Community Climate Grants - application guidance

Applications are made through the online form.

There are 8 sections in the form to complete. If you wish to save your progress and return to the application at a later point you can press the ‘Save for Later’ button on any page. The final deadline for applications is 5pm on 3 March 2024.

About the Scoring

• Leeds City Council will assess all applications. The project team will conduct an initial review, with a panel of senior officers making the final funding decisions.
• Projects will undergo a weighted assessment as per the following table:

Sections in the Form

Section A - Basic Details

This section gathers essential details about your project and organisation.

• We only accept applications from incorporated voluntary, community, or social enterprise organisations. Please provide evidence such as registration details from the Charities Commission or Companies House.
• Community groups with religious links may apply, but the project should not promote religious causes or activities.
• Public sector or commercial organisations are not eligible to apply.

Section B - Organisational Experience

In this section, we are looking to gain insight into your organisation's competence and track record in delivering projects akin to the one you aim to fund through Community Climate Grants. It is essential that your response includes detailed information regarding specific projects your organisation has previously undertaken, particularly those most similar to your proposal. Your answer should cover:

• A brief description of key previous projects.
• A comparison of the similarities between your proposed project and those you have previously executed.
• Detail of any differences between past and proposed projects, and an explanation of how this might influence your approach to delivery.
• An assessment of what worked well in previous projects, and which areas could have seen improvement.
• A reflection on the key lessons learned from those projects and how they will be applied in delivering your proposal.
  
• Additionally, please indicate whether the individuals involved in those previous projects will be contributing to the current one. This will help us to understand the continuity of experience and lessons learned to your proposal.

Section C - Project Overview

In this section, we are seeking a detailed summary of your project.

Please describe the following aspects:

• Project aims and objectives
• All key activities
• Relevant background and context

You should demonstrate that the proposed project is robustly conceived. It is crucial that applicants demonstrate a thorough understanding of what will be delivered and how. Additionally, consideration should be given to how the project aligns with the objectives of the Community Climate Grants, contributing demonstrably to the fund's stated outputs of reducing carbon emissions and addressing inequality and/or deprivation.

While we encourage including relevant background information and context, the primary focus should be on detailing the activities that will be funded by the grant. Background and supporting information that you are unable to include in the form can be uploaded separately.

Applicants will need to identify the low carbon priority area(s) with which their project aligns.

All projects must address at least one of the following thematic areas:

• Local clean and flexible energy solutions
• Healthy, affordable, and efficient buildings
• Promotion of walking, cycling, and public transport
• Green and climate-ready nature solutions

Projects that do not align with any of the above categories will be deemed ineligible for funding.

Detailed information about the benefiting neighbourhoods is required, ideally including postcodes, for the following purposes:

• To verify that the project is situated within the Leeds City Council boundary
• To assess whether the beneficiary neighbourhood is classified as a deprived community (defined as falling within the lowest three IMD deciles).

Additionally, we require information on the project's start and end dates, considering that all funded activities must be completed by the end of December 2024.

Outlining any key milestones during the delivery period will serve as further evidence of the project’s robust conception and a clear trajectory of progress throughout its course.

Section D - Impact and Stakeholders

In this section, we want a clear picture of how your project will help meet the fund's goals to reduce deprivation and/or inequality.

• Please give a straightforward description of the project's impact in these areas and explain, in simple terms, who will benefit.

We also need you to provide targets for cutting carbon and reducing deprivation and inequality. These will help us measure whether the project has been successful. The right targets will depend on your project type and the low-carbon area it falls into. For example, for a building retrofit or renewable energy project, it's usually possible to estimate carbon savings accurately, and a reputable installer should provide this estimate. For transport or nature projects, where carbon savings are harder to gauge, we’re open to alternative measures like the number of car journeys reduced or the number of trees planted. In all cases, targets should be measurable and achievable and an appropriate indicator of the project’s success.

Lastly, we want to be sure you’ve identified the key stakeholders for the project.

• Please let us know who they are, how they relate to the project, and what consultations you’ve had or plan to have with them about this project. At the very least, we expect communication with communities or groups directly affected by the project and approvals from those with legal rights or statutory rights, such as land or property owners, making sure all necessary voices are heard, and any legal requirements are met.

Section E - Resources and Risks

In this section, we are seeking information about who will be carrying out the project.

• Please provide details of the team who will be directly involved in delivery and a short description of their roles on the project
• We require the names of management and staff members. For volunteers, simply providing the number involved will suffice.

It’s important that you show a thorough understanding of the key risks to project delivery.

• Please outline up to 5 main risks associated with the project. For each risk, describe what it involves, its potential impact on the project if it does occur, and how likely it is to happen.
• Additionally, please specify the steps you will take to lessen these risks. This should include controls or systems that are or will be in place to manage them, or actions that you will take should the identified risk occur.

Section F - Finances

This section aims to gather a comprehensive understanding of your project's financial aspects. Please provide the following information:

• The total cost of the project
• The amount being requested from the Community Climate Grants fund
• Details of additional sources of funding, specifying whether they are secured or pending approval. For each additional funding source, please be explicit about which activities they will be funding.

The minimum grant amount that can be applied for from Community Climate Grants is £5,000, with a maximum limit of £50,000.

For Solar PV projects, the maximum limit is £11,250. This limit is split to £10,000 for the panels and the cost of fitting them and £1,250 for survey costs. Additional elements such as battery storage or electrical upgrades required for the installation fall outside of this cap, meaning that a solar project may be eligible for more than £11,250 if these additional elements take costs higher than that.

Please provide a breakdown of staffing costs to be funded by Community Climate Grants. This should include for the hourly rate, the weekly hours worked and the chief activities of each role you’re looking to fund, so that we can understand the working pattern of the person carrying out the role and how long they will be funded for.

Under the conditions of our funding agreement with WYCA, Community Climate Grants cannot fund on-costs of any kind. This includes National Insurance, pension contributions, office costs and any other costs beyond the direct salary costs of delivering the funded activities.

• You also need to provide an itemised budget that accounts for the total cost of all non-staffing activities you are seeking to fund through community climate grants. This is so we can fully understand how the funds will be allocated throughout the project.
  

We also need to be confident that your cost estimates are accurate and grounded in realistic assumptions.

• Therefore, please explain how you arrived at your cost estimates and why we should trust their accuracy.
• If available, uploading quotes for work or any additional supporting evidence at this point in the form would be beneficial in substantiating your financial projections.

This ensures a transparent and reliable financial plan, essential for the successful delivery of your project.

Section G - Long Term Impact

All funded activities must conclude by the end of December 2024. In this section, we are looking to understand the potential ongoing impact of your project beyond this date.

• If your project will continue, please provide details of any financial implications of its continuation and whether funding sources have been identified.
• If the project will not continue, we are interested in understanding whether this will lead to unmet service needs in the community and how you envision them being met. This could involve identifying alternative funding sources or pointing to other available services.

While we do not expect resources to be secured at this point, it is important for us to gauge what the impact will be once the funding period concludes and how any resulting needs will be addressed. This insight will help us assess the sustainability and longlasting benefits of your project, ensuring that it can make a meaningful difference even after the initial funding has been utilised.

Section H - Promotion

We are keen for funded projects to be publicised and are keen to understand how you will promote the project and acknowledge the involvement of Community Climate Grants.