Green Open Homes grants: guidance and application

Background

What is the Green Open Homesnetwork?

Green Open Homesis a national network which aims to support low carbon retrofit by linking and promoting new and existing low-carbon open homes events, and helping with resources, practical support and funding.

What is an open home?

An open home is a domestic property where the resident allows other people to visit in order to see and learn about something in the house. These visits can be pre-booked, or houses can open on a particular date for visitors to ‘drop-in’. Open homes events are a tried and tested way to share ideas and information in a community. Seeing things working in practice and being able to talk to someone who’s done it before helps motivate people to take action in their own homes.

What are the grants for?

The Green Open Homesnetwork aims to support open homes events that demonstratelow carbon improvements (energy saving and renewable energy measures). We want to help stimulate new events and boost the ambition of existing events to help more people host or visit a home in their local area. The grant awards are to help towards the costs of putting on an open homes event.

How much is available and who can apply?

  • Applicants can apply for between £500 and £7,500 for their green open homes event.
  • Community organisations (including non-profit companies, social enterprises, community groups and parish councils) can apply.
  • Grant awards of greater that £1,000 can only be made to legally incorporated organisations, so if your group is not legally incorporated you will need to work with a partner who meets this criteria. (Please note: a formal constitution is not the same as being legally incorporated.)
  • Grants cannot be used directly for private profit and a budget breakdown must be provided as part of the application. Applicants are encouraged to source additional funding to support event costs where possible.
  • Local Authorities and private businesses are welcome to support applications to this fund but may not apply directly. Events must be led by a local community organisation.
  • Partnership applications are welcome. However, you must be intending to run your own event –organisations that want to help others run events will not be eligible.
  • Organisations which are well embedded locally and leave plenty of time to plan and promote their event are likely to have the greatest success.

Support for applicants

Help with your funding application

The Local and Community Empowerment team at CSE can give some pointers if you have questions about your application. The online resources highlighted below may also be useful in the early stages of planning. Applicants are strongly encouraged to look at the case studies from 2014 green open homes events and at the resources available from including the guides on:

  • planning an event
  • choosing the best approach for your event
  • finance and funding for green open homes
  • Guidance on adopting a legal structure

The CSE team is available Mon to Fri, 09.00-17.00 (excluding bank holidays),to help with any questions or problems you may have in applying to the competition.When you contact us, please state that you are calling about the Green Open Homes Competition.

Email (CSE communities team):

Telephone (CSE main line):0117 934 1400

What other support is available?

The Green Open Homes online hub contains a wealth of resources and guidance, and is a great way to promote your event nationally as well as to find out what others are up to. The support for organisers tab on the website holds ideas and information for every stage of planning and running your event. You can set up your own free mini-website for your event using our template. The CSE Communities team can provide advice and help with planning and running an event, and can link you with other event organisers. There is an organisers handbook available in hard copy on request, even if you don’t apply for this funding. A regular update about Green Open Homes activity nationally is sent out to all organisations on the Green Open Homes network email distribution list.

Application process

The application form is below. If you need this application form in a different format (e.g. large print or text only), please get in touch. Expand the text boxes and tables as required. You can submit an application any time from 1st May2015 until the cut off date on 15th June 2015. Depending on the number and quality of applications there may be a further round of funding (details will be posted on the Green Open Homes website and circulated by email). Applicants are encouraged to begin planning as early as possible in order to allow plenty of time for event promotion and organisation. We will assess applications within a fortnight and will contact applicants as soon as possible to confirm whether a full award, conditional award, partial award, or no award will be offered.

Submissions should be made to .

Please use the email heading ‘[your organisation] – Open Homes grant application’. We will acknowledge receipt of your application by email.

Eligibility

Your event and organisation:

  • Funding is to support open homes events in England and Wales focused on energy saving and/or renewable energy.
  • Events must take place before the last weekend of October 2015.
  • Your event must meet theeligibility criteria and the aims of the Green Open Homes network.
  • You must be committed to working constructively with us, and that any grants given must be properly managed by your organisation.

Type of event:

  • Events can be different in terms of location, size,approach, and types of homes. However we would expect to see at least 8 homes opening their doors, and a range of low carbon improvements being showcased.

Resources and planning:

  • You should have appropriate existing resources in place for the scale of your event proposal, or be taking steps to address any gaps you have identified.
  • You will need to demonstrate how you use local networks and contacts, and the steps you will take to promote the event.
  • As part of the application a budget and a project plan should be included, showing your key milestones.

Impact:

  • We will be looking for events which allow us to distribute funds and support to achieve the best possible impact.
  • The grant funding should make a tangible difference to planned events, enable achievements that otherwise would not have been possible, and help to build capacity for groups and organisations to run open homes events in future.

Monitoring and evaluation:

  • Funding recipients will be required to record and report back on certain details about the event, including home and visitor numbers, volunteer support, budget spend and event feedback. This is to feed into ongoing evaluation of green open homes events nationally.
  • An event report template will be provided and additional guidance and customisable templates are available should you want to carry out further monitoring for your own purposes.

Sharing and learning:

  • Event organisers are encouraged to share experiences across the network and be open about what works (and doesn’t) for different types of event.
  • We will support this as much as possible through the Green Open Homes hub, network events and facilitating mentoring and peer to peer support between organisations.

Before you start

Please read the guidance above before you start this application. You will also need:

- key information about your organisation and your bank details

-to have registered as a user on

-key event information; a basic event planner and an outline budget

Your application

Your Green Open Homes event

Event name
Event date(s)

Organisation details

Lead organisationname
Partner organisation holding funding / (Where lead organisation is not legally incorporated and is applying for more than £1000)
Postal address for grant offer letter
Contact details / Main contact / Alternative contact
Name
Role
Organisation
Email address
Telephone

Financial award

Amount of grant requested
Bank account details / Bank name:
Account name:
Account number:
Sort code:
Two named signatories for bank account:
Tick as applicable:
this is the bank account for the lead organisation
this is the bank account for a partner organisation we authorise to hold event funding on our behalf

More about your event

Please give a brief description of the event you are planning using the following headings.

Your event’s aims and audience
Where it will take place / what area it will cover
Key features or highlights
Approach you intend to use (e.g. drop in visits; guided tour; event hub)
Low carbon improvements you intend to showcase

Have you run an open homes event before?Yes/No

Is this a ‘new’ event?Yes/No

Your answers to these two questions do not affect your eligibility, we are just keeping track of the growth of the Green Open Homes movement.

How many open homes do you think will participate in your event, and why do you think this number is realistic?

Please give an estimated number of homes. Let us know about any home openers you have already recruited, your plans to engage home openers etc. Note that to receive funding, at least 8 homes should be involved.

Who will be involved in delivering your event?

Paid staffVolunteersA combination of paid staff and volunteers

How many people are in your core team?
What is the split of paid / voluntary time?

Let us know about any other funding, support or professional help you have secured, and any partners you will be working with.

Event planning

Using the Green Open Homes website

As part of the application process you will need to register as a user on the GreenOpenHomes.net website. Please confirm you have done so by providing your username:

Your GOH website username

Event tasks, responsibilities and milestones

Please provide a brief outline of who will be doing what and the dates you have set for different tasks. Edit this table to with additional jobs, responsibilities, milestones etc. as appropriate.

Task / Responsibility / Milestones / Date(s)
Event planning / Plan, timeline, roles and responsibilities finalised; H&S and insurance arrangements in place.
Finances and
funding / Funding secured
Budget finalised
Recruiting open home hosts / Home openers recruited
Recruiting volunteers / Volunteers recruited
Supporting home openers and volunteers / Training sessions / briefings and 1:1 meetings
Marketing and promotion / Marketing plan agreed; branding agreed; advertising signed off; promotional activities delivered
Event materials / Purchase, print and distribution of leaflets, info sheets, displays, feedback forms, signage, badges etc.
Managing details on GOH website / Event live on Green Open Homes website; Home profiles added to site
Liaison with partners / Partners confirmed
M&E / Plan for data collection
Collate data and visitor feedback
Post event reporting
Running the event / Details confirmed with home openers and volunteers; plan in place for recording numbers and feedback; photography

Additional details

Is there anything else you want to say about your event plans?

Funding

How much money are you requesting as a grant?
What is your total event budget?

What will the grant fundingbe spent on?

Please show a brief budget breakdown for the grant funding, and note which costs you’ve received quotes for and which are estimated (in which case, outline how you calculated them). Add more rows if needed on both tables.

Activity / Amount

What other funding will you need, and where do you think this will come from?

If you have secured, or plan to secure, additional funding please outline where it is from and what it will be used for.

Other funding source(s)
Other funded activity / Amount

Ongoing community energy updates

If you would like to receive updates about CSE’s community energy activities and support for community energy projects we can send you our monthly newsletter – tell us which email address to send it to:

CSE also sends a fortnightly e-news about topical energy events, development and activities. Let us know if you want to be put on the list:

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