The application process

Before your request is considered by our Trustees:

• We will normally notify you that we have received your preliminary proposal or application form within a few days of it reaching our offices. Please contact us if you have not received an acknowledgement within two working weeks of submission.
  
  
• Our staff will first look through your proposal or application. If it is ineligible under our current grant programmes, we will tell you at this stage.
  
  
• If we feel that your request is unlikely to succeed against the other strong applications under consideration we may also contact you. We feel it is important for you to know this early, so that you can actively look elsewhere for funding whilst awaiting a final decision.
  
  
• Our staff will check that we have all the information we need to present your request confidently to our Trustees. We may ask you some additional questions. They will reflect the areas of your application that we believe our Trustees will focus on when they consider your request.

Trustee meetings, and when you will be notified of a decision
Depending on the size of grant you are requesting, and the type of project you are proposing, your application will be considered in the following ways:

• For the majority of requests under £2,500, the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Grants Committee will make a decision on your application. You will normally hear a decision within one month of the Charity receiving all the information that we require for detailed consideration of your request.
  
  
• The full Grants Committee will consider applications for grants between £2,500 and £35,000 for a single project in any one year and up to £100,000 for a project over a three year period. The Committee meets approximately every three months. If the Committee requires further information from you to support your application, they may defer making a decision until the next meeting. Our guidance, therefore, is that you can expect to hear a decision on this size of request usually between two and four months after full submission. Please allow more time if you are sumbmitting a request that will be processed during the summer months as there are no Committee meetings in July and August. For specific forthcoming submission deadlines please contact Sarah Blomfield, Administration Manager on 01234 369532.
  
  
• Grants awarded by the Committee above £35,000 will need to be endorsed by the full Trustee Body of the Bedford Charity, which meets three times a year. These meetings usually take place in March, July and December. Awards of this size are rare, and the decision making process will almost certainly be longer than for more modest requests.