Large grant applications

All applicants for large grants must:

• Be working in partnership with at least 1 other organisation.
• Have a track record of evaluation, evidencing high-quality delivery and community engagement.
• Deliver against at least 2 Suffolk County Council priorities. You will be asked to explain how the project delivers on these priorities.

In addition, we will welcome applications that attract other funding of at least 10%. We recognise the challenge of seeking additional funding and will ask you to explain why you have not been able to secure other funding if you are unable to do so.

Applicants will be asked to:

• Give a short description of the project you plan to deliver, including where it is going to happen, who you will work with and why you are doing it.
• Describe what you have done before and show how this has been evaluated, using nationally recognised tools.
• Describe the people you expect to reach, how you will reach them and how they will benefit.
• Show how you have identified those people using the data tools recognised by the county council.
• Tell us about the partnership you have developed and what this brings to the project.
• Set out the income and expenditure budget.
• Tell us about match funding – whether it is identified, applied for or secured.

The grant supports both revenue and capital projects. 

Revenue projects include, but not limited to, the costs of:

• Employing project staff or freelancers to deliver an activity
• The materials required to deliver the activity
• Marketing materials – print and online marketing
• Display materials
• Travel and transport costs
• Venue hire

Capital projects include, but not limited to, the costs of:

• Computers
• Cameras
• Display furniture
• Improvements to buildings
• Sound equipment
• Sewing machines
• Light equipment
• Vehicles

Projects can include both capital and revenue cost up to a combined total of £50,000.

We want to use our large grants to support activities that are delivered by organisations or freelancers, working in partnership, with a track record of collaboration. We are looking for projects that build connections between organisations and create a partnership that will deliver a significant impact.

We want to support arts and museum organisations who have established or developed partnerships. Our application form for large project grants asks applicants for a letter of support from partners that details the effectiveness of an ongoing relationship or a new relationship that has been developed.

We want to support activities that are delivered by organisations or freelancers who have an excellent track record of working with communities to deliver cultural activity that supports the council’s priorities.

The application form asks you to:

• Describe what you have done before and show how this has been evaluated, using nationally recognised tools.
• Describe the people you expect to reach, how you will reach them and how they will benefit and how you will evaluate this, using nationally recognised tools.

We ask for this because we need to know how effective your projects are and we need to know how you measure success. We recognise that all evaluation requires reflection. We welcome your reflections on what you have done, what people who took part told you and how this has informed your project planning.

We need to know how you are going to evaluate the project you are seeking funding for. We ask this because we need to know how you plan to measure the project's achievements and we will need to measure the overall achievement of the fund.

There are a number of toolkits that can help you to reflect on evaluation. We recommend that you use either of these:

• The council's 'Measuring our Impact' toolkit
• Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance toolkit

This guidance is not meant to replace any evaluation tools you already use. You can share your existing plan with us as part of your application. 

If your project is funded, when it finishes we will ask to see your evaluation. This will help us understand what has been funded and what was achieved.

The council's priorities are about people and communities. We want our culture project fund to support projects that have been designed to reach, engage and inspire people and communities to take part in and enjoy arts and museums.

We particularly want to support projects that reach some of our most vulnerable people and communities. This includes people on very low incomes, people who are isolated, people who are marginalised and people who need support to manage the day to day challenges of life. We use a wide range of tools, to tell us about the needs of people and communities across Suffolk. These tools are open to everyone to use.

Suffolk County Council officers Jayne Knight and Jayne Austin will score the applications using specific scoring criteria. Those scoring at least 12 will be presented to a panel.

The panel will be asked to prioritise projects with the highest scores and then will be asked to ensure that the fund supports a group of high quality projects that are:

• spread across the county
• cover a range of the council's priorities
• engage people at a range of life stages

The culture project fund panel

• Cllr Philip Faircloth-Mutton – Suffolk County Council, Cabinet Lead for Culture
• Sarah Lungley – Executive Director, Community Action Suffolk
• Anna Hughes – Acting Chief Executive, Suffolk Community Foundation
• Tony Calladine – Regional Director (East) Historic England
• Stephen Crocker - Chief Executive and Creative Director, Norwich Theatre
• Jenny Antill - Author, arts and museums champion and long service as a local government councillor
• Katie Sargeant – Suffolk County Council, Head of Public Mental Health, who will also chair the panel