- Align grants processes across the Council, Health and the Community Foundation. This includes advertising open grants, applications processes and reporting. Aim to make processes time-efficient for grant managers, applicants and assessors.
- Work towards moving all public sector grant funding to the Community Foundation to ensure a consistent, efficient, and accessible process.
- Pool information about current due diligence requirements and processes for different local funders.
- Develop one common due diligence standard and process that works for diverse VCSE organisations and local funders. Explore data-sharing opportunities that allow funders to share due diligence evidence.
- For any VCSE-specific quality marks that are not linked to a national service provision standard:
- Clearly define the purpose.
- Clarify the costs and benefits.
- Work with VCSE organisations to agree on a standard set of data fields for monitoring and reporting. All funders should use this. Focus on measuring the impact on individuals, communities, and the environment. Look for ways to share learning and impact across services and sectors.
- Develop shared standard processes for data collection and monitoring across all funds.
- Ensure that requirements for applications, monitoring and reporting are timely and proportionate to the fund. Recognise the additional burden of short-term funding. All grant funders should adopt the ‘eight commitments of open and trusted grant making’. These commitments are from the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR).
- Provide funding for the delivery of existing services, not just new or innovative approaches.
- Fund the delivery of existing services, not only new or innovative approaches.
- Consider one-off, simple grants for core costs and ensure a fair contribution to overheads within other grants.