Repeat activities, ongoing overheads and salaries, and Grants for the Arts

Contents

1Grants for the Arts

2Repeat activities, ongoing overheads and salaries, and GFTA

3Repeat activities

3.1What you cannot apply for

3.2How to strengthen an application for a repeat activity

4Ongoing overheads

4.1What you can apply for

5Salaries

5.1What you can apply for

6Contact us

1Grants for the Arts

Grants for the Arts (GFTA) is our Lottery-funded grant programme for individuals, arts organisations and other people who use the arts in their work. Grants are available for activities carried out over a set period and which engage people in England in arts activities and help artists and arts organisations in England carry out their work.

Activities we support must be clearly related to the arts and must be project-based, up to a maximum of three years in length. Grants normally range from £1,000 to £100,000 and we can fund up to 90 per cent of the cost of an activity.

All applicants must also read the ‘How to apply guidance’. Download it from our website or contact us for a copy.

2Repeat activities, ongoing overheads and salaries, and Grants for the Arts

Grants for the Arts supports time limited activities (projects), and cannot normally fund repeat activities, ongoing overheads or salaries.

For complete eligibility details for Grants for the Arts, please read the ‘How to apply guidance’.

3Repeat activities

Grants for the Arts support time-limited activities that are under three years and have clearly defined aims and outcomes.

3.1What you cannot apply for

Grants for the Arts is not designed to provide funding for repeated annual programmes of work, particularly where such a programme would constitute an organisation’s ‘core’ activity (e.g. a full year’s programming with a full year’s overheads to support this).

Organisations should not rely on receiving support year on year through Grants for the Arts in order to be able to deliver their core work, as it is very competitive and we cannot guarantee success. Revenue funding arrangements are provided by our National portfolio funding scheme.

3.2How to strengthen an application for a repeat activity

Arts Council England encourages and supports artists and organisations to develop. If you are applying for a repeat activity you must explain how the activity has developed since your last event or project or since it was last funded by us.

If you do not tell us how your activity has developed, this is likely to affect the appraisal of your application and its chances of success.

Examples of how you can demonstrate that your activity has developed include:

  • increasing the numbers of participants or working with new participants, or both
  • extending the activities by working with new groups, in new areas or with different communities
  • receiving new or increased partnership funding which reduces the amount you ask for from us
  • expanding your work across different art forms
  • working with new partners
  • expanding your artistic programme
  • involving new artists
  • reaching new audiences

4Ongoing overheads

Grants for the Arts cannot fund:

  • costs that are already covered by other funding
  • general running costs and overheads that are paid for by other income, including your own funds
  • ongoing overheads related to equipment or buildings, such as insurance and maintenance costs

4.1What you can apply for

  • extra time-limited overhead and administrative costs that are directly related to the activity you are asking us to support. For example, payments to staff, phone bills, postage, insurance and rental costs for additional space
  • a contribution to your ongoing overheads where these are not already funded by Arts Council England or other funding sources. The amount you apply for must relate directly to the amount of time spent on the activity you are asking us to support and you will need to show how you have worked this out. This is particularly to help those applicants who do not receive regular funding to cover their ongoing overheads and have to build an element of these costs into all time-limited projects and activities

ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) has produced a practical guide called Full cost recovery: a guide and toolkit on cost allocation . Organisations can use this to calculate the full cost of a project or activity including additional and ongoing overheads.

5Salaries

We do not normally fund ongoing salary costs from Grants for the Arts, except in the cases described in section 4.1.

5.1What you can apply for

You can apply for organisational development support which can include creating new posts that are designed to become self-sufficient or to be supported by other funds once they become established.

Our funding is time limited and you cannot rely on continuing funding from us if the post does not become self-sufficient or if you fail to secure other funding.

If you are applying for time-limited salary costs for the duration of your proposed activity, you need to consider the following before you apply, and include details with your application:

  • the length of the post and its main areas of responsibility
  • what will happen to the post and the activities or project involved when any funding from us comes to an end
  • if the post will continue after any funding from us has come to an end, you must describe your future plans to fund it. You must also tell us what action you will take if your plans do not work out, remembering that you cannot rely on future funding from us
  • how you will meet any statutory obligations when the post ends; for example, redundancy costs. This is a complex area and you should seek appropriate advice on your statutory obligations

6Contact us

Phone:0845 300 6200, 0161 934 4317

Textphone:0161 934 4428

Email:

Website:

Post:Arts Council England - Grants for the Arts,

The Hive, 49 Lever Street, Manchester, M1 1FN

© Arts Council England October 2016


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