*CLOSED* call for applications: grants to support your regional work in the UK **deadline 7th Oct**

How to repair in your community
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:uk: If your group is in the UK, we have grants available! (If not, sorry! These are UK-only)

The opportunity

:pound: Our funder Nesta/DCMS has just made it possible for us to extend financial support to groups that help other groups get started.

This is an open a call to groups here to apply for up to ÂŁ5,000 to strengthen activity in England from autumn 2019 through mid 2020.

Note: We are open to applications from NI, Scotland and Wales, but these will not be funded by Nesta/DCMS and instead from our own funds. Because of this, we can probably only support one or two applicants outside of England at most.

This will be a competitive call, and we will have to make a selection based on the criteria below. Please also note that part of this work is to track our impact as a network, and some reporting will be required :chart_with_upwards_trend:.

We learned from your feedback how best to shape this call and accommodate diverse proposals - thank you to those who responded.

Our guiding principles

We’ve been granted funds to support those groups who help other groups get started with community repair. This could be as minimal as answering emails to as intensive as going for coffees/teas, doing venue recce with future hosts, and helping on the first event.

But we think that up to £5,000 can go further. We’re interested in funding activities which do any of the following:

  1. Deepen the shared ethos of our events - they are not a free repair shop, they’re about learning

  2. Enhance safety and effectiveness of events

  3. Ensure our network is broad-based and diverse
    a) Reaching those who are inclined to activism and connecting them to the bigger picture
    b) Embedding our work in wider society / economy - links with schools, makerspaces, businesses

Eligibility

These grants are for groups that

:heavy_check_mark: are established in the UK. You must have a formal entity or work through one that has a bank account
:heavy_check_mark: do some kind of electricals or electronic repair - but this need not be the sole focus
:heavy_check_mark: have a track record of running events locally (minimum of one year)
:heavy_check_mark: are willing to dedicate at least two days a month to serving as a regional hub of support to new groups (but we encourage you to consider more if there is demand)
:heavy_check_mark: have capability to minimum of reporting - see “Reporting” below

Our criteria for selection

Above all we will prioritise projects that align with our principles above.

In addition to that, we will weight the following criteria evenly:

  • Pragmatism - can your group pull off the project?
  • Learning for the network - will your project contribute to the learning of the network? inspire others? Bonus points for creativity
  • Sustainability - do you have a plan to leverage the funds? or to find follow-on funding or sustain the work through other means?

What we will support

  • Capital investments, purchases - given there is a plan for maintenance and sustainability
  • People time - we understand that people have to get paid to do work sometimes! This can include the “boring” but essential work of writing emails, accounting, coordinating. Just about anything.
  • Activities of all kinds
  • Recurrent costs (like insurance) - given there is a plan to pay them after the grant period ends

:warning: Please get in touch if you have any questions about our criteria of eligibility or selection

The process

Please consult with your group and prepare this short application form. Send it to community@therestartproject.org by 7th October latest.

Download the form Grant application - Restart network grants.docx (229.0 KB)

Restart will select groups and get back by the 14th of October, with a straight-forward grant agreement document and request for your bank details. We will arrange with you to split the grant into two payments.

Timeline :spiral_calendar:

  1. Your feedback until 17th September :white_check_mark:
  2. Call for applications ready w/c 23rd September :white_check_mark:
  3. Call closes w/c 7th October :white_check_mark:
  4. Decisions w/c 14th October :white_check_mark:
  5. First payment - end of October :white_check_mark:
  6. Web conference for grantees - early November :white_check_mark:
  7. Short narrative update due - late December
  8. Second payment - end of January
  9. Last narrative update due - coinciding with your close of activities - before June 2020

Reporting

Events and repair data :bar_chart:

In terms of reporting on events, we ask that you continue to log repair data using our platform and that you refer new groups to @james so he can invite them to start logging data too. (If you currently do not use Restarters.net, but arrange to share data via spreadsheet this can meet our requirements.)

Micro narrative reports :email:

We’ll ask you for two extremely short narrative reports on your progress, one before the second tranche of funding and one at the end. These can be as short as 100 words.

Financial :moneybag:

We will not require you to do any financial reporting on the funds dispersed, however we will require two things: 1) updates on any major changes to the budgets submitted 2) that you keep financial records of how the funds are spent, in case of any future need to audit.

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Hey Janet…please let me know if you have any possibility of funds for our work in India either funding repair cafe workshops or funding repair programs in schools .Thanks Purna

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Sadly, @Purna we don’t have any funds for this but I suggest you join this conversation - lots of sharing there

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Hi, Janet, I got the funding document today and saw straight away the eligibility criteria stated " track record of running events" , we’ll have our 3rd event on 16.11, since jan 2019 when we setup, does that exclude us applying??

You can see our recorded results are diligently put up on your web page to log waste saving information

All other criteria are ok for. Us

Please confirm asap to not waste time on the application.

Best Regards Steve

1 Like
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Hi Steve,

Thanks for this. Definitely agreed that it’s best to check this kind of thing before spending time on an application!

A key aim of these grants is to support the growth of regional community repair activity. For that reason, we’re keen to make sure we prioritise groups who have experience of running regular events over an extended period of time; while this grant-giving process is a bit of a learning process for us, we think that groups who are already well-established are in the strongest positions to expand their work into new places.

This is why, as you mentioned, we are ideally hoping to hear from groups who have been running regular events for at least a year. It doesn’t sound like your group meets this criterion unfortunately, so it might be best to sit this one out.

I hope that makes sense.
And as always, if you need any kind of non-financial support, feel free to ask :slight_smile:

Cheers,
James

7

ok understood

but i must say its disappointing , we’ve already assisted & instigated a totally new repair cafe , the only one in the next county northants as far as we know.

& we’ve been described by Leicester fixers as the best organisation & most active group in leics , ask Divya!

if you can reconsider do advise

thanks

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Hi Folks,

I could potentially be interested in opening a group in Harrow if a more experienced group could provide some assistance.
I am a web software developer/entrepreneur so I have signed up stating my skills are mainly software based. I am not skilled in electrics and I have been to some events in Kilburn, but it is quite far and I could potentially talk with the local council or schools near me in Harrow to see if they are willing to provide some space.

Feel free to ping me if interested.

Diego

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Hi @Janet and @james, just wanted to keep you guys in the loop our end.
I contacted one of the leads I had for a group looking to start up in a town near me. Amazingly they have been working with another group of Repair Cafe-ers. It sounds like they have nearly got the group set up with their help! Amazing!
That’s left me with no strong leads for groups I can work with imminently. Apologies but looks like I won’t be applying to the next stage.
It might be a blessing really, as our parent org Bedpop is closing soon, so I’ll need to do a bit of organising around a rebrand and spreading our wings completely on our own. So my efforts will be funnelled into that for now.

1 Like
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Thanks @katie! Let @james and I know if we can help you think through any of your next steps, or help in any way.

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hi,

is the new call for grants open yet

thanks steve

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Hi Steve :slight_smile:

We’re working on this at the moment and hope to have the call ready by the end of the week or possibly early next week. We’ll keep you posted :+1:

13

thanks for that, any news on the learning kit resources i discussed with Janet please??

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Hey Steve,

I believe you both talked about our Critical Raw Materials resources, is that right? If so, we noticed you’ve signed up to receive these, thanks! We plan to post these out on Friday.

15

yes we are interested

pls post us a copy , i completed the online form

thanks

16

Hi Steve - as it happens, we’re literally packing envelopes right now - one of them has your name on it :wink:

Packing
Packing.jpg1280Ă—949 112 KB

17

hi

any update on this ?

thanks

18

Hey Steve,

We’ve finished packing all the materials and plan to send a big shipment today :+1:
With any luck your pack will be with you by the end of the week.

19

Sorry I meant about the new grants option

thanks

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Hi Steve,

Sorry for the delay - we’ll be opening this up today or tomorrow :slight_smile: