Specialist discussion: If you were to design a funding pot for rural communities, what would you do? Mick McGrath, Head of East Midlands, BIG Claire Kilbey, Programme Manager, BIG Adam Lang, Policy Adviser

Who are you? How many of you are interested in applying to Village SOS? How many applied for the first round of the Village SOS Competition?

What is the Village SOS Competition? A Small grants programme (£5.3 million budget) Targeted at rural communities Social enterprise

Social Enterprise For us: “Social enterprises are businesses trading for social and environmental purposes. Their main purpose is to fulfil their social and/or environmental goals. This is achieved by reinvesting the majority of their income from trading activity back into the business.” But what does this mean for you?

New application process Initial online questionnaire Postcode checker Rolling assessments Questions What did people think of the short initial application form followed by more detail form for successful applicants? Would you be able to better plan your proposal if you had access to the form straightaway

Rurality For round 1 – 3,000 population limit – In a rural area as defined by Office for National Statistics For round 2 – Simple postcode checker Questions How would you like to see the rural definition change? a)Increase in population to 10,000 b)Slight increase in population c)Slight reduction in population to target smaller communities How would you feel about having a different population limit in each of the UK countries?

Timings Round 1 – 2 ½ Months to fill in the full application form Round 2 – Likely to launch in April with rolling assessments until July Question Would this be sufficient for your project?

Grant Size Round 1, £30,000 with up to £25,000 for capital Question Should this grant size change? a)Increase up to £50,000 b)No change c)Sight reduction, so that we fund more projects Question two You will also have to spend the grant within 12 months of it being offered. What does this mean for you?

Specialist discussion: If you were to design a funding pot for rural communities, what would you do? Do you think we will get lots of interest? Have we missed any crucial points? Thank you