Do You Have Questions About Your Grant ?

This section is for groups who currently hold a grant with Derbyshire Community Foundation.

Below are a range of common questions that we receive from awarded groups, however if you cannot find the answer to your query below, then do not hesitate to contact the Grants Team on 01773 514850.

We have been awarded but have not yet received the funding, is there a problem?

If your group has yet to receive their funding please call us on 01773 514850.

The most common reasons for groups not having received their award is ;
a) The group has not returned their signed grant agreement (yellow document). The finance team cannot release any funding without this piece of paperwork.
b) The group has not sent in or met the conditions of grant listed on the award letter. Some groups will need to supply certain pieces of information before funding can be released. These will be listed on your award letter under the heading 'conditions of grant' please read this carefully to ensure you have cleared up any outstanding issues.

How long do we have to spend our grant?

The grant agreement (yellow document) you signed as part of releasing your funding informs you that you have one year from the date awarded to spend the grant in full, unless otherwise stated.

What if we need longer to spend the grant in full?

Call the grants team straight away on 01773 514850 and let us know why you have had problems with spending the grant. We can usually be very flexible and, dependent on the circumstances, can offer extensions to your grant period.

If you require an extension we will send you an extension request form. Once you have completed and returned the form to us we will write to you to confirm your new grant end date.

As with any paperwork relating to your grant, keep the letter and a copy of the extension request form in a safe place.

We would like to promote our funded event or project, do we need to mention Derbyshire Community Foundation?

Yes we would very much like it if you could mention both Derbyshire Community Foundation and the fund name you acquired the grant from (e.g. Sport Relief, Tom Carey Fund etc)

This helps other groups find out about Derbyshire Community Foundation so they too can benefit, it also allows our fund donors to see their money at work.

We will send you a paragraph to use when speaking to the media and logos for any publicity material.

Please send us a copy of any newspaper articles your grant is mentioned in.

The person who submitted our funding bid has now left the group or changed address, do we need to inform Derbyshire Community Foundation?

Yes, we will only have correspondence details for the individual who originally applied as the main contact for your group. If this person leaves or moves you must call us straight away on 01773 514850 so we can start the process of changing the details on our systems. If the details are not changed we will possibly be sending out important information that may not reach your group.

During our project we did not spend as much as we thought on certain items, we now have an under spend, what do we do?

Call the grants team straight away on 01773 514850 and let us know how much you have left and why. We can usually be very flexible and dependent on the circumstances can offer you a chance to use the under spend on another item / heading in your original application budget.

If you have an under spend we will send you an under spend request form, so that you can explain what you would like to use your under spend on. Once you have completed and returned the form to us we will check your original file and write to you to confirm whether you can spend the money on the items you requested in your under spend request form.

Always ensure that you seek permission from Derbyshire Community Foundation, before making any changes to your grant.

As with any paperwork relating to your grant, keep the letter and a copy of the under spend request form in a safe place. You will need this when completing your monitoring.

What happens if we do not return monitoring?

If monitoring is not returned we will presume there has been no spend and will ask for the funding to be sent back to Derbyshire Community Foundation. Groups who do not return monitoring will not receive any further funding from Derbyshire Community Foundation. The Foundation has strong links with other funders both locally and regionally and will share information about groups who do not account for funding.

Do we need to submit invoices / receipts?

It is important that you keep all receipts related to your grant in one place. We would always recommend accounting for each grant you receive separately, recording the original income and then recording each piece of expenditure against your original budget headings so you can see if you are on track. When you send us your end of grant report we will ask to see original receipts and invoices for items over £1,000, however when checking your report, we may ask to see further invoices.

We have mislaid our monitoring forms, how do we get new forms?

New forms can be e-mailed or posted to the group on request.  We would recommend keeping all paperwork including a copy of your original application, all letters to and from the Foundation, your award pack ( award letter, one grant agreement & monitoring) in one labelled file. This should be kept either in your office base or with the main application contact.

Will we receive a monitoring visit from Derbyshire Community Foundation?

It is possible that members of the grants team will visit you during the life of the grant or once the grant is complete. We will always write to you and call to confirm a suitable date and time and let you know what we will need to see (usually accounts, bank statements and receipts).

Monitoring visits are informal and a chance to see how your project has/is making an impact on the local community and to talk about your plans for the future.

We would like to make some changes to our project to make it work better or to get more for our grant money, can we do this?

You can make changes to your original plans and budget but you have to inform us and acquire written permission before proceeding. Please contact us to talk about what you would like to change and why on 01773 514850.

We will then send you a change of expenditure form for you to complete. Return this to us and we will check your plans against your original application and decide if your proposal is acceptable. We will then inform you of our decision by writing to you. As with any paperwork relating to your grant keep the letter and a copy of the change of expenditure request form in a safe place as you will need this when completing your monitoring.