Page 38 - NAS Members Guide to Funding

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Funders want to hear about outcomes because they when you tell funders about this in your application.
want to see their money producing positive changes.
When your funding application is assessed and graded • Provide a sense of the community on the site and
by the funder, a large part of the marks given are how this extends beyond the gates into the wider
often based on the outcomes you have stated in your community. All of this helps to tell funders that
application. Outcomes, therefore, are a vital part of allotment sites are thriving communities, and are part
your application and should never be skimped on. It of wider communities, and how your idea will change
ould be overview text relating to the n
is really worth spending extra time and effort learning things for the better.
about outcomes and detailing them carefully in your application. Examples of how to word outcomes are shown in part 1 and examples of combined evidence of need & outcomes – along with the buzzwords you can use - are included below.
EXAMPLES OF EVIDENCE
General evidence about the
benefits of allotments
This shows the bigger picture of how allotments help to solve big societal and environmental problems. Funders may not have received an application from an allotment association before, so you will need to spell this out:
• The NAS website has a useful 700 word summary called Benefits of Allotment Gardening. You could use this text and give it the title/buzzwords “the wider societal and environmental benefits of allotments” in your application. This helps to tell funders how your idea will change things for the better.
Outcomes:“more people will receive the multiple recognised benefits of allotments.”
Place Making: Site specific evidence about the benefits of allotments
Next, you can provide evidence about how your allotment site benefits the people who garden there, their families & friends and nature, along with some information about the site.
• You could give this the title “the benefits of our allotment site to the immediate local community”
- You could, for example, ask one or two plotholders and their family/friends to describe how allotment gardening has helped them, e.g. an older person
or a new parent who feel less isolated by coming to the allotment or a family on a low wage who grow food for the table and to teach their children where food comes from.
- You could talk about social life on the site or how your plotholders garden with nature in mind to help biodiversity. Include a list of wildlife on your site, or even include detail about a plotholder who writes poetry in their shed.
- Describe the people who come along and join in at the allotment site (visitors/families/friends) and social connections to other organisations. Include any formal/informal outreach, e.g. does someone use flowers from their plot for a local place of worship? Do plotholders donate to the local food bank or a residential home? Do plotholders’ kids take allotment-grown-food to school in their packed lunch box? is there an elder who teaches new plotholders?
Funders like to hear about how your association and site fit into the area and create a sense of place for local people, this is sometimes called place making. All of this helps the funder to understand where your site is, who your community is and how it fits into the wider places in your locale.
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