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FAQ's

FAQs

Contacting the team

Q: Can I arrange a phone call to discuss my grant application?

A: Regrettably, the Foundation team are not resourced to commit to telephone communication for application and funding enquiriesWe hope most of the questions you may have will be answered in the FAQs however, if your query goes unanswered, please contact the team via email at scottishpowerfoundation@scottishpower.com 

Eligibility

Q: My organisation is an exempt charity/is not registered with one of the three UK charity regulators- can we still apply?

A: Unfortunately, to be eligible for funding your organisation must be registered with one of the charity regulators i.e. OSCR, Charity Commission (England and Wales) or Charity Commission (Northern Ireland). Charities must have been registered for at least 12 months prior to application and must be able to provide to provide one set of published accounts showing as received by the relevant commission in support of their application.  

Q: Are schools and universities eligible to apply?

A: If your school or university has been registered with one of the three UK charity regulators for at least one full year, you will be eligible to apply. However, if you are an exempt charity or registered with another regulator, you will not be able to apply.

Q: Our project is due to start at the end of the current year- are we eligible for retrospective funding?

A: No, projects applying for funding must start within the same funding year i.e. projects applying for funding for the 2023 round must begin in 2023.

Q: Our project will only run for a few months- are we still eligible to apply?

A: Yes, projects must start within the funding year and be completed within 12 months. There is a list of work we don’t fund included in the eligibility form.

Q: We are a charity whose primary focus is medical care/care for animals/sports but our project is focused on another aspect e.g. providing free holidays for respite or providing a befriending service- can we apply?

A: While medical care or research is not funded by the Foundation, you can still apply provided the outcomes of the project do not involve any specific medical care or research and the project’s activities can be linked to at least one of our four strategic aims. This also applies for charities focused working through sports or with animals. Please note, applications for building work/land development are not eligible for funding in the categories of Education, Training and Research or Social Initiatives.

Q: Is there a lower limit to the income of organisations applying for grants?

A: Organisations must have an income of at least £75K as shown in the last set of published accounts.

Q. Is there an upper limit to the income of organisations applying for grants?

A. Organisations must have an income no more than £10m as shown in the last set of published accounts.

Q: We have previously received a grant award from the Foundation- can we apply again?

A: We will not fund the same project for more than three consecutive years. Organisations applying for funding for the same project beyond year 1 must demonstrate additionality in the application and show how the project has evolved.

About the application

Q: How much is the median grant and what sort of amount should we be asking for?

A: We encourage applications for between £35K- £200K though the average grant is between 70K-80K and a grant of £200K is very rare. Decisions to award a grant will be made based on the quality of delivery and perceived benefit for beneficiaries rather than amount requested.

Q: We aren’t ready to submit an application this time round- how many cycles do you have a year?

A: The ScottishPower Foundation typically invites applications for funding once per year, for projects that will begin in the following calendar year. We anticipate that our next funding round will go live in July 2023.

Q: We wish to apply for funding for a project that will have another funder/multiple funders - can we apply?

A: Yes- we do not require to be the sole funder of the project. There is the opportunity to provide information on the total cost of the project on the application form, and to indicate where the other funds are to come from.

Q: Are there any particular geographical areas of the UK you work in?

A: We support projects all over the UK (incl. Northern Ireland). There is no particular area of focus as long as you can demonstrate that your project addresses at least one strategic aim: Education, Training and Research; Biodiversity and Climate Change; Art and Culture; Social initiatives

Q: Do you fund projects outside of the UK?

A: No- as per our criteria, projects must take place within the UK.

Q: Can I apply for funding for salaries?

A: Yes- please also note that there is no guarantee of repeat funding, so this should be taken into account.

We encourage our applicants to pay all of their employees the real Living Wage and require that any post directly funded from our grant is paid at no less than the current real Living Wage rate.

If you are applying for funding for salary costs, your application should factor in the associated indirect overheads as well as direct costs associated with the delivery of services.

Q: How do I decide which of the strategic aims to apply under?

A: In the application form we have listed the corresponding UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under each strategic aim to help you identify which aim best suits your application. In your main application form, you can highlight that there is a crossover between two but ultimately, we are looking for you to select which strategic aim most closely represents your project.

Q: What kind of answer are you looking for with the sustainability question?

A: At the Foundation, we want to ensure that our funding will not only be invested in making a difference in the lives of your beneficiaries but will add value to your organisation and provide a springboard for leveraging future funds for development. In this question, we want to know what measures your organisation is taking to enable financial sustainability in the long-term by identifying or developing other funding streams.

Q: What kind of answer are you looking for in the environmental impact question?

A: The ScottishPower Foundation supports the aims of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and we have aligned our four strategic aims with what they are trying to achieve. As an overarching focus, we are also interested in how we can mitigate our environmental impact as a society and want to hear from you how your organisation considers this when designing and delivering programmes. Reducing travel, recycling, cutting use of fuel or reducing reliance on fossil fuels, changing supply to green energy are some examples we might expect to see in your application.

Supporting documents

Q: Will a letter from someone other than the Chair of the Board or the CEO suffice stating that our Safeguarding policy has been reviewed within the last two years?

A: No- as per recommendations from OSCR, a charity’s Board of Trustees should review the policy every two years and so we require evidence that this review has taken place from the Chair of the Board or your CEO.

Q: Our Board of Trustees is due to review the policy after the closing date for applications to your fund- is there any flexibility on this?

A: Please contact the team at scottishpowerfoundation@scottishpower.com with details of your circumstances.

 

IT-related questions

Q: I’ve submitted my eligibility form but have yet to receive a link to the application form

A: The email containing the link to your application form can take up to 30 minutes to appear in your inbox. Please ensure to check your Junk/Spam/Other/Quarantine folders as the link to your application form may have gone into one of these folders. If you have checked all of these and have not received the email, please complete another eligibility form and a new email should be issued to you. Please note, when a new eligibility form is completed, you will receive a different application form link each time, so please ensure that you work on one link and save your progress as you go along.

Q: I am unable to open the application link sent to me.

A: Try opening the link in a different internet browser and/or a different device and ensure that you allow pop-ups to be displayed. Please also try to copy and paste the link from the email into your search bar and remove the ‘’ from the address. If you are still having issues, please send a screenshot or photograph of what you see when you click on the link and we will try and resolve this for you.

Q: Can I save my application as I go?

A: Yes- however, to save the form you must check the ‘Save my progress and resume later’ box at the top of the application and create a password. Each time you leave the form, you must check the box and enter your password or your progress will not be saved.

 

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