Small Grants, Big Changes
Small Grants, Big Changes, a report by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and the Directory of Social Change (DSC), provides evidence of the vital role small grants and small grant programmes play in enabling and sustaining critical support for charities and their beneficiaries.
What’s in the report?
The report examines small grants and small grants programmes via a literature review and a survey of organisations that had received or applied for small grants. For the purposes of this research, a small grant is considered to be a grant of £20,000 or less.
DSC’S developed a Good Practice Framework out of a review of the literature on small grants, small grants programmes and their evaluations. It gives useful examples of good practice, the considerations needed when implementing these ideas, and the potential outcomes.
Key findings from the report
Key findings and recommendations of this report include:
- if it’s a small grants programme, call it that
- make sure any evaluations are proportionate, but also published and accessible
- have multiple funding rounds, so applicants can apply when they are ready for the funding
- have a simple expression of interest to potentially save unnecessary time on full applications
- pay small grants as quickly as possible.
We are pleased to see that many of our policies, procedures and practices align with those recommended in Small Grants, Big Changes, but there is always more to be done.
Read the report
We encourage you to read the findings and recommendations from this report. It includes the experiences and opinions of representatives from organisations who have applied and received small grants. It provides a valuable resource for charities, government and policy makers alike, to improve understanding of small grants and small grant programmes.
The report is available to read in our Knowledge Network.