CPF Grant Guidelines 2002 - 2006

The City Parochial Foundation’s mission:

The City Parochial Foundation (CPF) is a registered charity. It exists to benefit the poor of London. ‘The poor’ includes people who, for whatever reason, are socially, culturally, spiritually, environmentally and financially disadvantaged.

The area our work covers is the Metropolitan Police District of London, which includes all 32 London boroughs, and the City of London.

Every five years we review our grant-making policies and issue new guidelines for those who want funding. This booklet sets out our policies for 2002-2006.

The Grant Guidelines are available to view by using the links to the left, or to download in PDF and Word format for later reference or printing. To download click on link below:

The types of organisation we fund

Generally, any organisation applying to us for funding should:

	be a registered charity (or have applied for charitable status), an Industrial and Provident Society or a Friendly Society;
	be open to all members of its community;
	involve its service users as much as possible in the overall control and the management of the organisation;
	be committed to sharing information, good practice and findings from its work with other organisations;
	be open to learning from the experience of other organisations;
	Continuation Grants & Exceptional Cases

Our grant-making priorities for 2002-2006

We welcome grant applications from registered charities or charitable organisations that aim to:

	tackle the causes of poverty;
	help poor Londoners to cope with, and find ways out of, poverty.

We want to fund work which helps poor Londoners by reducing or overcoming:

	discrimination;
	isolation;
	violence.

Groups of people we particularly want to target?

We welcome applications from all organisations working with poor Londoners who are experiencing discrimination, isolation or violence, but we particularly encourage applications from organisations that work with, or are aiming to work with, the following:

	Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities;
	disabled people;
	established communities, often predominantly white, in areas of long-term poverty;
	lesbians and gay men;
	refugees and asylum seekers;
	young people aged 10-25.

Women are more likely to experience poverty, particularly through discrimination, isolation
and violence, and so we especially welcome applications from women's organisations.

The work we will fund

We will fund the following types of work:

	an organisation managed by parents to provide an independent advice, information and support service to parents of pupils from Black and minority ethnic communities who have been excluded (suspended or expelled) from school;
	an organisation working with benefit claimants who have a history of mental illness, to support them in applying for their benefits.

	an organisation aiming to give refugees and asylum seekers access to IT training courses;
	an organisation seeking to promote training as mentors amongst middle- aged unemployed people in an area of long-term poverty.

	an organisation working with local people and the local police to tackle vandalism on an estate;
	an organisation providing support to victims of domestic violence, racist or homophobic harassment and violence.

We will consider applications for work with people who commit crimes and violence as
well as work with the victims of crime or violence.

Core costs and management costs

Core funding for organisations led by or addressing the needs of the targetted groups
can be difficult to secure. We usually encourage organisations to include a reasonable
amount of management costs to cover their overheads when they apply for funding.
In exceptional cases, we will consider funding the core costs of such organisations.

Other areas of interest

Work that aims to change policy

We welcome applications from any organisation that is working with the targetted
groups to bring about policy changes relating to isolation, discrimination and violence
and aimed at improving people’s quality of life, for example:

work that is led by disabled young people that results in greater provision of integrated services for disabled people in the area.

Second tier and infrastructure organisations

We believe that organisations led by or meeting the needs of the targetted groups
need support and development. We will fund second tier and infrastructure
organisations that want to provide such help to the targetted groups, for example:

a Council for Voluntary Service that wishes to provide financial management training and consultancy for refugee community organisations.

Working with others

There can be advantages in organisations working with others to meet the needs of
their members. We are particularly keen to fund such ventures amongst the targetted groups, for example:

	a refugee organisation and a lesbian and gay group working together on issues of community safety with the local police.

Small grants

Small one-off grants of up to £10,000 can significantly improve the efficiency of
an organisation. We will consider applications for small grants from any organisation
working with the targetted groups.

Continuation grants

For a limited period in the early part of 2002 we will consider applications for work previously funded under the grant-making priorities for 1997-2001.

Exceptional cases

In exceptional cases we will consider applications for unexpected needs.

Funding not provided for

	endowment appeals;
	individual members of the public;
	major expenses for buying or building premises;
	medical research and equipment;
	organisations currently receiving funding from Trust for London
	to replace public funds;
	trips abroad.

How to apply

We do not send out application forms. The first thing you should do is read these
guidelines and check that your organisation and the work you want us to fund fits
into our grant-making priorities detailed above

Send us written details of your planned work and funding needs (on no more than two sides of A4 paper) along with:

	your organisation’s constitution;
	your most recent financial accounts;
	your most recent Annual Report.
Or
	telephone a Field Officer at the Foundation to talk about your work and the funding you are looking for;

Our Field Officers are here to help you to apply for funding. If you would like to discuss your proposal before writing to us, please ring us on 020 7606 6145.

When you should apply

The application process takes quite a long time, so you need to contact us at least
three months before the relevant deadline.

The Grants Committee meets four times a year in January, April, July and October.
The deadlines for receiving your completed application are:

	31st January for the April meeting;
	15th April for the July meeting;
	15th August for the October meeting;
	15th November for the January meeting;

An application is completed when you have had a meeting with a Field Officer, staff
have no further questions to raise, and we have received all the necessary papers
from you.

You can get a copy of this document:

	in Braille;
	in large print;
	on audiotape;
	in a format designed for people with learning disibilities

Please contact us if you would like any of these. This document is also available from our
website.

Complaints

If you have any concerns about how we have handled your application you should
write to the Clerk of the Foundation at the address below. However you cannot
appeal against the Trustees' decision about whether or not to make a grant.

Contact details

City Parochial Foundation
6 Middle Street
London EC1A 7PH
Telephone: 020 7606 6145
Fax: 020 7600 1866
E-mail: info@cityparochial.org.uk
Website: www.cityparochial.org.uk

Historical Note

The City Parochial Foundation has its origin in the numerous charitable gifts and bequests made in the course of some 400 years to the then 112 parishes within the City of London, their income to be used for the benefit of the churches or, more often, the poor of those parishes. With the growth in the nineteenth century of the City as a world financial centre, the income of these charities, many endowed with City properties, had greatly increased, whereas their potentially poor beneficiaries were much reduced in number; some parishes had no residents at all. On 10 August 1878, a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate the parochial charities of the City of London. Its Report resulted in the City of London Parochial Charities Act 1883. This Act provided that the largest five parishes should continue to manage their own charitable endowments, but that
most of the remaining charities should be administered by a new corporate body, to be known as the Trustees of the London Parochial Charities, with perpetual succession and a Common Seal.

The Act further provided that the Charity Commissioners should prepare Schemes for the proper application of these funds. It defined the area of benefit as the City of London and the Metropolitan Police District of London. The outcome was a Scheme promulgated in 1891 which brought together all the endowments into two funds, a City Church Fund and a Central Fund. Together these constituted the City Parochial Foundation, with the Trustees under the 1883 Act as the Foundation’s Central Governing Body. The Central Fund is the main source of income for distribution
for general charitable purposes. The Scheme prohibits grants from the Central Fund for the advancement of religion.

Throughout its history, the Foundation has been guided by two major principles:
• an awareness of, and a need to guard against, the tendency for benefactions intended for the poor
to fall into the hands of a somewhat higher income class.
• a concern not to finance schemes which can be financed by local or central
Government so that charitable funds are, in effect, used to subsidise the statutory authorities.

Many of the changes in the Foundation’s policy since 1891 have resulted from the practical implementation of these principles.