Guidance notes for Pledge Norwich

Eligibility criteria

Funds allocated by Norwich City Council to Pledge Norwich are public money and we are accountable to local people for all expenditure. Therefore, we apply very stringent eligibility criteria.

1. To be eligible for this funding, your project must:

• benefit the people of Norwich
• be run by residents, community organisations, charities or social enterprises (“not for profits”)
• tackle issues which result from an increased number of people using your local area, either through more residents in new or developed housing, or non-residents using the area due to an increase in shops or services
• have permission of the landlords or owners if they are on land or building you do not own. This includes on roads and in public green spaces and parks
• be accessible to Norwich residents and not seek to exclude anyone. (Projects of a political or religious nature cannot be considered for this fund).

2. Your organisation must:

• have a governing document (constitution, set of rules or equivalent) that show how your group or organisation is run and managed
• demonstrate good and fair management
• have clearly defined aims and objectives
• have a bank or building society account in the name of the group, with a minimum of two cheque signatories (see Exceptions), or have an organisation who is willing to act on your behalf.

If you do not fulfil these criteria or are unsure if you do, please contact community@norwich.gov.uk for advice and guidance.

What we can fund through Pledge Norwich

The fund being distributed is Community Infrastructure Levy monies. This means all projects that are successful in gaining funding will be about making the most of our city’s assets for the benefit of increased numbers of people living in and using our fine city. 

Please note, anything taking place on private land, in a building or on council-owned spaces (including parks, roads or verges) will need approval by landlords or landowners first, especially if there is ongoing maintenance which someone else would be responsible to pay for. Ensure you have this confirmed permission before applying and who will pay for any ongoing maintenance.

Examples of things we will fund are:

Parks and green spaces

• Litter picks, anti-litter campaigns or recycling projects
• Planting improvements
• Community art projects or sculptures
• Activities within the park (eg sports, arts, horticulture, fitness)

Play and youth activities

• Physical equipment in community spaces
• Non-physical play (eg painted games on courtyards or walls)
• Activities within communities (eg youth club setup, young people’s sports club development)

Resident activities

• Activities to bring residents together
• Community learning projects
• Sports and fitness activities

Environment

• Recycling and reuse projects
• Improvements to wildlife on green spaces
• Community workshops and training in environmental maintenance
• Social enterprise initiatives to monetise waste products (non-profit-making)
• Projects that tackle inequalities in less prosperous areas (eg food growing and distribution projects) 

Community space regeneration

• Turning waste space into community gardens or seating areas
• Murals on graffitied walls or garages
• Improvements to resident facilities in shared space (eg washing lines or improved shed storage)

Community safety projects

• Antisocial behaviour projects (eg good neighbour initiatives or peer-to-peer support)
• Road safety projects (eg speed awareness or community camera schemes if not police-funded)
• Road improvements

Accessibility projects and improvements

• Making community spaces more accessible to more residents (eg wheelchair access, dementia friendly spaces)
• Projects to create more diverse use of activities or spaces (eg activities that join up communities of identity or interest)
• Projects that focus on integration of new residents into the city from the UK or abroad (where there is evidence that the increase is linked to city growth)
• Projects that create a sustainable services for those with higher needs (eg an older people’s garden maintenance scheme)

Training and skills

• Training that empowers residents to adopt or maintain council land (eg horticultural training)
• Training that improves the provision of community activities (eg training to run older people’s fitness or in key qualifications like food hygiene to provide new community cafes)
• Sustainability training and support for community groups to become financially stable in delivering key resident services with increased demands
• Training aimed to be cascaded throughout more residents or groups for ongoing benefit (eg train-the-trainer training)

Community buildings

• Improvements to existing facilities to allow them to offer more activities, improve accessibility or allow them to open longer for more use
• Investment in equipment to  provide ongoing income or financial security
• Emergency repairs/improvements that mean community buildings are not at risk of closing their services

Community equipment and tools

• Establishing shared resources needed by multiple residents or groups (eg a community tool or toy bank or sharable community cinema equipment)
• Providing setup equipment for activities of services to be run using them (eg ovens and cooking equipment for a community healthy cooking club, sports equipment for new youth teams in growth areas)

This list is only provided as inspiration and is not designed to restrict your creativity!

About Pledge Norwich funding

• When an application is received, we will assess it and may pledge to fund up to 50 per cent of the total project cost to a maximum of £5,000.
• Each project will be assessed by a scoring system using the answers to the projects’ questionnaire and additional weighting will be given to those working in areas or with people that have been assessed as most deprived in the city (based on 2010 index of deprivation). Being in an area of low deprivation does not discount anyone from receiving funding.
• We will aim to assess all applications within four weeks of receiving them. When proof of other funding and any other required documentation has been produced by the applicant organisation, funding will be transferred within a further four weeks.

Your project cost and other funding

• As we will only pledge up to a maximum of 50 per cent of your project costs, it is important that the applicant organisation provides us with full costs of the total project.
• The money pledged will be released only when the applicant can provide evidence they have raised the remaining funds required for the project. This evidence may be in the form of bank statements, letters with commitments, a crowdfunding page or some other suitable formal confirmation.
• The applicant organisation is not restricted by what means it uses to raise the remaining funds for their project – it could be through other grant applications, crowdfunding campaigns, corporate donations or other offline fundraising. However we must be satisfied that the funds identified are for the project in the application.
• The applicant may include legitimate in kind donations within the total project cost, up to a maximum of 50 per cent of the total costs. In kind donations will only be considered where ordinarily a fee would be paid and this has been waived for the purposes of this project. Where something is publically and freely available, this will not be considered. The applicant organisation will have to provide proof that its in kind support meets these conditions and the donor is happy for it to be used to match funds against.
• Within the in kind donations, the applicant organisation may include volunteer time up to a maximum of 10 per cent of the total costs. The costs for volunteer time should be worked out using the following scale:
   
  • £50 / day for unskilled work
  • £100 / day for skilled work
  • £250 / day for a professional

An example application budget may look like the following:

In this example, volunteer time accounts for 10 per cent of the total project costs and in kind support (which includes the venue hire and volunteer time) accounts for 50 per cent of the total project costs. Therefore the project costs are all eligible.

Pledge levels

• All projects wishing to be considered will be asked to complete an application form. These questions are the same for every project and are available to view ahead of applying.
• The answers to these questions will be scored and assessed by a board of three council officers on an assessment form which includes a weighting based on the geographical location of the project delivery (linked to the 2010 deprivation index), and a level of funding between 0 and 50 per cent is automatically determined (up to a maximum of £5,000).
• These assessments will be help on file by the council to ensure accountability and review the allocation of funding.

If you would like to see a copy of this scoring system, please email community@norwich.gov.uk and you will be sent a copy.

Norwich City Council priorities

These are the council’s key priorities for the city.

People living well

Norwich is a city in which many people enjoy a good quality of life, and is a social and cultural hub for the entire county. We want Norwich to continue to be a city which supports wellbeing, and one in which people enjoy living and working as well as visiting, This will entail playing our part in addressing the very real inequalities between the most and least deprived residents of the city.

Great neighbourhoods, housing and environment

We aspire to be good stewards of the city, maintaining the character that makes Norwich a unique place, whilst taking opportunities to regenerate and develop the city to enhance it and support thriving communities

Inclusive economy

Our overall aim, in partnership with others, is to continue to develop Norwich as a strong, vibrant and inclusive economy in which the benefits of economic growth are shared by all.

Exceptions and restrictions

• New groups without bank accounts should contact Norwich City Council’s community enabling team for guidance.
• Norwich City Council reserves the right to not fund a project or to withdraw funding if it becomes apparent that any of the criteria are not being met.
• Norwich City Council reserves the right to amend this information at any time.

We are unlikely to pledge towards projects that:

• have already received funding from us through any other grant programme or funding mechanism in the current financial year
• help only one individual or very limited numbers of people
• do not promote community cohesion
• are managed by groups that have had a previous grant that has not been managed satisfactorily
• are raising funds for works or equipment already committed, bought or completed
• solely or predominantly benefit people who live outside of Norwich
• include unspecified expenditure (eg a campaign with flexible funding)
• overtly or exclusively promote a political agenda
• overtly or exclusively promote a religious agenda
• interfere with council business or are a reputational risk
• have unauthorised or significant financial implications for the council including increased maintenance or resource costs.