Page 46 - NAS Members Guide to Funding

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10. DELIVERING YOUR FUNDED IDEA
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this section of the guide, your association will be able to:
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Accept a grant and complete work on time and to budget
Report back to funders (if required)
Participate in funder’s publicity (if required) Publicise your funding success
Celebrate success!
CONGRATULATIONS!
First of all, celebrate your association’s success! Then get down to the business of bringing your idea to life and making a difference to your allotment community & beyond.
When the long awaited work starts and as you go along, there are two things to keep a watchful eye on. Doing this now can save a lot of time and heartache later.
• Keep checking the fundersTerms and Conditions and the deadline you have been given to finish the work (see Part 5). Ensure you are certain about what is expected of you and that you are not veering away from this.
• Ask yourselves “are we meeting the outcomes” stated to the funder in the application (see Part 9). Each time you achieve an outcome, make a note and save some evidence to prove it to the funder. It is far easier to do this regularly, as your association’s idea comes to life, than to scrabble around for evidence possibly months later. How to do this is explained below, along with how to be savvy and use this info for reporting and publicity too.
who to contact. Don’t be shy: it is usual for problems to appear as work gets underway. Funders have lots
of experience in this area and are used to working towards alternative solutions. They will not judge you or think less of you if you have a problem. Funders prefer to hear about problems immediately as solutions are simpler if problems are reported early.
CASE STUDY: “Delivering the promised Outcomes: Weaste Allotment and Gardening Association in Salford”
We heard in Sheet 1 about the association’s plan and the funding it was awarded to make the site more accessible via the use of “trug plots”. Here, the association shares the challenges (and solutions) of delivering a funding award:
• Encouraging wider volunteer participation in developing the plot area was tricky at times although, generally, people were willing to help and nobody is obligated to. So, getting together ‘work parties’ to weed the land and make it ready for the new tenants took some time. Also, existing committee members have roles so ring fencing time for the BeEasy Access site needed to be thought out as to not hinder other site work which needed to be done.
• Accessibility features with general site provisions – we realised once plots had been rented that some of the physical disabilities which the new plot holders faced produced additional barriers with the existing site provisions which we hadn’t envisioned. An example is that we have a no-hosepipe policy on site if people want to water their plants with one, this was difficult
For both of the above, if you are encountering any
difficulty, do not let it fester. Instead, talk to the funder
straight away to see how this can be resolved. Your
award letter and T&Cs usually contain information about
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