Disability Awareness Grant Scheme 2016

Promoting Positive Attitudes to

People with Disabilities

Guidance Manual for Grant Applications 2016

1. The Grant Scheme

1. Introduction

Promoting positive attitudes to disability in the community is key to achieving inclusion and ensuring people with disabilities can reach their full potential.

The Department of Justice and Equality’s Disability Awareness Funding Programme 2016 will support initiatives to promote disability awareness.

The Department of Justice and Equality invites applications from organisations with proposals that raise awareness of disability and that demonstrate effective action to improve attitudes towards people with disabilities.

The Department of Justice and Equality will give preference to joint/collaborative applications that demonstrate collaboration between leading organisations to enhance awareness and build competence in key services, in key sectors or in the community generally. Project proposals should raise awareness and promote positive attitudes to people with disabilities to the public generally, but particularly to those involved in:

  • delivering mainstream services and information
  • community activities
  • employment
  • sporting activities
  • social activities
  • media
  • education
  • local business

Proposals should have a clear central message, be focused and targeted to the audience. Proposals for activities to promote positive attitudes should be innovative and cost effective and should aim to have a multiplier effect at a national level with the aim of promoting positive attitudes where minimal, or no, initiatives have been taken to date. The proposals should have a focus on transferability whereby the project’s approach and deliverables can be used by other organisations as a model of good practice.

These guidelines outline the purpose of the programme and criteria for evaluating proposals received. This funding is only available to voluntary, not for profit organisations based in the Republic of Ireland.

2. Applying for a Grant

The application form for funding under the grant scheme is made up of sevenparts. The application should contain as much information as possible.

Please submit 3 hard copies of the applicationand an electronic copy in MS Word format. If you have relevant accompanying documentation to support your application please include it as well.

The closing date for applications is 2pm Thursday, 11August2016.

Applications should be submitted to:

Disability Awareness Grant Scheme 2016,

National Disability Authority,

25 Clyde Road,

Dublin 4.

D04 E409

MS Word copies should be sent to:

and marked Disability Awareness Grant Scheme 2016 in the subject line.

It is very important to note that either the electronic version or the hard copy version of the application MUST be received on time or else the application will not be accepted.

The electronic copy MUST be sent as an attachment to an email and NOT by any other method

2. Application Form

The application form is comprised of:

Part 1: Basic factual information about your organisation/group of organisations

  • Content here should be brief and to the point.
  • If there are joint/collaborative applications please nominate a lead organisation.
  • When providing a description of your organisation, please keep it brief. In the case of joint/collaborative applications, this may well be a description of your group or network rather than a description of each of the individual member organisations.
  • Provide full contact details of the main contact person in the lead organisation for this application.

Part 2: General information about the projectproposal

The information provided here should include the following:

  • Project Aim and Objectives – what is the aim of the project, what will it achieve and its rationale.
  • Project Deliverables and expected outcomes – what deliverables and expected outcomes will the project generate.
  • Demonstrate how the project provides added value to any existing guidance
  • How will they be delivered by who, when and the quality criteria applied to same. Applications are required to provide sufficient detail here to allow the evaluation panel to consider the proposal in detail.
  • Benefits – what will be the benefits of the project, for whom and how this will be measured
  • Risks – what risks could have negative impacts for the project, for whom and how they will be dealt with or minimised.
  • Subject Matter – what will the project cover/not cover
  • Target group/s – who will be the target for the project’s activities and why.
  • Information in support of your organisations capacity and experience to run a campaign and/or similar such projects.

Part 3: Project costs

  • Please list separately each proposed activity that may be eligible for funding,
  • Please list a separate cost for each activity and ensure that the costs include VAT and are quoted in Euro
  • Please attach to this application any further details you feel are relevant to Part 3

Part 4: Freedom of Information

This MUST be completed, signed and dated or the application will be considered ineligible.

Part 5: Disclaimer

This MUST be completed, signed and dated or the application will be considered ineligible.

Part 6: Compliance with grant scheme requirements

This MUST be completed, signed and dated or the application will be considered ineligible.

Part 7: Checklist

A final opportunity to make sure everything is in order.

3. How Applications will be evaluated

Sufficient detail must be provided in the application to facilitate evaluation. The Department of Justice and Equality has requested that the National Disability Authority (NDA) will receive the applications, oversee the evaluation of eligible applications and make recommendations in relation to the award of funding. The Department of Justice and Equality will have the final decision on how the grant money is awarded and to whom.

The NDA and the Department of Justice and Equality reserve the right not to consider incomplete applications. No application will be considered eligible unless it meets ALL the following mandatory requirements:

  • Theapplication MUST be received on time
  • The organisation(s)MUST be a legal entity - a registered charity or a registered company
  • The project MUST relate to at least one of the three themes of the grant scheme in 2016
  • All costs MUSTbe set out in Euros
  • The organisation MUST have completed, signed and dated the declaration relating to disclosure of information under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 in Part 4 of the application form.
  • The organisation MUST have completed, signed and dated the Disclaimer in Part 5 of the application form.
  • The organisation MUSThave completed, signed and dated the Declaration in Part 6 of the application from.
  • All 3 hard copies of the application form MUST be signed and dated in all the stated places.
  • The electronic copy of the application form MUST be signed and dated in all the stated places. If it is not possible for your organisation to generate an electronic signature, please make this known when submitting your application.
  • The electronic copy MUST be sent as an MS Word attachment to an email and NOT by any other method

The NDA will conduct evaluation of proposals and submit recommendations to the Department of Justice and Equality in relation to those to be funded based on the following criteria:

  • Quality
  • Capacity
  • Value for Money

The proposed marking scheme is included in Appendix A.

The NDA will have regard to the following when evaluating applications received under this scheme:

  1. The extent to which the proposed initiatives can raise and enhance awareness of disability, promote and foster disability competency and ensure people with disabilities can reach their full potential.
  2. The experience and track record of the applicant in achieving and managing high quality deliverables and in providing the necessary resources.
  3. The capacity of the project to create a multiplier effect with sustainable and lasting outputs.
  4. The overall quality and innovative approach of the proposal, including a clear and well developed proposal which is clear on the potential impact on the target group/s and how outcomes will be achieved.
  5. The overall cost-effectiveness of the proposal and the extent to which it represents value for money
  6. To qualify under the scheme proposals are required to achieve half of the available marks under each criterion.
  7. The NDA, on behalf of the Department of Justice and Equality, may require the applicants to submit additional information or make a presentation.
  8. Details of other funding available (State and non-State) will be taken into consideration in selection for funding.

The Department of Justice and Equality will consider the recommendations and successful applicants will be notified in September 2016.

Funding will be paid in a minimum of two instalments, e.g. 50 % upon approval and 50% upon completion and receipt of a satisfactory project evaluation.

Please note that the Department of Justice and Equality will not fund the following under the 2016 scheme:

  • other state bodies
  • recruitment or employment of staff
  • attendance at training courses
  • the purchase of IT equipment or other office equipment or general office supplies
  • overheads
  • fund raising activities
  • attendance at conferences
  • website development
  • media advertisements
  • information materials profiling and promoting individual organisations
  • elements of a project already funded from other sources
  • projects which have already commenced, i.e. existing projects
  • projects that give rise to commercial activity or profits
  • any type of capital spending e.g. on buildings, vehicles

4. Conditions of the Grant Scheme

Any organisation in receipt of a grant under this scheme must agree to the following conditions prior to any funding being issued, or else risk losing the grant:

  1. Provide evidence of tax compliance in accordance withDepartment of Justice and Equality procedures.
  2. Provide the most up to date audited accounts as submitted to the Companies RegistrationOffice
  3. Agree to acknowledge the contribution of the Department of Justice and Equality in any project materials and adhere to Department of Justice and Equality branding guidelines.
  4. Submit proposed project materials to the Department of Justice andEquality for approval prior to publication/printing.
  5. Provide reports and financial accounts as required by the Department of Justice and Equality for audit.
  6. Provide all written undertakings required before any grant is issued.
  7. Use the funding strictly for the purpose for which it is granted.
  8. Successful grant applicants are expected to run the project for which they were funded and tohave spent their funding as required by the Department of Justice and Equality. Department of Justice and Equality approval is required to extend the deadline.
  9. To agree to share and make available for use by other organisations any funded materials.
  10. All deliverables produced by a funded project are the property of the Department of Justice andEquality, to facilitate use by other organisations.
  11. To ensure that project deliverables are not used for commercial profit. The projects’ outputs arethe property of the Department of Justice and Equality and their use for commercialgain after the project funding period requires the permission of the Department.
  12. Successful applicants must submit a report of the evaluation of their project not later than 12weeks after (i) the project has finished or (ii) up to the compilation of the evaluation report,whichever is the sooner.

Please note that the relevant financial information WILL NOT be required by the Department of Justice and Equality unless your application has been recommended for funding under the evaluation process set out above.

The provision of this information will be a requirement for the final decision by the Department of Justice and Equality on which projects receive funding.

5. Project Evaluation Report

The Department of Justice and Equality requires all successful grant applicants to complete a brief Project Evaluation Report for completion by a date to be confirmed.

This Report should set out a brief description of the project, and include the following:

  • How objectives have been met.
  • Any additional/unanticipated objectives achieved.
  • Actual versus planned outputs and deliverables of the project.
  • Impact/success of project.
  • Method used to monitor/track project.
  • Lessons learnt from project, any risks or slippage encountered and how they are beingaddressed.
  • Discounted rates received and ‘value for money’ or cost saving strategies employed.
  • If your organisation carries out any surveys or formal evaluations of your project these should beincluded also.
  • Electronic copies of any promotional materials that were created using money granted are also required.

6. Auditing of Spending Under the Grant Scheme

Department of Justice and Equality will audit all successful grant applicants of the2016Grant Scheme.

The Department of Justice and Equality will ask each organisation to send in details of expenditure under the grant scheme, as well as theinvoices and proof of payments associated with the invoices. All expenditure must be receipted and accounted for. Original documentation will be required,which will be returned once the audit process is complete. Organisations will usually be given at leasttwo weeks from the date of the request to send the Department of Justice and Equality their response.

The Department of Justice and Equality will then examine this documentation for completeness and consistency of expenditure comparedwith the original project proposal that received grant funding.

If there are any questions that need to be resolved the Department of Justice and Equality will contact the nominated contact person toseek further information. If an organisation is unable to resolve the questions satisfactorily, thatorganisation will be audited if it receives further grant funding from the Department of Justice and Equality and may be placed on a list oforganisations to be audited by the Department’s Internal Audit Unit.

If expenditure on a project by an organisation differs significantly to that which was contained in theoriginal grant application and approved for funding, or if funding has been used in an unauthorised manner, this may have an adverse effect on how future applications for grant fundingfrom that organisation will be assessed by Department of Justice and Equality. The organisation in question may also be audited.

7. Query handling

All queries on the application process should be forwarded to:

and marked for the attention of Edward Crean in the subject line.

Alternatively you can call the NDA at 01 608 0400

APPENDIX A

MARKING SCHEME-

Dept of Justice and Equality

Disability Awareness Grant Scheme 2016

Name of lead organisation: ______

Amount of funding sought: € ______

Criterion / Maximum mark possible / Mark allocated
1. / Quality:
  • Sustainability
  • Relevance to the themes
  • Added value
  • Approach to the project
  • Likely impact in enhancing awareness and fostering competency
/ 40
2. / Capacity:
  • Track record
  • Capacity to disseminate and have a multiplier effect
  • Joint collaboration in place
/ 20
3. / Value for money:
  • Input costs
  • Link between costs and deliverables
/ 40
Total marks / 100
General comments on application:

Signed: ______

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