Charity Selection

How charities are selected

Members of The Funding Network nominate charitable projects for each event.  They support their chosen project in submitting a short application form by the given deadline for the event.  The Funding Network’s Selection Panel then evaluates all the applications and chooses between 4-6 exceptional projects from all the applications.  The Selection Panel is made up of between 3 and 6 members per event (including at least one Trustee of TFN) and any member can join as long as they haven’t proposed a project for that event.

At an event, the charities have just 6 minutes in which to present, and 6 minutes in which to take questions from the audience.  The presentations are followed by an open pledging session in which attendees can pledge money towards some, all or none of the projects that have been presented. There is no obligation to give, but new attendees often feel inspired to do so.  The amounts received by the charities will therefore depend on what participants give. The Funding Network administers the pledges and collects Gift Aid where appropriate, paying out a grant to each charity shortly after the funding event.

How to apply

Each project submits a two page application.  There are usually between 15 and 30 projects put forward.

1. Before the Panel meets some due diligence is carried out: checking the annual reports and (particularly where a new charity is applying) talking to the staff to clarify status and viability.
2. This information is added to the application and shared before the meeting.  Recently created organisations always receive a fair hearing.
3. Selection Panel members first rank the applications, the rankings are merged and the top 8 – 12 organisations are discussed at the meeting.  We know that passion and great presentations make a huge difference to the success of our events, so we arrange a brief conference call to selected organisations during the Selection Panel meeting.
4. Each short-listed charity has an opportunity to make their pitch very succinctly, and Panel members have a chance to ask questions directly before making their decision.

Evaluation Criteria

In making their selection for the funding event, the Panel assesses the degree of social change created, the impact of the proposed work on its beneficiaries and the ease with which the projects could find finding elsewhere (see detailed questions below).  The Panel typically selects a variety of causes for any one event to reflect the variety of interests of our members.  In the case of a themed event (in September 2010, the focus was London-based projects), projects selected will all be within the theme chosen.

Impact of project:

• What actual change will this project generate?
• How many people might this project reach? Or, how much of the environment?
• Will the project have a transformational effect on people’s lives/environment, rather than helping them a little?
• Might the project show the way for others elsewhere?
• What evidence might there be that the project could be successful?
• Is there a genuine need for this project?

Likelihood of success:

• Is the leadership convincing?
• Is the strategy convincing?
• Has management networked the field to avoid replication and maximise potential impact through shared learning/resources?
• Is the community/group of people affected, at best, involved with the development and activities of the project?
• What are the organisation’s finances like?
• What are the risks?

Finally, ease of raising funding: How easy is it for the project to raise funds?

How to join the Selection Panel

If you are a member of TFN and would like to help select the projects for a future event, we’d love to hear from you.  We exclude sponsors from the meetings where the cause they are promoting is being considered.  Meetings are informal and held on a weekday evening in London at our offices in Holborn.  Please contact Tillie@thefundingnetwork.org.uk for details.