact. We're also looking for a broader context we're looking at what are the opportunities? What are the barriers? Who are the allies? Who are the collaborators, and the influence and leverage the work will have? That's a really important one - what's the extended impact?
And then also, we're looking at the difference that our support makes, you know, what value can our funding add? And what can this extra support add to the work?
One of the other things we consider when we are making decisions is diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Our application process involves several stages where we ask questions about diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI for short. Applicants are asked to complete a DEI monitoring form. And this is set up using the DEI Data Standard. This was created by an independent working group of UK funders, it attempts to be a framework to capture DEI data so that we can really look at identifying and targeted funding to address structural inequalities. And that's the standard we use.
Then in proposals at the proposal stage, because we have a two stage process, we ask applicants to tell us about their work and their approach to DEI within the organisation and within their work. And this is more discursive, it's actually talking about examples and the ways that you have done things.
Then also, how we use this information. And the reason we do this is it really helps us understand who our funding is reaching as well as identify and add information about how we can help to address the structural inequity that's in our funding. It's a key part of our assessment process. And also we're really interested in how people and communities most impacted by the issues can shape the work.
There's two other pieces on DEI. One is that several of our areas in our strategy where we will be prioritising applications from organisations that are led by people with lived experience of the issues.
The second thing is that because of the information we're getting, and because we're looking across our portfolio, we know that some of our eligibility criteria creates an unfair barrier for organisations that are led by communities experiencing racial inequity, or that are disability-led. And we're exploring how best to tackle this.
We currently have a new programme, which is called New Connections. It's an invited fund only, it doesn't have an application process. And it's a ringfenced sum of £1.5 million, which for 2023, in 2024, is specifically looking at how we can support people that are working with communities facing racial inequity. So that's a kind of a sort of summary of how we make our decisions, and I will hand back to my colleagues
How to apply - slide 11 (video)
Luna Dizon
We're just going to play a short video now about how to apply
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 us to support, about the change your 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 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 your proposal.
Assessing applications and expression of interest tips - slides 12 to 16
Luna Dizon
So just a little bit on what happens behind the scenes of assessing.
Hannah Lim
We use the expression of interest as a basic screening process. We're checking that your organisation meets our minimum eligibility criteria. We're looking for the work to be a good fit with our funding priorities. And we're looking for work that is leading the way, driving change for the future, and aiming to make a lasting difference.
And we'll also look at other information about your organisation. So we will look at your website and other publicly available information such as that on the Charity Commission website if you're a registered charity. And for those that look like a really good potential match, we'll invite you to have a phone call with us, which is a chance for us to explore the application a little further.
This slide details our applications in numbers from 2023. I want to be upfront about the number of applications that we receive because it is a lot and 7% of expressions of interest that came through the website in 2023 with no previous contact with us were invited to submit a full proposal.
Of those organisations, 93% did then go on to receive a grant. That number does fluctuate year on year, the share in 2023 was higher perhaps than usual because we really focused on inviting only those applications which we thought were a really strong fit to our strategy.
For expressions of interest that we invite, success rates are much higher. Although these numbers don't include applications which are withdrawn.
We are mindful of bias here. We ask the same questions and we use the same assessment process for expressions of interest we invite and those that we don't. But our existing knowledge and learning will obviously factor into those decisions, as well.
Overall, 36% of the grants that we made in 2023, were to organisations new to Esmée, and about half of those came through applications from the website.
Gina Crane
So this is a new slide. In our last couple of webinars, the most common question in response to the last slide that Hannah showed, is, how do we get invited? How do we get on your radar? So we wanted to say a bit more about that, as that was the focus of so many questions. Essentially, there are two ways that organisations can get on our radar.
And one is because we've proactively sought them out. So we're attending sector and community events, we're doing research into our strategy into our areas of work, we're following up on recommendations from people we already fund or we work alongside.
The other is from expressions of interest on our website. So in 2023, we said 36% of the grants we made were given to 82 organisations we haven't previously funded, half of those came in by the website, half of them came from research. So it is half and half. And I would say if you want to get on our radar, the best way is to put in an expression of interest.
Alison Holdom
I'm just going to talk quickly about an example of an expression of interest that we've put up here, I think you've all been sent there. So I won't go through it in detail. But I just wanted to highlight what makes this a strong example.
This EOI gives a strong sense of what they're aiming for, and really shows an understanding of what the change will feel like and how they will get there, including wider works needed in that specific place and how it builds on previous work. The EOI provides a really good balance of who the applicant is, as an organisation, what they're trying to do, and the people and partnerships that will be involved. It's really clear from this, that the local community are central to the change. And that's a really strong, clear part of our Creative, Confident Communities funding.
The other thing is that they give really brief descriptions of the activities they're actually going to do. But they also talk about the long term change, the broader system change, that they're trying to make.
The work is really clear about what they're asking funding for. But also what that will then enable them to do. And remember that when you're looking at the expression of interest, as the film said, we do also look at your website. So you don't need to tell us everything about your organisation in that expression of interest, we'll look at the website as well. Use the expression of interest to really focus on your work, and how it fits in relation to our strategy.
Q&A - Questions are in bold and numbered
Luna Dizon
Thanks, Al. So we we might start with questions. The team behind have already been answering a few of those questions. If any of the questions that we do answer, need further clarification, just pop in another question in the Q&A. I'm actually going to start with with a few questions that we got sent in advance.
1. Ruth from Outside the Box said that they do a lot of work around supporting less included groups to have a voice and have recently been undertaking climate engagement work with some of these groups. So their question was about what evidence we would be looking for with their commitment to reducing the impacts of climate change.
And I did just want to say that Gina shared earlier the strategic framework of what our main aims and funding priorities are. Our strategy is also underpinned by our commitments to tackle climate change, but also to address diversity, equity and inclusion. So I'm guessing that's why that question was asked.
And I might just answer it because I've got in front of me. So at this stage, we're not explicitly considering this as part of the assessment process. We are currently looking into it in terms of what would be useful for us to consider but we're still working on that and we will update the guidance later this year.
What we are interested in when we are talking to organisations is what it is that they are doing, what kind of support that they might need and any learning that we might get just generally for for us, but also that we might be able to share with other organisations.
Another question that we got was from Cedric.
2. So, they asked: in preparing an expression of interest, and if that is accepted a proposal for multi year funding, they would provide full details and fixed costings for the year and future years would necessarily be broad extrapolations based on further developing the same cultural activities. How much firm detail is required for future years? And would that absence disqualify a proposal?
Hannah, is it alright if I ask you that, because you've already thought about this?
Hannah Lim
So, yes, we completely appreciate that where work is based on co-design, or actually including people in the design of future aspects of the project, it's very hard to pin down exactly what those kind of future costs will be. For charities, the majority of our funding is unrestricted. So actually, we don't need the specifics. In terms of budget costs, we are happy to provide flexible funding for you to then use accordingly. And obviously, you will have to make an estimate as to how much you think you will need in specific years, but we wouldn't be looking at kind of detailed budget information for those future years. So yes, we're very happy for you to pencil out what you think is required and work from that.
Luna Dizon
I'm gonna go to a question from my Natasha next.
3. So she says that we have been developing and implementing a new community organising approach to engaging people with nature in the Dover area, and are keen to continue to develop a robust approach. Would an application need to provide a detailed outline of the specific activities we would facilitate or deliver? Or would you be happy that our community led approach would require flexibility to enable the community to decide how they would like us to support them to protect and engage with their local environment?
Alison Holdom
Yeah, just to say, yes, community creation and cooperation is central to all the funding that goes through Creative, Confident Communities. So we will expect that you will not be able to tell us the exact nature of what you're doing, or you will not be able to predict the exact programme. And we're quite happy with that. Because we understand your methodology. And if that's your methodology, and it's about co-creation, then we will completely be flexible around that.
Luna Dizon
Thanks. So last of the questions sent in advance. And also from Natasha:
4. We understand that you won't consider capital costs, but wonder if you could say a bit more about how you define this, and what kind of project costs you will fund.
Gina Crane
Do you want me to take this. We discussed it beforehand. So like Hannah said, most of our funding is unrestricted. Obviously, charities will need to spend money on equipment and things that might be deemed capital costs. That's absolutely fine. You might have capital costs as part of your project, also fine. Really what we're just saying what's excluded from applying is for a building project. We don't fund building projects, we wouldn't fund you to buy a minibus. But I guess we do absolutely expect that capital costs will be part of any sort of project or your core costs. And that's fine.
Luna Dizon
Cool, thank you. So I'll move on to the questions in the Q&A facility.
5. A question from Nick, how do you pick which charities to invite to apply?
Gina Crane
Yeah, happy to take that. So I guess this is a question and I think it came in before, the how'd you get on our radar slide. But definitely fine to go over that again, because it is a really common question. So we have a strategy with quite defined outcomes and things that we want to achieve. We're learning all the time from work with funding about what's successful and who's working in that space. Hopefully, we are developing a good understanding of those areas. And we're talking to other funders. We're trying to join sector networks. Where we can, we're getting out to events. So that's how we're kind of reaching out and finding out those organisations.
I would say we're inviting relatively few organisations in all of those areas. We know there are way more organisations out there doing work that is contributing to those goals, we can only invite a small number of those, because we're making 200-ish grants across a strategy that has, at the moment, 52 long term outcomes in it. So if you do the maths, you'll realise we're not inviting a lot of applications. That sort of, how to decide, that's a really tricky process and something that the team works on a lot with each other and talking to our advisory panels, which we have set up in Our Natural World and we're about to set up in the other two areas, and also our Involving Young People Collective. And obviously, our trustees also play a part in that.
Luna Dizon
6. And related to that there's a question here about, someone's asking for a bit more information on New Connections, and whether that focuses on supporting organisations we're already working with, or, again, you know, how do they get on our radar. I'm also just going to share a link to a page that we shared about New Connections, which has a few FAQs as well on them.
Gina Crane
Shall I just do an intro you can add to Hannah. Yeah, so on New Connections, the reason for doing this is we know our governance and annual income requirements have limited access to our funding for newer or smaller or historically underfunded organisations, and contributed to that underfunding over time. So with New Connections, we're testing a way to change this.
We're approaching organisations ourselves to offer funding. Absolutely, they are not organisations we've funded before. And the reason is, we couldn't have funded them before, because they usually don't have the governance requirements that we've set. So we're trying to basically relax that and see what happens in funding those organisations. So that's part of it.
But we're also wanting to work with them to challenge our ways of working, to listen to them, to get us to think about those limits and their effects. What does risk mean when it comes to those organisations? And have we got our ideas of risk completely wrong? What does it mean to say we think an organisation needs to look a specific way?
We're looking to support about 20 organisations over the next couple of years. And we will be working with them to make a next version of this, and hopefully to affect all of our funding.
Hannah Lim
Hope that helps.
Luna Dizon
That's really great. Thank you.
Hannah Lim
You've said everything.
Luna Dizon
I'll move on to a question from Tony:
7. It would be incredibly helpful to understand Esmée's definition of communities, i.e can this mean a group who share a set of multiple protected characteristics or challenges, as well as the more obvious physical community.
Alison Holdom
Shall I do that one and Hannah can come in as well. To a certain extent, it depends, we don't have a set definition, it slightly depends on where you're approaching us with funding, through which of our priorities, or our aims.
If I do Creative, Confident Communities and then Hannah can talk about A Fairer Future. In Creative Confident Communities, there is a central 'place' element to it. The communities will be considered around a geographic place-based approach. There may be communities within that community that could be more to do with particular characteristics or particular issues or opportunities. And so we will consider how they all fit together. But in Creative, Confident Communities, we are looking generally through a geographical place-based lens.
Hannah Lim
For A Fairer Future, we're working primarily through a people lens, I suppose. So specific groups of people usually around some sort of protected characteristic when we're looking at our priorities around migrant justice or racial justice, for example, and that work could be happening in a place-based way or it could be a much broader national work, but the primary focus is the connection between those people as a as a result of that standard shared issue.
Luna Dizon
So just a follow up on that question. I'm gonna ask Hannah's question.
8. How does Esmée view local versus national projects that impact, for example, a proposal for partnership work with a partner in Dundee Tayside for a pilot in year one, that would then be rolled out nationally in year two or three?
Hannah Lim
There's a real mix across our portfolio I suppose. And as Al highlighted there, particularly when you're looking at the difference between A Fairer Future and Creative, Confident Communities aims about whether work is happening at a local or national level, I would say the sort of primary factor for us is whether that work will lead to sustained change and work that benefits beyond the kind of initial grouping. So, yes, absolutely something that trials something in one more local area, but has really clear plans about how the influence of that work will be taken broader, would be would be interesting. And it's really, as I say, about making that case for how whatever the sort of geographic focus of the work is, will lead to sustained and long lasting change.
Luna Dizon
Thank you.
9. There's a question here also about how we define lived experience.
Gina Crane
So if we can put a link in there to the DEI Data Standard. That was something that was very much considered as part of that group. I think not just funders, but also organisations led by and for the people they serve, participated in coming up with that Standard, and the definitions there. So there's a lot more information there about what that means to have lived experience.
Luna Dizon
I will also just share a link to how we're using the the DEI Data Standard along with some FAQs, which might be helpful too. So those links are just in the in the chat.
Sticking with DEI, a question from Catherine:
10. Do you share DEI best practices based on the information you've received from applications or funded organisations?
Gina Crane
Great question. Not yet, but it's definitely something that we want to do. So I think we are working on our approach of how best to support the organisations we fund in their diversity, equity, inclusion journey. We're also on a journey ourselves as an organisation, we absolutely recognise that. And we are trying to support the organisations we fund to make progress in the way that makes most sense to them according to who they're working with, what they're doing, what's kind of needed for their work.
And particularly on Funding Plus. For organisations we fund, they can access Funding Plus support, which is effectively a small grant for consultancy or training. Over the past couple of years, a lot of different organisations have used Funding Plus support for diversity, equity, inclusion, training, consultancy, doing action plans, kind of changing their work to listen to people more closely. What we really want to do now is, basically we've we supported all of those projects without making any judgements about what good looks like because we don't know. But we do have a data set now that we can find out. And so we will be working with an independent consultant talk to those organisations about what has worked for them. And then we'll publish that because I think we don't know what is going to make a difference yet. So yes, it's definitely something we're going to do. Thanks for the question.
Luna Dizon
And there's another question here about the DEI, this one's from Dawn:
11. We work with people with learning disabilities and engage them in plans. But inevitably, their challenges in dealing in future scenarios makes it harder for them to lead the change. Is this recognised in your assessments?
Alison Holdom
Yes, absolutely. What would normally happen in that circumstance is that we would, during the expression of interest call, or during the proposal process, we will talk to you about the methodology that you work with, how you work with people, how you take into consideration what can be achieved and what people can do. So yes, we completely do take that into consideration, and we would go through that with you.
Luna Dizon
Thanks. So the question here, I'll just read the question:
12. You mentioned the importance of practical ideas of how to sustain change, could you give a few examples of what you mean by this.
Hannah Lim
I can take a first go. When we're looking at ideas of how to sustain that change, what we're often talking about is that there needs to be a policy change that has happened or somebody to change their behaviours or their ways of working. So that needs to be kind of clearly set out. But when we say practical, what we want you to outline to us is how you think you're going to do that with that person or with that policy. You know, you've identified your kind of potential influencing target, as it were, but what are the ways in which you plan to reach them? How do you engage them? What evidence do you think you will be providing that will lead to the change that you are hoping for?
Alison Holdom
Yeah, because there's also something around how that practical change becomes embedded or sustained within that group of people. How you can continue that work or how they can continue to work, how jointly you can carry on. So something around how the practical leads to more embedded change.
Gina Crane
And I'll add to it, why not, we can all answer this one. I think for me, particularly looking at organisations' plans to influence or thinking about how they're going to get people to do behaviour change, I guess we can't guarantee this impact is going to happen. Things we would want to to demonstrate, do they know like real costs of this and real sort of costings of making that change? Like how they can present to people? How they identify the audience for this? Have they thought about what they really need? Have they done their market research? Is there a need for this? Are people going to make this change? And then particularly thinking about how they would reach those people, what are their connections? What are their networks, one of the ways of making this get out there so that we all can see the change that needs to happen. I guess it's just having the practical plans to make that happen, which I think we've all said.
Luna Dizon
So next question:
13. How important is longer term sustainability versus short term impact addressing a time bound need of three to five years?
Gina Crane
I'll take that one. I mean, it's very, this is a difficult one to answer. Because it depends on what you're trying to do. So I would say if you've got a specific time bound project, that's pretty rare in the sectors that we work in, and is an attractive funding proposition. For those reasons. I think quite often, we don't often see people talking about having a time bound need or particularly a time bound organisation. It's happening a bit more. And I think planning for that makes sense. What we're thinking about, I guess, is the long-term difference of that work. And I would say if a short-term project can make a long term difference, that wouldn't be a barrier thinking about us funding.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. A question from Karen:
14. Do we have any minimum and maximum grant size or project durations? And also, if we could pair that with a question around what we consider in terms of turnover? They say they've made less than £100k. But they've received and confirmed funds, which will be over £100k. Will this be considered?
Alison Holdom
Shall I start on that one? Just to start with the second one. We look at both your earned income and your funded income when we're considering turnovers. So if you have received funds, and you have also earned income, then we will consider the joint figure for that. If it's confirmed funds, it has to be sent after the funds that were received into your bank account during that year. So received, yes, but confirmed, probably not. And in terms of Sorry, what was the other part of the question?
Luna Dizon
The other bit was do we have any minimum or maximum limits.
Alison Holdom
We don't have set one. But we are not really a funder of small grants, very small grants. Our smallest grant is probably around the £30k or £40k.
Gina Crane
£30,000, we should clarify.
Alison Holdom
I'm sorry, yes. So we don't really go below that. We tend to be a larger funder. Obviously, the maximum grants tend to be for really substantial long-term, multi-place or multi organisation grants. And there's a real range of funding that we give to other projects.
Hannah Lim
To add to that, the timeline for the majority of our grants is multi-year. By that, I mean three to five years maximum. I don't think we've got any grants that are beyond five years right now. For grants, there's no minimum or maximum as Al said. We publish data on our website about our kind of average funding as well. Most grants are sort of £200k-ish for a multi-year period.
For social investments, we do have limits. I think the minimum social investment that we will consider is £100,000. And the maximum exposure I think we have to a single organisation for social investment is about £2 million.
Luna Dizon
Thanks both. And moving on to Kate's question.
15. In terms of evidencing track record If we merge two unincorporated organisations into one new charity, will you be okay with taking the track records for the merged organisations, which each had over 10 years of delivery experience?
That was a quick answer, thanks.
Alison Holdom
Yes.
Luna Dizon
A question from Lydia:
16. I saw that you don't fund the advancement of religion. This is one of our charitable objects. However, we also have the objects of relieving poverty and the advancement of health and saving lives. Would it automatically exclude us?
[Please note we have updated our response and guidance following the webinar: see #2.14 in our main FAQ, which provides further clarification around this]
Gina Crane
I mean, I think it would, so yeah. So I'm trying to think whether we've had issues of this where this hasn't been the case. We have funded charities which are associated with religious organisations but not religious charities themselves in the past.
Alison Holdom
Not charities that actually have the advancement of religion as part of their charitable objects. That would be the difference. We have funded some organisations, as Gina says, that are linked with or part of religious organisations.
Luna Dizon
Thanks both. Moving on to Anna's question:
17. How can formalised collaborations or partnerships apply? Can these involve a main body, for example, a charity as a lead body, and a range of other less formal grassroots or neighbourhood-led organised groups within those collaborations or partnerships? Are collaborative applications preferred? And prioritised?
Alison Holdom
We will always have to ask you to have a lead applicant in any collaboration or partnership. That is quite often a charity, but it can be a Community Interest Company, or a not for profit organisation as well. We would then ask for information about all the other partners: who they were, and how the partnership was structured, if some of the partners were unconstituted organisations, that would be fine providing the lead one, fitted our governance structure. The sorts of information we ask for is basically what's the relationship and how is it set up? And what is the collaboration? We're actually looking, we do find a lot of collaborative work. And it's something particularly in Creative, Confident Communities that we expect. We're going to be seeing a lot because of the way that community change can be achieved through these sort of collaborations.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. I'm so sorry. I'm just trying to look through the questions because I'm aware that we've only got 10 minutes left.
18. Okay, how do you work with other funders, if you spot a great project, but can't fund it. Do you ever recommend or signpost the grantee to other funders, or point other funded in the direction of the organisation?
Hannah Lim
Yes. Across our work, we're involved in a range of formal and informal funder partnerships, working with all kinds of sector peers, and obviously a lot of us have been doing similar areas. We have sometimes referred organisations that we can't fund but we think the quality of their work's particularly good to have funded, and vice versa. As Gina sort of highlighted earlier by how organisations get on our radar. One of the ways that organisations do come onto our radar is by the funders doing doing the same thing to us.
Luna Dizon
I'm gonna ask this question from Christine:
19. How does the foundation view supporting the arts, particularly classical music?
Alison Holdom
We fund the arts through a variety of routes currently. One is that we have a very specific priority around the representative cultural workforce, which is part of A Fairer Future. It's a very competitive part of our funding. It's focused on organisations that are led by the people that are not represented in the in the cultural workforce. And it's also focused on, at the moment, on organisations outside England. Although we are funding some of these.
The other part is Youth-Led Creativity, which is the webinar that Gina referred to earlier, which is actually happening very shortly. It's a revised fund and we're launching the new fund at the moment, and there'll be a webinar about that very shortly.
And then through Creative, Confident Communities, we have a strong emphasis on how creativity is a tool for community cohesion, and community regeneration. So there's a lot of funding to the arts through that. Those are the three key ways that you can come through to us. We're also an investor in the Arts and Cultural Impact Fund, which is a social investment fund for arts organisations, which we're part of.
Luna Dizon
And so this question:
20. Could you possibly give an example of a project Esmée has funded, which has had a sustained impact? It would be great to understand this concept in a more practical way.
Gina Crane
Thank you for that question. I just wanted to have a little think about that. Because I do think it's important to answer. So I'm not gonna name projects, I'm not gonna give their names. But I think thinking about this in a couple of different ways. For instance, in the environment sector, in Our Natural World, what we might fund is some work to restore or conserve one area of land, whether that's peat restoration, rewilding, something like that, and we can fund that. I think, where it's more sustained as an approach, we've seen organisations that are trying to provide wildlife corridors, so where parts of land join up with other land to multiply the benefits of that. That could be sustained long beyond the individual conservation of that particular piece of land, or sort of what is called landscape scale conservation, where lots of different bits of land and different types of habitat are joined together to really multiply that and sustain it for the long term.
When it comes to something like children and young people, if a project is working with young people, and working with them to do maybe some activism or thinking about supporting them might have some other benefits for them individually on getting a job or, you know, making connections or really helping their wellbeing, something that then would sustain that after the programme is finished, is thinking about how that activism influences the sort of system around those young people to support future young people. So whether that's the care system or education, something that is making a change, that would then mean that things were better for people that come in the future. So I guess those are two examples of how we might see that work being sustained.
Luna Dizon
Thank you.
Hannah Lim
We do also have on our on our website with each of the different in priorities, there are some case studies of organisations that we have funded. So they might highlight to you some more examples of the type of things that we're looking for in terms of sustained change. And we can definitely take that away after this webinar as well. And think about how we can really make that clear through some of the the examples we're providing on the website too.
Luna Dizon
So another question here:
21. Given the minimum financial requirements and a perceived emphasis on race, ethnicity for DEI, do Esmée awards tend to favour more urban applicants?
Gina Crane
I'm happy to take that. That's a great question and one for us to examine in our own data and make sure we're sharing that. I don't have the exact figures on the top of my head. But having looked at this for our trustees for a recent meeting, the vast majority of our funding goes to white-led organisations, wherever they're based. So that is something that we are looking at. What's the balance here? What should we be aiming for? What's the spread across our funding when we're thinking particularly around racial justice, particularly around areas where we might be funding more rural work? So particularly in our environment sector work, we are actively thinking about how to support organisations working for racial justice - access by communities experiencing racial inequity in to the natural world. So we're supporting organisations like Anti Racist Cumbria. So I would say it's not necessarily an either or. But that is a good question, and one that we will try to share a bit more data on once we've looked at that.
There's a few questions here about our exclusion around statutory services. And so does somebody want to take that so it's just basically there are a couple of people who said that they do work in schools, or I think there was one that was related to health that I guess yes, if we could just expand a little bit on what we mean by statutory services and what we wouldn't fund.
Alison Holdom
To start with the health one, we don't fund into health activity at all - that is an exclusion. So that would not be something we could fund. Although obviously, we do understand the crossover between wellbeing, and a lot of the work that we do both through A Fairer Future and Creative, Confident Communities. So there is some work that comes through a kind of wellbeing lens, but it tends not to be led by health organisations, it tends to be the funding from us will go into other organisations that may be working with partners around that kind of work.
Hannah Lim
So yeah, schools aspects. I think there is understanding what work wasn't the statutory. So what we absolutely won't fund in terms of schools is work that is a statutory requirement. That kind of government mandated that schools have to deliver as part of their education curriculum. We will consider work that has broader ambitions beyond school, such as having an impact on the community. And again, it really is about that kind of wider change, an impact question for us. If the benefit to the work was purely for within a one school setup, we would be unlikely to fund that. The question is about the wider reach.
Alison Holdom
And if I can also say, we recognise that in some communities, the route to the community is through the school. And so in that case, we would fund some activity that uses the school as a route to the community. And very specifically, with arts projects, we fund very little cultural education, it's not something we fund at all. We will fund some arts projects that are taking place within a school setting, but it will have nothing to do with the curriculum. It's not we won't find any of that work that's linked to the curriculum, it will usually be about, again the route into the community and route to the young people.
Luna Dizon
Thank you. Thanks. So I'm gonna just ask two more questions. I know, there's still quite a quite a number of open questions. And we will answer them and put them up on our website. And I'll send you a link when that's all ready. I'm sorry, we're not able to answer them all within this hour.
I'm gonna take Poppy's question:
22. What kind of evidence do you require for community involvement? Would it be useful to interview different groups that would be involved, for example?
Alison Holdom
That's a good question. I suppose what we will be looking for is some evidence of what you would have done previously. So what engagement happened? How did that engagement take place? How did you meet people? How did you recruit people. It may always be helpful to have some case studies, as Hannah was saying that we use case studies on our website. But equally case studies are really helpful for people who are giving information to us. It can be helpful on things like the expression of interest phone call, and within the proposal to involve people from the community that you're working with. So that we can get a sense of how their relationships work and how the programme works from their point of view.
Luna Dizon
Thank you, I don't know if there are any particular questions that you've seen that you want to take, I mean, we've only got a few minutes. So I think what we'll do is just take the rest of these questions and get some answers typed up and put those up on the website.
Other resources and thank yous
I do just want to share a couple of other slides which will be in the pack. But just to talk a little bit more about other resources and support that's available. So in terms of our funding, we do have some accessibility-related support. And you can find the link in the slides. And essentially, if there's something in our application process that is a barrier to you applying, you can ask for an Access Payment of up to £500, which you can use to to help you. That could be for you know, tailored support to your needs. It could be for BSL interpretation. And if you have a look at the information on our website, and if you have any questions then do just get in touch about that.
We also have some online FAQs. So there's a number of questions that have been asked but that are in the FAQs. And also another good resource for people is just 360Giving's GrantNav. It's a tool where you can search the funding, not just our funding data, but also funding data for I don't know how many funders but that is quite a good way of finding out what kinds of things people are funding.
We do also have specific webinars on each of our three main aims if you're interested in learning a little bit more about our strategy. And then also just a couple of other pages on our website. There's some information on other funding sources which has a couple of directories and also some tips I think from sector organisations. And we also have a page on useful sector resources, which has various different information included. Yeah, you can see it up on the slide. There's various different topics from fundraising, campaigning, digital and safeguarding.
We are at 12 o'clock. A big thank you from me for coming along.
Gina Crane
Yeah, I just want to say a quick thank you. So thank you to the team behind the scenes for answering all these questions and for making the tech work. Thank you to the panellists. Thank you to Nana and to Altan for interpreting and thanks to Luna for managing things in the room so expertly. But biggest thanks to all of you for participating. So we know there are many more organisations out there making a difference for the goals in our strategy than we can ever fund. We hope this has been helpful. Please do let us know how we can improve it next time. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.
Luna Dizon
Thanks, everyone. Bye