Small grants provide a lifeline for many organisations. Funders provide small grants to grass-roots projects that deliver widespread benefits for people across the UK. BIG makes small grants across a range of programmes, most notably Awards for All. < br > In 2008, we commissioned the Policy Studies Institute to explore the purpose, benefits and potential of small grants (which we defined as worth up to £50,000). The study considered such questions as:
- the purposes of small grants programmes (run by both BIG and other funders),
- what applicants and funders saw as the most important features of these programmes,
- the range and types of organisations, projects, activities and outcomes that our small grants programmes had supported, and
- what organisations thought about our application and grant management processes and how these might be improved.
Among other findings, the final report (published in 2009) highlighted that:
- applicants appreciated the comparative simplicity of a process designed for smaller grants,
- some groups saw the process as a stepping stone that would help them to develop the skills and confidence needed to expand their work and funding, although some wanted more support in making this transition,
- most groups reported that our monitoring approach had helped them to improve their project and internal management systems,
- most projects involved in the study were first-time applicants, and
- there was widespread support for further simplification of processes and increases in funding for small grants.
Read the full report. Read our summary of the report.
More recently we have launched an evaluation of the impact of Awards for All that will consider some aspects of these findings more fully.
Please contact us if you have any comments or questions.