grants

Resilience Fund: HARV and disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly

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On 3rd April 2020 The Rank Foundation launched the Resilience Fund in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Applications are open to all RankNet members, and the fund has been implemented to cover cashflow, fundraising and loss of income challenges relating to the current covid-19 related climate. This includes those facing significant, unplanned demand on services. Within hours of opening, applications were received and the Grants Manager and Foundation Executives began processing the applications, assessing management accounts and cash flow forecasts, knowing that access to this type of funding was a priority.

We will be looking at some of the Resilience Fund grantees each fortnight, with this week spotlighting Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Domestic Violence and disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly.

Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Domestic Violence (HARV)

Organisation Overview:

HARV first came to Rank’s attention in 2019 as a 3 year Major Grant recipient.

HARV’s aim is to identify, support, protect and empower both adults and children who are or have experienced abuse, exploitation and/or violence. Their services include an advocacy service, holistic support, safe houses and housing advice, a children and young people’s service, stalking and harassment services, legal advice and counselling.

Difficulties due to Coronavirus:

During the pandemic there has been a significant increase in demand for their services. Service users are currently accessing services in the evenings and weekends, and safety advice can only be given out over the phone and via email instead of face to face. The need for emotional support has grown significantly, as well as calls for accommodation support, thus the demand on the staff at HARV has increased.

For the majority of victims of domestic abuse, COVID has meant they have had to suffer at the hands of the perpetrator. The numbers of women murdered has increased, as well as abuse of children.

What will the Resilience Fund grant be used for?

“We are preparing for a tsunami of referrals once lock down restrictions are lifted. We are currently working hard to get our centre re opened and re stocked with essential items for families.”

Due to the significantly higher rates of domestic violence, the number of staff will need to increase to meet demand. Current staff are overwhelmed and exhausted. They are also fighting to transfer some of their services from face-to-face to digital, whilst running increased opening hours.

Their new centre was only opened in December 2019 in preparation to rent out conference space, host events and provide catering for income generation. All has been on hold since March 2020.

A resilience grant of £20,000 was approved for core funding. 

disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly

Organisation Overview:

disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly has been known to Rank since 2011 when they first recieved a 3 year Major Grant. Since then, they have benefited from 3 Time to Shine leaders and other grant funding.

The charity is values based and user-led, and supports, represents, includes and empowers people living with a long term health condition or disability, along with their families are carers. As per their name, they operate in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly on the South West coast.

Difficulties due to Coronavirus:

Their advice line has seen a nearly 70% increase in demand, and with all staff moving to working from home or in the community they have needed. much like HARV, to increase their opening hours to cover demand.

The charity has been inundated with enquiries from service users around PPE and hygiene, and what to do if they or their carers became sick. It would seem the council had not been forthcoming with this information therefore the CEO at disAbility Cornwall has had to work directly with the council to ensure information was sent to Direct Payment recipients.

In addition to longer opening hours, in response to COVID-19 they have set up a community kitchen, delivering free meals to 350 vulnerable clients twice a week who are self-isolating.

What will the Resilience Fund grant be used for?

More than 50% of disAbility Cornwall & Isle of Scilly’s income for the next two years comes from contracts where a key output is to help disabled people back to work. The job market is flat and many will remain unemployed, despite their best efforts. Many of their clients will have to self-isolate for much longer than the general public.

Some of their services that generate funding have been put on hold: losing advertising income from their magazine, they can’t hire out their meeting spaces and are having to run their new community kitchen with help from local businesses and volunteers.

Therefore, a Resilience grant of £18,000 was approved to support the increase in demand as well as loss of immediate income.

If you are a member of RankNet and wish to apply for Resilience funding, please visit our Opportunities page on the online platform. If you have any RankNet related queries, please contact ranknet@rankfoundation.com.

Report: Valuing Place

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The Rank Foundation is delighted to launch our latest report, Valuing Place.

The report was produced by our external evaluation team, summarising Rank’s experience with place based programmes across the UK. The report looks at the start of Rank’s place-based funding, through to the development the Hull Community Development Programme, Dundee Community Development Programme, and the introduction of place-based funding in Plymouth. 

You can read the report here: The Rank Foundation Valuing Place Report 2019

Rank Accelerator Event 2018

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The Rank Foundation has now launched the annual Rank Accelerator Event in preparation for the annual conference, held in October.

Open to organisations that are members of RankNet, the Rank Accelerator Event  has a prize fund of £10,000 in support of enterprise.

Generating income and sustaining services has always been a key challenge for the sector and this has undoubtedly been harder in recent years. The Foundation wants to actively encourage all projects within RankNet to consider enterprise and to explore opportunities for generating both social impact and a financial return.

The Event is hosted at our conference, and shortlisted organisations are given the opportunity to pitch to the audience (approximately 220 attendees), and a panel of judges.

Past Winners

The Rank Accelerator Event has been running for a number of years. In 2016, the winner was chosen solely by the judges, but in 2017 (and with the birth of RankNet), an interactive voting system was put in place for the conference attendees to submit their choice of winner. This meant that in 2017, there was a judges winner, and an audience winner. Hover to view details of each event winner.

PEEK (Winners 2016)
Winning Idea: Pop Up Community Cinema

PEEK had been testing out free cinema experiences to disadvantaged families in the East-End of Glasgow. Families were known to not be able to afford going to the cinema together, as it has become far too expensive. PEEK identified that cinema brings a whole host of benefits to families, both educationally and socially. PEEK asked themselves: How could we make the programme sustainable, as PEEK pride themselves on free opportunities for families and young people?
The Accelerator Event was the perfect opportunity to ensure sustainability. After winning, PEEK employed an intern to get the business model prepared and marketed. They marketed to the private sector, creating four different cinema packages of varying costs. From this, 100% of profit goes back into the community pop up cinema programme. Ever since, the community cinema has continued, with young people taking ownership in planning and provision.

Anima Muslim Women Resource Centre – Judges Winner 2017
Winning Idea: Culinary Enterprise Initiative

Amina explained that to many Muslim women that used their services, ‘cooking and cleaning’ were their main skills. They recognised an opportunity to tap into the women’s talents, and pilot a culinary enterprise initiative. Complementing their innovative practical ‘business block’ model, funded by RBS Skills and Opportunities Fund, where women are supported to embark on an entrepreneurial journey experiencing brainstorming, product design and production, budgets and costings, marketing and selling, Amina proposed to run a pilot programme of six ‘Taste of . . . ‘ events, bringing home cooked, authentic dishes from across the globe to the people of Dundee.
The proposed programme intended to provide free training and offer work experience opportunities in administration, customer service and hospitality, equipping local Muslim and ME women with sought after UK experience in growing sectors, enhancing their employability prospects, boosting their confidence and challenging the negative stereotypes propagated by the media.
So far, Amina have run a “Taste of…” lunch (which was very successful), provided food hygiene training opportunities for 11 of their service users, hired a kitchen team leader, and gained lots of interest in the local community.

Centre 63 – Audience Winner 2017
Winning Idea: Remake Yourself Project

Centre 63 is based in the borough of Knowsley, which stands as the 5th most deprived Borough in England. Many residents face disproportionate repercussions from statutory funding cuts and benefit sanctions, so much of the community struggle to buy food, let alone buy furniture. The Remake Yourself Project aimed to create a hub that could divert waste from landfill, whilst supporting the skill development of young people and building their aspirations. The project would then offer sustainability to Centre 63 through the sale of upcycled furniture.
After co-winning the Rank Accelerator Event, Centre 63 has offered meaningful, skilled work to people in the local community via the following avenues: Upholstery courses engaging 12 volunteers with a passion for crafts, recycling and working for the good of the community; Design, Craft and Carpentry Workshops; Day care for the children of parents who are engaging with the sessions, so they can engage in social contact with others who are in similar positions; and an Earn Furniture Scheme. The scheme allowed beneficiaries to not only make use of their new skills, but also work towards claiming a piece of their own work to take home for their own use. This is really important to volunteers who are financially very stretched.

If your organisation is a member of RankNet and would like to apply, log onto RankNet and complete the application form under ‘Opportunities’. You can also read more about criteria and expectations on Kai Wooder (Director of Enterprise) Blog on RankNet.

If you have any technical issues or have any queries about RankNet signup, please email ranknet@rankfoundation.com.

The Major Grants Process

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The Rank Foundation only accepts applications for a small percentage of its grant making. The Pebble grants (formerly known as “small appeals”) equates to under 5% of the money that the Foundation spends on charitable activities. This can seem surprising to some who are keen to let the Foundation know of its work, particularly when they are aware of the Rank Foundation funding projects nearby.

Why do you not accept applications for the other funding?
The Rank Foundation operates a model of engaged philanthropy; this differs from traditional philanthropy in the level of involvement that we as a grant making body undertake. This includes social and intellectual, as well as financial capital, management support, and access to our wider network (soon to be known as RankNet).
Our experience suggests that by concentrating funding, knowledge and expertise in a very focused way, promoting stronger partnerships and increased collaboration, helps to ‘add value’ where the outcome is greater than the sum of each part. It is therefore vital that each project is chosen by our executives, not only for the good practice and performance that it singularly provides, but also for the benefit of the network as a whole. Our focus on three distinct issues (leadership, enterprise and care) means that we can leverage greater input in these discrete areas, working with grant recipients to maximise their impact and good practice.

How are the projects chosen?
The Rank Foundation follows a specific form of engaged philanthropy, which is research led by its executive directors. Each of our key areas is headed up by a director, which enables the Foundation to draw not only on their expertise, but also on the big picture view of the funded projects in the area. They are therefore uniquely placed to advise trustees and fellow executives on areas for further development, which can then be researched and brought to the Foundation’s attention. We are consequently able to invite only organisations which are a particularly good fit, and have a greater likelihood of a success, to go through the time consuming process of completing an application and the necessary due diligence.

How can I find out more?
For further information on other models of engaged philanthropy, please see the European Venture Philanthropy Association, of which the Rank Foundation is a member.