We get these a lot...
We expect you may have some questions, so here you will find some responses to frequently asked questions we receive. You will find the questions and answers organised by sections relating to our eligibility, application, and funding processes.
Eligibility
- “We aren’t a registered charity. Can we apply?” No. We only consider registered charities to be eligible for funding.
- “We’re a CIC. Can we apply?” No.
- “We’re an exempt charity, can we apply?” No.
- “We’re a co-operative, can we apply?” No.
- “What accounts do you base your decisions on?” We base our decisions on a review of an organisation’s most recent set of accounts submitted to the charity regulator. This means that we do not accept current projections, unaudited accounts, or any financial information other than that held with the charity regulator.
- “How do you calculate free reserves?” Unless otherwise explicitly stated and evidenced by your accounts, we calculate free reserves by deducting your organisation’s fixed assets from your unrestricted funds. This number should represent a total of between 3 and 12 months’ annual expenditure.
- “Do you fund support/core costs?” No. We only award funds toward direct delivery.
- “Do you award unrestricted funding?” No.
- “Our auditors included items under support costs that are actually related to delivery.” Unfortunately, as we base our decision on the items included in an organisation’s most recent set of accounts held with the charity regulator, we do not consider any extenuating circumstances surrounding the misallocation of expenses should it arise.
- “Our accounts were received late by the charity regulator – can we still apply?” No. Your most recent set of accounts should have been received on time by the charity regulator for you to be eligible to apply to us.
- “Our project doesn’t fit with your priorities. Can we apply?” No. Any project outline you submit must fit with our list of current funding priorities found on our Applications page. You must also not meet any of our funding exclusions, also found on our Applications page.
- “We failed your eligibility test, can we try again?” If you have previously failed our eligibility test you may not try again until one year has passed from the date of notification.
- “What do you expect to see as outputs?” Many submissions we receive state their outputs to be how many hours of support will be delivered, or how many people will access certain services. We need more than that. When stating your project’s outputs, demonstrate the effectiveness of your project and what indicators you will use to measure its impact. For projects concerning homelessness, this could be 30 people accessing stable accommodation and moving into secure independent living situations.
We receive a significant amount of approaches that are ineligible to apply to us due to the amount of free reserves which have, regrettably, been incorrectly calculated.
Your organisation’s reserves should total between 3 and 12 months’ worth of annual expenditure. To correctly calculate the quantity of your organisation’s free reserves follow this formula:
Unrestricted Funds – Fixed Assets = Free Reserves
If you follow this formula and receive a figure not within 3-12 months’ worth of annual expenditure, you will not be eligible to apply to us.
Applications
- “How many years can we apply for funding for?” The Albert Gubay Charitable Foundation will consider funding requests for projects between 1 and 3 years funding. We do not consider short term projects (under 1 year).
- “How much should we ask for?” Though not a fixed rule, we advise applicants to consider applying for no more than 50% of the total project cost. In the instance of a multi-year project, if your secured funding is less in years 2 and 3, consider only applying for year 1, as our trustees appreciate evidence of sustainable projects with broad funding portfolios. We generally prefer grant requests for over £5,000. We do not consider funding events or one-off activities.
- “What do we submit?” To submit an application to us you must visit our Applications page. There you will be guided to a form which you must download and complete before sending a copy to a given email address.
- “What about our outputs?” We like to see strong outputs related to long term projects affecting sustainable, positive changes in the lives of those accessing them. This could be a number of individuals supported into long-term employment, training, or education, or a number of individuals supported to survive instances of abuse, addiction, or homelessness.
- “When will we hear?” If you have been invited to submit a full application, and once you have submitted tour application, we will tell you the date of the grant meeting that your application will be considered at. Following this meeting, we aim to notify you of any decision within two weeks.
- “Will we receive feedback?” We are not in a position to offer feedback of our trustees’ decision if an application is unsuccessful.
- “What happens if we are successful?” If you are successful and are awarded a grant by our trustees, a member of our Grants Team will be in contact to notify you. The next step will be for you to complete a set of Terms, which will include a detailed budget breakdown and an outline of our monitoring requirements. After this is complete, we will be in touch with a Grant Agreement for you to sign before the payment of the grant can be made.