Supporting Resilience Fund

Funding of between £2,000 - £10,000 is available to grant holders to undertake work which contributes to organisational and staff resilience.

Guidance

To be eligible to apply your organisation must fulfil all of the eligibility criteria below: 

  • Currently hold a grant with The Robertson Trust with more than 9 months left before your end of grant.
  • Grant holders with income of between £100,000 and £500,000 as shown in their last set of accounts published on OSCR.
  • Grant holders who have not previously had a Supporting Resilience award during their current grant period.

This is not a definitive list, and we will consider other proposals in relation to organisational resilience and staff wellbeing:

  • The costs of training to develop management and leadership skills
    There are a range of free and low-cost options available through organisations such as SCVO, Local TSI and First Port.
  • The costs of investing in board/ trustee training
    A good source of information on best practice around governance has been developed by Midlothian Community Action (GovernanceWiki).
  • Training to improve financial planning and management
    Third Sector Interface (TSI) Learning Network has a range of courses on finance and management which are free to members or low cost.
  • Initiatives to change workplace culture or systems that improve workplace wellbeing
    Like any other health and safety risk, all employers have responsibility to manage staff stress at work. HSE have produced a useful resource on mental health and workplace stress.  This provides risk assessment templates, workbooks and step by step guidance and useful case studies.
  • Developing more effective resource management to reduce staff burn out and improve organisational efficiency
    This resource from the Mental Health Foundation and Poverty Alliance may help you consider your responsibilities and identify improvements and strategies which will help adapt your current practices. They have developed a toolkit for staff and volunteer wellbeing with links to a wider range of advice and support.
  • Upgrading the office environment for staff wellbeing and personal safety (not general maintenance or upgrades)
  • Investing in technology to improve productivity and reduce workloads (not general IT upgrades such as laptops, security subscriptions or Windows upgrades)
    If you are considering investing in new technologies, we would strongly recommend you explore some of the guidance available from the sources below to help inform your decision. Previous applicants have found this useful in helping identify cost effective solutions and better understand their needs, allowing them to make more impactful decisions.
  • Investing in work which will support your organisation to reduce its carbon emissions to support a move towards Net Zero, such as improving the energy efficiency of buildings
    A free resource to help get started is SCVO’s Growing Climate Confidence which provides a range of support and guidance on how to assess your organisation’s climate impact, plan steps to reduce your carbon footprint and become climate resilient.
  • Training / support to develop effective fundraising strategies
    SCVO and Local TSIs periodically run courses, and the TSI Learning Network has online modules on fundraising.

We encourage grant holders to be creative in finding solutions to challenges their organisations face. However, we have identified some costs that cannot be considered under this fund:

  1. Existing, expanding, or new services – This has been excluded as we currently fund your organisation to deliver services.

  2. New or temporary posts – This is a short term fund and must be spent within 12 months, and we do not want to increase your staffing cost long term. 

  3. Staff Training Related to Service Delivery and general operation - Training to upskill staff on elements of service delivery and routine training such as first aid, food hygiene and fire safety which should be budgeted for and included in your delivery costs.  We will consider management skills training for staff. 

  4. Fundraising expenses and consultants – We will consider training for staff on how to be more effective in fundraising, investing in better staff skills rather than one of consultancy costs.

  5. General IT – Such as laptops and upgrades of software, although we may consider new software such as CRM or accountancy software etc, which contributes to the improved operational capacity of your organisation.

  6. Subscription Services/ Retained Services - for professional support such as IT, Counselling or HR are excluded as these are long term costs which will extend beyond the lifetime of this award. For these to be effective, an organisation would be required to commit to including this expenditure in future years.
  7. One off events/ away days/ gifts and rewards to improve wellbeing - The Fund aims to develop skills and practice which can be embedded into an organisation for a long term impact on staff wellbeing.
  8. We have received a high number of requests for spa days, celebration dinners, and entertainment events - we recognise that these are often used to value and uplift staff. For this fund, though. they aren't eligible, as they don't directly contribute to tackling the core causes of work place stress. We're keen to support approaches that build sustained wellbeing and organisational strength. 

  9. Free support already available from another provided – This could be another offer of Funder Plus support from The Robertson Trust, other grant makers, a Third Sector Interface or is already funded (for example, support from 'Just Enterprise'). Further details of support available from other organisations is available support is on our website.

  10. Evaluation costs – to demonstrate the impact of organisations/ services.

We are very aware of the time and resources organisations dedicate to raising funds and we are trying to make this process more streamlined.  

We are therefore operating a two-stage process for applying. This will strengthen applications and reduce the number of unsuccessful requests.

When you have identified a potential area of work you would like to have funding for, please email us at funderplus@therobertsontrust.org.uk, with a very brief description of the type of work you would like to undertake (one or two sentences).

For example:

  • We would like to apply for funding to send a manager on a leadership course to strengthen our leadership team and develop a succession plan for when our CEO retires.
  • We would like to send two new members of our senior management team on strategic planning and organisational development training to help with long term succession planning.
  • Our staff are experiencing increasing levels of conflict and threat of physical harm, and we would like funding to send staff on self-defence and upgrade our building security.
  • We would like to explore implementing flexible working practices to support staff wellbeing and would like to carry out a business planning exercise to explore how we can re-align our services to create opportunities for greater flexibility and revise our HR policies and contracts to support flexible working model.
  • Provide training for our Board on their strategic role and develop skills on financial planning and forecasting.
  • Improve insulation in our building to reduce heat loss, reduce energy cost and emissions.
  • Install efficient outdoor lighting to reduce energy costs and improve safety of building.

 

What's next?

One of our Funding Officers will reply with advice or the offer to discuss your potential application further. They will then send you a link to a short application form.

We have created a short application to capture the key ideas of your proposal and costings. This is an online application. If you have difficulty completing your application online, please get in touch and one of our team can help.

We will notify you of our decision within 12 weeks of your application.

Work funded should be completed within 12 months. For Larger awards (£7,000 - £10,000) we may consider extending the funding timeline to 18 months. If you believe the work proposed requires more than 12 months to complete, please state this in your application.

Plus Fund Recipients

Hear from some of the recipients of the Plus Fund, a pilot which helped to inform the development of the Supporting Resilience Fund.