UK Aid Direct Welsh International Development Summit

1. UK Aid DirectWelsh International Development Summit Sarah Donachie – Deputy Fund Director, MannionDaniels Victoria Hermon – Senior Responsible Officers, DFID May 2019

2. What is UK Aid Direct? UK Aid Direct is the UK government’s funding mechanism to support small and medium sized civil society organisations to work towards achieving the Global Goals It has been running since 2010 and was previously the Global Poverty Action Fund It is multi-sectoral in nature and reflects Department for International Development (DFID) priorities Highly competitive challenge fund - UK Aid Direct 3 had 538 applications. UK Aid Direct 2 had 626. Grant types: Community Partnership – grants up to £250k for up to 3 years, for organisations with an income of less than £1m; Impact – grants from £250k to £4m for up to 3 years, for organisations with an income of less than £10m Jo Cox Memorial Grants – strengthening grants of £50-100k and networking grants of £100k-£1m Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF) – grants up to £50k for up to 2 years, for smaller organisations with an income of less than £250k

3. What is the Small Charities Challenge Fund? Set up to target small, UK-registered charities and not-for-profit organisations not currently eligible under the regular funding rounds of UK Aid Direct Multi-sectoral in nature and reflects DFID priorities Grants of up to £50k will be available for projects lasting up to 2 years Open funding round and applications will be reviewed every 6 months Photograph from Bees for Development, SCCF grant holder

4. Current SCCF Portfolio 32 currently active grant holders across 20 different countries DFID providing £1,727,914 funding to these small charities Average grant holder annual income is £87,142 Total of 628,778 direct beneficiaries Photograph from Redearth Education, SCCF grant holder

5. Application Process: Eligibility Open to any small, UK-registered charity or not-for-profit organisation Organisations must have an average annual income of less than £250k Grants of up to £50,000 for projects of up to 2 years Maximum of 2 SCCF grants per organisation, can be granted Other considerations The dependency that the organisation has or will have on DFID funding The diversity of organisations able to access DFID funding and market share The financial capacity of an organisation to manage the size of grant applied for

6. Application Process: Timings

7. Application process All applications must be completed online Reviews will take place shortly after the deadline Guidance is available online All accompanying documents must be uploaded by the final submission date Financial management assessment (FMA) and due diligence (DD) is carried out on all shortlisted organisations Photograph from Exeter Ethiopia Link, SCCF grant holder

8. Content Guidance for your Application A greater analysis of the specific, local context and how your project will address the specific drivers A greater focus on sustainability and building sustainable elements into all projects is needed Projects need to be designed to be able to respond and adapt better to changes in context, build on feedback and learning Approach to capacity building of beneficiaries, implementing partners, frontline staff and other stakeholders needs greater consideration Greater collaboration is needed between the lead and implementing partner at the design stage. Photograph from Fred Hollows Foundation UK, an Impact grant holder

9. Project design Download the ‘top tips for applicants’ document in ‘Guidance’ on website Download the general project design presentation Download the guidance document on what makes a good Small Charities Challenge Fund application form Consider what DFID is hoping to achieve with UK Aid Direct and how your project can fit in and contribute to it Think about how your project will contribute to the objectives of the fund Keep your design simple and straightforward Budgets – be consistent with your figures Time periods – over two years maximum Results frameworks – provide these for each year Photograph from Global Clubfoot Initiative, SCCF grant holder

10. Project design Why is your project needed? What do you want to achieve with the project and how will you do it? Show how are you working with others, for example, is government involved? How many people will benefit from the project; those benefiting directly and those benefitting indirectly. Measure the unique number of individuals. How have you identified them? Ensure there is a logical linkage – how does your project address the problem and how will it deliver impact? Show how you can address gender and disability inclusion issues Show how it links to national level priorities, approaches or strategies Photograph from Kids Club Kampala, SCCF grant holder

11. Clarify your vision for your project Don’t write like this: “Our vision is a world without poverty, hunger, violence and injustice.” It is too vague and generic. Write something more like this: “By July 2020: The number of plastic water bottles being recycled in Nepal will have increased significantly The number of water bottles being dumped in four land fill sites will have reduced to about half the current figure” Photograph from Mbedza Projects Support, SCCF grant holder

12. Results section of the application What will the change you are expecting to happen, look like? How will you monitor results to demonstrate if you have been successful? How will you collect information and data? Reflect on how the project will continue once UK Aid Direct funding ends. Are you building capacity? Can the local community take over elements of the project? Provide results for both years one and two Photograph from PHOEBE, SCCF grant holder

13. Budget and Due Diligence Process

14. Grab our attention Avoid Maxed-out word counts Jargon Overuse of acronyms Making Your Document Harder To Read By Starting Every Word With A Capital Letter Do Write clearly and succinctly Use plain English Prepare to explain your project to • Development experts • The UK public • Local beneficiaries • Business leaders • Politicians Example of a clear, simple and succinct summary of a grant holder’s project as written in their SCCF application: (Carers Worldwide) 1.2 Please describe your project Using a community empowerment approach, the project will pilot a holistic way of addressing the social and economic inclusion of 500 carers (90% women) of PWMIE/PWD in the sub-district of Savar, outskirts of Dhaka. To view a full example of the application, download from ukaiddirect.org website.

15. Review Process All proposals will be assessed by experts reviewers Reviewers receive extensive guidance on scoring and reviewing proposals There is a quality assurance process to ensure consistent and fair assessment DFID moderate reviews and successful applicants chosen

16. Top tips from previous SCCF applicants Read the UK Aid Direct website carefully and understand what kind of projects DFID is interested in supporting Make sure you understand concepts such as Value for Money and Efficiency Spend time, and budget for, getting the M&E right. Don't be over ambitious in what you will achieve and what data you will collect. However, develop good learning questions so you can be continually looking to improve delivery Create partnerships with other NGOs to make more effective delivery and better value for money

17. Our core belief is that all children have a right to equitable opportunities and therefore we focus our projects on removing any barriers to their education (be that poor quality of education, misinformation, health issues, lack of self-belief etc.). Who are we?

18. Journey into Menstrual Health We learnt that, on average, 6 in 10 girls regularly missed school because of their periods.

19. What’s it like to get funded?

20. Our Top Tips to Get & Manage funding: • Your Needs Assessment: What, Where, When, How, Why • Focus on a Clear Picture: Don’t over generalise or be anecdotal • Hub Cymru: Use their resource • Capacity:Does your charity have what it takes and if it hasn’t, what needs to change? • M&E: Your research IS everything.

21. Q&A Photograph from Anti-Slavery International, an Impact grant holder Photograph from Wellfound, a Community Partnership grant holder