A Parish Council budget of up to £1,000 could be available for voluntary and community organisations in the village to apply for, if the Council’s draft Donations Policy is adopted. This is double the maximum of £500 under the current policy.
A separate Grants Policy is being proposed for supporting the work of “groups making a real difference for
residents where the need is for financial support.” These Grants would be unlimited in size, and the work wouldn’t be viable without Council’s support.
Annual opportunity
If the draft donations policy is approved at Monday’s meeting of the full Parish Council, Councillors will in future consider applications for donations just once a year in November, rather than twice a year in June as well as November.
The change has been introduced to ensure that all requests can be assessed fairly and consistently, with the outcome of funding applications less affected by the amount of money remaining in the donations budget at different stages in the financial year.
Only projects relating to a specific ‘one-off’ local event could exceptionally be considered outside the annual review.
Who could apply?
All formally constituted not-for-profit organisations running activities that directly benefit Histon and Impington residents could apply for a donation, subject to some financial eligibility criteria.
Applicants are asked to describe the aims of their organisation or group, the purpose for which the funding is requested and the number of Histon & Impington residents who will benefit.
Donations would usually be between £50 and £1,000 and applications from groups and organisations would be assessed on their merits.
Grant eligibility
The draft Grants policy goes some way towards clarifying when the Council is buying a service, and when it is supporting a not-for-profit, charitable or volunteer organisation to achieve its objectives.
Organisations looking for larger amounts of money would be able to apply for grants, which the Council would be able to award “at its absolute discretion”. The size of grants would be unlimited and fresh applications could be made each year, though multiyear applications for a maximum of 3 years could be considered.
Among those ineligible for grants would be political parties, local groups where fundraising is sent to a central HQ for redistribution, and religious organisations, unless for purposes that don’t discriminate on grounds of belief. Any organisation with policies that the Parish Council deems to be unacceptable would be also be ineligible, as would activity likely to bring the Council into disrepute.
Change implications
The new policy would have significant implications for two organisations that currently receive over £25,000 a year from the Parish Council.
Local charity HI Friends is currently being contracted under a Service Level Agreement (SLA), which would have to be terminated under the new policy, and less restrictive obligations placed on the organisation.
Similarly, the current SLA with Connections Bus Project, which has been operating since 2017, would come to an end, and the charity would continue to be paid under the terms of the new Grants Policy until the end of the year.
Councillors will be voting on adopting the new policies and the termination of SLAs for the Hi Friends and Connections Bus Project at their meeting on Monday 17 March.
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Histon & Impington clubs, societies, and organisations can request a Donation Application Form from the Parish Office or download it from their website. Applications must be received by 15th November.
