Community Digital Grant
Voluntary sector, community sector or organisations providing community services within Leicester can apply for a grant of up to £10,000 to improve their digital/IT infrastructure.
Are you eligible?
We have been allocated a budget of £350,000 from the UKSPF Programme. The grants will be available for organisations in the Leicester City boundary.
Due to the short time span for this grant this grant will be available on a first come first served basis.
To be eligible to apply for a community grant, you must:
- be a within the voluntary, community sector or an organisation providing community services within Leicester and have a community purpose
- be based in the Leicester local authority area (i.e. charity registered in Leicester, UTR or company house number)
- demonstrate need and explain clearly your current digital/IT infrastructure and how the grant would improve it.
- describe how the proposals will improve digital/IT services for the organisation and/or their beneficiaries.
- be in good standing with Leicester City Council. For example, fully paid up on any money owed to the council such as business rates.
Applications that don’t clearly demonstrate need and impact will not be supported.
How much can we apply for?
We are offering one-off grants of up to £10,000 for eligible organisations.
In exceptional circumstances, the grant panel may decide to award up to £15,000 should a very strong business case and justification be made.
No match funding is required. However, any match funding provided and outputs such as new jobs or apprentices will be taken into consideration as part of the assessment process and recorded as outputs from the grant investment.
If successful, how can we use the money?
Grants are intended to be capital grants that support organisations to install or improve digital/IT infrastructure. The following will be considered:
- Servers
- ICT network infrastructure, including wifi
- IT consultancy directly linked to capital infrastructure costings or feasibility.
- ICT Software (i.e CRM, Electronic payment systems) but not general software packages such as Microsoft.
- Computers/Laptops – Note: we will not be looking to support replacement of general office equipment. However, if there is a specific IT suite that could be upgraded this may be considered.
The grant will not support:
- General maintenance costs
- Revenue and ongoing running costs
- Website/social media/marketing costs.
Some examples of the type of projects that could be supported are outlined below:
Organisation Z is looking to implement a new CRM system within their organisation to help record and support their customers they are providing support to. At present they are currently using Excel spreadsheets which is becoming problematic in terms of sharing, data missing/changes etc so they would like to have a system that they can capture and record data on all activities that the community organisation has with their clients. To facilitate this they are looking to purchase a CRM software package at a cost of £5k. This will also include the costs of training on the system, set up costs and the initial annual fee, but will not cover ongoing maintenance costs.
Organisation A has an ICT suite which provides support to individuals who are looking to be trained in basic skills, CV support, job searching etc. However, the ICT suite is over 7 years old with outdated IT equipment and therefore the IT is very slow. The organisation would like to upgrade their computers with 8 new machines at a cost of £7k. This this will help to improve the efficiency and energy performance of the computers and provide a better service to clients. This will also improve the physical infrastructure of the community facility.
What will we need to provide?
Along with the application form, you must submit a fully detailed and itemised quote(s) for all goods/services you are looking to purchase. These must be from:
- verified/established companies whose main business is the supply of these goods or services.
- Please submit images of the premises you wish to improve including ICT suites etc.
Unfortunately, we are unable to accept quotes from Amazon, Ebay or similar websites; or third party organisations or intermediaries or organisations that have a conflict of interest with the business applying.
The application will ask you to provide some details of your organisation, the investment you are proposing, a breakdown of the costs and what benefits your project will achieve.
We will ask you whether you have received financial support from any public sector organisation within the last three years. There are limits to the financial support that can be offered to organisations and we need to make sure that you and the council stay within the law.
What targets will we need to record and capture?
The following outlines details of the outputs and outcomes for the grant scheme. Please select those that are relevant to your grant application, we would be looking for at least one output and one outcome to be achieved.
Outputs
- Other commercial space means non-public or community spaces that do not fall into the categories above.
- Completed means physical completion of the facilities and space is ready for occupancy immediately. A building should be classified as complete once it is on the non-domestic rating list.
- Improvement means adding, renovating or repairing facilities with the aim of creating a better space. It does not include maintenance of existing facilities.
Evidence
Details of m2 and location of space completed or improved and when
The number of new amenities/facilities created or improved.
- Amenity/facility means any service contained within a physical structure, including, but not limited to, magistrates courts, police stations, town halls, sports facilities, hospitals and public toilets.
- Created means the amenity/facility did not previously exist.
- 'Improved' means adding, renovating or repairing facilities with the aim of creating better public space. It does not include maintenance of existing facilities.
If amenities/facilities are counted as being improved or created in another output indicator (e.g. number of cultural assets supported/created) they should not be counted through this indicator as well. The Local Authority should select where they feel it would best fit with the definition.
Evidence
Details of facilities, location and works undertaken
Number of organisations receiving grants.
Organisations here will either be:
- The end beneficiary is the recipient of the award itself, for example, a local authority, higher education institute or an organisation representing specific sector who may be undertaking a feasibility study.
- An organisation that is an end beneficiary and does not fit into the above description nor can be classified under the business output indicators, for example, a charitable organisation.
- Grant means a cash payment by the project that is not repaid.
Evidence
Details of organisation and value received - should not the businesses or individuals other organisations such as charities, voluntary, community sector etc
Outcomes
- Premises means a house or building, together with its land and outbuildings.
Evidence
Details of broadband implementation and changes to broadband connectivity
The number of people who report their perception of the facility/infrastructure project(s) as good or very good. This means projects aiming at improving or creating facilities and infrastructure. As this is aiming to measure change, it will only be relevant where the individual could experience it previously (i.e. it existed previously and isn't new).
Reporting will also facilitate the option to report a decrease metric.
Evidence
Survey from visitors / in terms of pre and post support.
Record number of people.
The increase in number of users of facilities/amenities. Users are the people using facilities/amenities. Amenity/facility means any service contained within a physical structure, including, but not limited to, magistrates courts, police stations, town halls, cultural institutions, hospitals and public toilets.
Reporting will also facilitate the option to report a decrease metric.
Evidence
Official record of people attending previously post support within 3 month period.
The number of supported premises where the community facility has been improved.
Evidence
Details of the facilities and works undertaken.
Before you apply
When applying for a grant, the person completing the form must be authorised to apply on behalf of the organisation.
How to apply
All grant funding needs to be claimed no later than 30 September 2024.
We will not be able to accept applications in hard copy posted to, or handed in at council offices. Applications will be considered on a ‘first come first served’ basis.
To apply, you must complete and submit the following application to ukspf.programme@leicester.gov.uk.
Closing date: 12 January 2024
Frequently asked questions
Once your application has been submitted, along with all the required supporting evidence, we will check to make sure your organisation meets the eligibility criteria and that your investment project is in line with the intended purpose of the grant scheme.
Your application will be considered by a grants officer and if your application meets the criteria it will be then be considered by a panel.
There will be frequent panel meetings scheduled to speed up the grant application process. We aim to give you a decision on your application within 4-6 weeks of the closing date of the funding call, subject to the volume of applications received.
The decision of the panel will be final. There is no opportunity to appeal against the panel’s decision. If your application is not successful, we will give you feedback on the reasons behind the panel’s decision.
Once your grant application has been determined by the panel, if the grant is approved we will issue you with a formal grant offer letter, which will be emailed to the email address provided. You will be required to sign and return the grant offer letter to acknowledge you will accept the grant and the grant conditions.
You will then be required to submit a claim form showing the expenditure incurred, including invoice(s), bank statements and evidence of the purchases. Once the claim has been submitted and checked, the grant will be processed within 10 working days.
Payment needs to be processed through the organisation’s bank account and NOT through a personal account. If paying by credit card, the credit card will also need to be shown that this has been paid in order to claim the grant.
If purchasing a subscription service i.e 1 year CRM system the full year service will need to be purchased and claimed by 30 September 2024. Please note, the maximum length of a service contract will be limited to 1 year. Ongoing costs will need to be covered by the organisation.
We will also issue you with a confirmation letter of subsidy control.
We’ve already explained that you will be asked to confirm that the grant applied for will not result in breaking any laws around organisations receiving public money.
We will require your business and your investment proposal to comply with all regulations that apply to your organisation and the project for which the grant is requested.
If your project involves work on a property, in addition to planning permission, you will be expected to comply with all other relevant legislation such as Building Regulations.
You will be free to withdraw from the application process at any stage.
Once your application has been reviewed and approved, you will be asked to sign to confirm your acceptance of the conditions that will apply to the grant offer. Once you have signed the grant agreement, we will expect the project to go ahead.
Once you have received the grant you will be expected to comply with all conditions set out in the agreement between your business and Leicester City Council. As mentioned above, there will be a risk of clawback in certain situations.