1. Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants 18/05/2018
Louise Jardine, Relationship Manager, Dance, London
This presentation is about Arts Council England’s open access funding scheme, Project Grants – how it fits into our wider funding portfolio and strategy, as well as what it funds, how you apply and what happens to your application.
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants (or Project Grants, for short) is a new funding programme, it replaced the highly successful Grants for the arts, providing many of the same functions as well as some new ones. Breathing new life into an old programme! (see picture) This is part of our new funding picture as we move from our funding period to the funding period.
The name: Adding ‘National Lottery’ is part of a wider conversation than ACE, all Lottery funders will be including National Lottery in the title of their lottery funded programs, to ensure that people know where the funding is coming from, we will also be using our Lottery funding logo on more of material in more places. Projects describe the type of grants we award and Arts Council helps to define the fund as having a specific focus (as national Lottery project Grants could be for anything)
As an organisation, we have listened to the sector in developing these changes. We’ve been out speaking to the sector and ran surveys on our website, but we also recently had the ComRes report (2016) which was an external-led sector consultation on behalf of ACE. This report championed the integration of Museums and Libraries across our funding programs (wherever possible) and requested further guidance on Creative Media. It also highlighted our use of ‘Scientific language’ and highlighted a need for clearer and shorter guidance. (again, wherever possible). The DCMS Tailored Review praised our
With the New Portfolio we have demonstrated an openness to Creative Media as well as integration of Major Partner Museums and now 7 Library Services (that deliver arts activity). Project Grants will bring our open funding programme into the present day and give a more consistent feel across our total investment approach).
Why are we making changes? – Learning this timeline will help you to understand the long journey we’ve been on to get to this point.
Project Grants Launched in 2003 (15 years ago!).
2010 – We moved to an online application process and assessment became centralised
2011 – We took on some of the responsibilities of the MLA (Museums Libraries and Archives Council) 2013 – We changed the threshold from £10k to £15k, and decentralised some of the process
2016 – ComRes Report highlighted a need for ACE to embrace Creative media and digital platforms and new forms of technology. The report also highlighted our use of what applicants described as ‘scientific language’, and a need to make sure that we are reaching beyond the usual arts grants recipients when giving advice. Feedback around Museums and Libraries integration was very positive.
2016 – The Theatre Analysis highlighted a need to be more agile in the support we give around extending or remounting tours, among other recommendations
2017 – DMCS Tailored Review – was very positive about our funding programmes and the way we run them, but also outlined improvements we could make to our programmes and processes, particularly about being more transparent and being open to different applicants outside the regular Project Grants users we support
2017 – Museums Review – The findings of which are helping to support the ongoing development of our areas of eligibility and remit as they relate to HLF’s areas of focus and expertise.
Finally, in that time, the sector has changed a lot, as has the way we create, view, and interact with, the arts, museums and libraries. We have moved to a more digitally focused culture. Project Grants reflects not only the feedback we’ve had from the sector, but contemporary England and the changes will being this programme up to speed and ensure that it remains relevant, innovative, exciting, open and fair.
Wifi available #culturematters
Daughters of the curry Revolution by Afreena Islam, SICK! Festival
Photo © Tamsin Drury

2. Who we are
Arts Council England is the Arts and Cultural Development Agency in England
Staff across the country in five areas
North, Midlands, London, South West, South East
With specialist skills
Dance
Libraries
Literature
Music
Museums
Theatre
Visual Arts
Combined Arts
Audiences and Engagement
Children and Young People
Creative Media and Digital
Touring
Diversity
Arts Council England is the Arts and Cultural Development Agency in England
We champion, develop and invest in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives
We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries

3. Great art and culture for everyone
Our Mission & Goals
Great art and culture for everyone
Goal 1: Excellence is thriving and celebrated in the arts,
museums and libraries
Goal 2: Everyone has the opportunity to experience and
to be inspired by the arts, museums and libraries
Goal 3: The arts, museums and libraries are resilient
and environmentally sustainable
Goal 4: The leadership and workforce in the arts, museums
and libraries are diverse and appropriately skilled
Goal 5: Every child and young person has the opportunity
to experience the richness of the arts, museums
and libraries
Our mission Statement is; Great art and culture for everyone – that is what we are trying to achieve and to continue achieving.
Goal 1 is the ‘Great’ part of this statement, ensures that we not only deliver high quality art, but keep skills and talent within the sector. Does not mean that everything we fund must be of the absolute highest quality.
Goal 2 is the ‘Everyone’ part of this statement. We can, and should, all benefit. Public funding, equality of opportunity, importance of the arts, benefits of the arts etc.
There are 3 further goals which help to support this aim:
Goal 3 – This is about making sure that arts & cultural organisations as well as the arts industry are able to sustain themselves and practitioners, if we lose the financial ability to survive, then we lose the associated art. We are also committed to sustainability, it is not only a government directive but something most people within the arts workforce believes is important
Goal 4 – Reflecting the diversity of contemporary England and making sure that leadership has the right skills to lead the sector forward, confidently and competently.
Goal 5 – Ensures that access to the arts is fair across all classes, communities, schools etc. as today’s children will become tomorrow’s artists, we will have a much better arts ecology and arts landscape if every child is given equal opportunity to participate.

4. productions / exhibitions / participatory projects / events / festivals / carnivals / workshops / digital projects / artistic research and development / commissions/ participation / asset purchase / building renovation / making work / touring / residencies / professional development / international partnerships / organisation and business development / audience development
Our funding portfolio
We have three main pillars of funding open to different types of applicants:
Funded Organisations (NPO)
Development Funds
Project Grants
Awarding funds from:
Grant in Aid (DCMS)
National Lottery Good Causes
This video explains more about our funding ecology.
ACE Has 3 major pillars of funding, we use these to support the arts ecology across England, and each pillar supports a different part of the arts landscape.
Funded Organisations - We provide regular funding for organisations through our National Portfolio Organisations, including arts orgs Museums, libraries, NYMOs and Bridge Organisations as well as Music Education Hubs. Directly funding ‘National Portfolio Organisations’ ranging from large building based companies such as London’s Royal Opera House to small organisations like the November Club, a performing arts company based in Northumberland, helps to establish a resilient bedrock of arts right across the country.
Strategic programmes are geared towards addressing any gaps in provision not covered by our Funded Organisations certain priorities against our goals (eg Strategic touring, Artists International Development Fund, Catalyst, Capital etc). These
Project Grants - We also want to fund one-off, good ideas and this is where Project Grants project funding comes in. This is where we throw it out to the sector and say “What have you got? What are your good ideas?” This makes it by far one of the most exciting funding programmes because you never know what you are going to get. The range of new, exciting, innovative and creative ideas that come through this fund I sstaggering.
Arts Council England is funded through Grant-in-Aid, which comes from tax revenues via the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
We are also one of the National Lottery ‘good causes’ funding recipients – Project Grants is Lottery money, which places a number of conditions on the way it can be used. (We can award GiA if applicant cannot accept lottery money on religious grounds)
Wifi available #culturematters
Shoreline, Simon Birch Dance, SALT 2016
photography by Steve Tanner

5. What is Project Grants? A key feature of how we deliver our mission:
‘Great art and culture for Everyone’
Project Grants distributes awards of between £1000 and usually £100,000 from the National Lottery to:
individuals
organisations
people who use the arts in their work
For time limited arts-related activities that:
benefit people in England
help artists, arts organisations, museums and libraries in England carry out their work
Project Grants is our open access fund that exists to be reactive to new ideas, new talent and new approaches in the arts. Going back to our goals every Project Grants project MUST contribute to Goals 1 and 2
Individuals – We are on the few arts funders that will support individuals, certainly for these amounts and we are very proud of that. Without this funding programme – many artists would not be able to afford to continue their practice, and conversations and skills would be lost.
Organisations – arts organisations, collaborating groups, theatres, museums, libraries, arts centres etc.
People who use the arts in their work – You don’t need to be an artist to apply. Anyone can apply (except NPOs)
Time limited - up to 3 years in length; projects this long are the exception, and awarding grants of this length is very rare. Just like applications around £100,000.
Activities MUST benefit people in England, either in the short term or the long term.

6. What makes up Project Grants?
Museum Focused Practice
Accredited Museums
New guidance docs and app form
National Activities
Budget
£97.3m
per year
Arts activity
previously
GFTA
New
Creative Media Guidance
Project Grants
Project Grants is made up of the current elements of GFTA, plus some new ones:
GFTA – anything that’s currently eligible for either of these strands will continue to be so – we’re not taking anything away, in terms of eligibility, however the Libraries ringfenced budget will be coming to an end.
Museums focused practice - Accredited Museums ONLY will be eligible to apply for activities relating tot heir collection or other work. All museums will continue to be eligible for Arts-related activity.
Creative Media – we can mostly fund these types of activities through GFTA already, but we will be clearer in our guidance about this, and there are some smaller expanded areas of eligibility
National Activities – NPOs will be able to apply for over £100k National Activities only via an Expression of Interest process. Some principles of Strategic Touring & A4E will be embedded into the criteria for National Activities over £100k. However this strand is not designed to replace those programmes or service the same level of demand.
FOR INFO: WHAT IS NOT CHANGING?
From Spring 2018:
All currently eligible applicant and activity types will continue to be eligible
Applications from £1,000 to £100,000 for projects up to three years in length
£15,000 threshold
Turnaround times will remain at six and twelve weeks
Our decision making process
The appraisal criteria

7. What kind of activity do we fund?
productions / exhibitions / participatory projects / events / festivals / carnivals / workshops / digital projects / artistic research and development / commissions / participation / asset purchase / building renovation / making work / touring / residencies / professional development / international partnerships / organisation and business development / audience development / museum practice
Creation of new work, rehearsals, productions and Research & Development.
Definitions:
Participatory projects (such as workshops) - working with a group of targeted participants (might be a niche group). Process is as important if not more so than the product or performance.
Artistic research & development- Time to research and develop an idea, may not necessarily lead to a tangible outcome
Professional development- Mentorship, residencies, conferences, courses
Organisational development- Consultancy, Board development – in these instances the artistic benefit may not be evidently clear but a case will be made for the long term impact on their artistic practice or organisational resilience.
Wifi available #culturematters
The Borrowers at New Vic Theatre
Photo © Andrew Billington / New Vic Theatre

8. What kind of activity can’t we fund?
activities that do not focus on our supported artforms or disciplines
activities that provide no potential benefit to the public
statutory, further or higher education course-related activity
retrospective activities
general running costs and overheads
fundraising or profit making activity
second-hand equipment (exceptions apply)
touring projects more than 15% outside England (exceptions apply)
international activities where there is no benefit to people in England
wider creative media or museum work that falls outside of our remit (ie non- arts feature film/certain museum activity types)
Wifi available #culturematters

9. Advice and Guidance Project Grants pages of our website
How to apply guidance – Essential reading
Information sheets
Customer Services
discuss eligibility
basic advice
help with Grantium
Relationship Managers
Project Grants surgeries/events
Additional developmental support for priority applicants only
Before you apply:
Check the project you want to apply for is eligible for Project Grants
Are you ready to apply? Is the timing right, is your activity well planned, do you have finance and partners in place?
Reading the How to apply guidance (available to download on our website) is a really good place to start, even if you’re still in the early stages of putting a project together. It goes through the process in detail, and gives you a good sense of the type of information and level of detail we need to see in applications.
Website
The Project Grants pages on our website should be the first point of advice for most applicants
All applicants must read the step by step guidance on How to apply. This document explains the aims of the programme, what kind of activity we can support through Project Grants, as well as guidance on how to complete your application form and submit an application.
Our information sheets provide further help with planning your activity and more advice on certain parts of the process.
Customer Services
Our Customer services team, are the first point of contact for Project Grants advice. Can advise you on the eligibility of your activity, discuss any parts of the application that applicants are unsure of, and help them to use the online application form. We will sometimes need to pass your query onto a Relationship Manager based in one of our Area Offices. We might speak to a Relationship Manager and get back to you with further information, or we may organise for you to speak with them directly.
Relationship Managers (for Priority applicants)
With over 10,000 applicants to Project Grants every year it would be impossible for RMs to speak to every applicant. They work across large geographic areas and are only able to spend an average of three days per month providing advice on Project Grants. This may include developing advice giving tool (such as information sheets), giving presentations on Project Grants at funding fairs, delivering advice sessions to groups of artists, or advising individuals via phone, and sometimes face to face.

10. Apply online: Grantium
Start / Complete your application
Receive your decision
Accept an offer of a grant
Request payments
Submit payment conditions
Submit activity report forms
Receive notifications
Grantium is our online application portal available through the Arts Council England website:
Lots of help on our website, including videos and guidance documents. CUSTOMER SERVICES ARE THE REAL EXPERTS ON THIS SO IF YOU ARE STUCK, CONTACT THEM ON or
The form will check applications before they are submitted – for instance, it will check if your budget is balanced and that you have answered every question.
If you are asked Why we have Grantium? We had an organisational review in July 2013, as part of the Government's spending review. The aim of the review was to reduce our spending on administration costs. As well as an overall reduction in staff numbers, this new system was one of the final parts of this review.
The Project Grants application criteria, application form, and questions we ask are not changing
HELP
There is lots of support to help you use the new system including videos and guidance on each step. See our website for more information. And applicants can call Customer Services.

11. Applying for funding: the key steps
Step 1 – User Account, very simple, login and username
Step 2 – Create applicant profile – Individual or organisation? ONLY DO THWESE STEPS ONCE
Step 3 – We need to make sure you’re you and that there’s only once of you on the system. This can take a few days, but this is a perfect time for your to READ THE HOW TO APPLY GUIDANCE AND ANY RLEVANT INFORMATION SHEETS 
Steps 4 and 5 – Start your application, this opens with a short eligibility quiz to make sure you are applying for the right kind of activity before asking you about your project.

12. The application form Basic details
The application form asks focused, directive questions relating to our four criteria;
Quality
Public engagement
Finance
Management
The number of questions, and depth of information requested will increase in line with the value of the application
Each of these four sections relates to a specific appraisal section and may be broken down into a few different sections made up of either question and answer types or tables to fill in (such as the budget)
Quality – The “Great art and culture” part of our mission statement
You and your project
Public engagement – The “Everyone part of our missions statement”
Who will engage with the activity and how
Finance
Budget – Income & expenditure
Financial Management and experience
Fair pay for artists, creatives, museum specialists and anyone involved in your project
Management
When/Where it will take place
Who will lead on each part
How it will be managed. (Complete the Project plan!)
Why do we ask about finance and management? We are distributing £97.3m of lottery funds, we need to ensure that we are investing it responsibly!
Amount and type of information requested dependent on value of application. So the more money you ask us for, the more information we will ask you for.
TOP TIP: Our How to apply guidance goes through the application form step by step, giving further detail about the kind of information we want to see in the different sections of the form.

13. How we make decisions Eligibility check Risk check
Finance and Management
Written Appraisal against criteria
Over £15k only
Decision meeting
Decision letter
How we make decisions
Grant Offer
Ineligible
Major Risk
Unsuccessful
Project Grants is a LIGHT TOUCH process, there is just one stage that you need to complete – the application form, there are no second rounds or further interviews. Applications for Over £15k go through an extra step which looks at the application in more detail. This enables us to make quick decisions and respond to the large volume of applications that we receive.
Eligibility check – could the activity be funded through Project Grants? is the application form complete? 33% of applications we make ineligible are Underdeveloped (not enough information to make a decision) ensure you have READ THE GUIDANCE and been as clear and comprehensive as possible in your answers. Plan thoroughly.
Risk Check – finance and management sections are reviewed to check that the activity is feasible.
Eligibility and risk check are part of the investment centre review, carried out by an impartial centralised team in Manchester with artform and project management expertise.
Appraisal against criteria – an additional step for larger grants (Over £15k). An RM from the applicants home area review the application against the four criteria (quality, PE, Management and finance). We take a more forensic approach to the over £15k because they are great financial risk to public money.
£15k and under decision meeting - Artistic quality and public engagement sections are reviewed by a Senior Relationship Manager and Relationship Manager from the applicants’ home Area. Using the available budget, panel must fund a range of applications across art forms and geographic areas.
Over £15k decision meeting - Appraisal scores and statements are reviewed by leadership team from the applicants’ home Area. Using the available budget, panel must fund a range of applications across art forms and geographic areas.
Decision letter – Our online system, Grantium, will notify applicants via once a decision has been made. Applicants can then log onto the system to view their letter. If you wish to reapply you are welcome to do so, but if we have identified any weaknesses.
IF YOU ARE UNSUCCESSFUL – You can reapply, but you must think about the reasons your application was unsuccessful and address any weaknesses we have identified in your feedback. All applications for Over £15k receive their full written appraisal.

14. If you are successful One month to accept offer
We will normally pay the money in stages
90% > 10% (£15k & Under)
50% > 40% > 10% (Over £15k)
Acknowledge our funding and the National Lottery, using our funding mark appropriately
Must evaluate your work and fill in an activity report form
When we make an offer it is conditional, the applicant must first of all accept the offer, before providing any further conditional information. We will usually chase the applicant to confirm rather than just saying, “right you've had your 30 days!”
Interim Report forms must be submitted for interim payments and a final activity report form must be submitted for the final payment.

15. Thank you Questions?