WHAT WE WILL FUND
BFSS only funds new projects, pilot projects, or projects which are planning a distinct new phase of development. We do not fund ongoing programmes.
Projects should be for the purposes of education or training for young people up to the age of 25, and should fall into one or more of the following categories:
- Delivery of academic, early years or vocational education
- Teacher training
- Learning resources and equipment including ICT
- Community and supplementary education
- Research related to educational service (Please note that research is not funded unless linked to direct impact on educational service development)
- School construction – with a clear link to quality of education provided
- Innovation through pilot projects, with plans for robust evaluation of the approach.
- Other activities/services that will remove barriers and widen educational access and opportunity, or raise educational achievement
BFSS will fund projects in the range of £5,000 to £60,000 for a period of up to 3 years.
For multi year projects, the cost per year cannot exceed £20,000. Each subsequent year’s funding is conditional on receipt of a satisfactory narrative and financial report.
BFSS prefers projects to have some degree of matched funding. This does not have to be £ for £, but we do expect BFSS to be funding at least 25% of the total project costs. The matched funding or contribution in kind might be provided by the community itself or by a co-funder.
PRIORITY AREAS
All projects which meet our criteria will be considered and assessed on their own merit. However, the Society currently has three priority areas for which it particularly welcomes applications:
Conflict or natural disaster: Projects designed to address the need for re-establishing and renewing education where the provision of education has suffered from conflict or natural disaster.
Girls education: Projects which focus on enhancing the opportunities and reducing barriers for girls to access education
Looked after children: Looked after children have significantly poorer educational outcomes than children not in care. BFSS welcomes projects which pilot approaches to improving the educational attainment of looked after children so that in time they are able to take advantage of opportunities afforded by tertiary education and employment.
BFSS DOES NOT USUALLY FUND:
- The continuation of existing projects or services, unless this is a distinct new phase or development.
- Services which are available through the state-sponsored education system (including the Pupil Premium in the case of UK projects)
- Summer camps
- Bursaries, scholarships and endowments
- Expeditions, conferences and overseas travel
- Individual volunteering overseas
- Food or feeding programmes
- Ongoing programmes
- Research other than on educational service development
- International travel (unless a clear case is made for why this is necessary and cannot be found in the recipient country, eg a very specialist trainer)
- Projects where salaries, transport or running costs are the main expense
- Adult education programmes for people over the age of 25
BFSS DOES NOT FUND ANY OF THE BELOW EXCEPT:
- Health projects – where used as a means of achieving educational outcomes
- Water and sanitation projects – where there is a very clear link to education access/attainment
- Arts projects – where used as a means of achieving identified educational outcomes
- Sport and sports facilities projects – where used as a means of achieving identified educational outcomes
- Projects from an individual school – the involvement of other schools or the community is a significant part of the project.
- Projects where the main beneficiaries are adults over the age of 25 years. In the case of teacher training projects, where trainees could be over 25, it must be clear that the main beneficiaries will be children and young people under 25.
The grant criteria are intended as general guidance for applicants as to whether or not their particular project is eligible for funding. Meeting the grant criteria does not automatically lead to the award of a grant.
Further advice on submitting a good application are provided at ‘Submitting Successful Applications’. Here you will also find a list of some of the reasons why recent applications have been rejected.
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Thank you Adam, just adding a link here to the overall grant page which includes current grant opportunities: https://bfss.org.uk/grant-giving/