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The aim of the Capital Leverage Fund is to support community and cultural organisations to deliver capital projects which provide new and improved facilities for our communities and residents.
The fund also helps organisations secure additional investment from funders outside of their organisation.
Projects need to meet at least one of the Dorset Council priorities and the Cultural Strategy priorities.
Our 4 cultural priorities are:
Read the application guidance before you apply to:
We can only accept applications submitted through the online form.
Read how to complete the Capital Leverage Fund online application form.
Applications close at midnight on Monday 8 January 2024.
If you'd like to speak to us about your project, email us at:
If you need help with your governance or policies, email hello@can100.org.
We can fund capital projects including:
‘Not for profit’ community organisations in the Dorset Council area, with an annual turnover of less than £1million can apply.
This includes:
If your organisation has an annual turnover of over £1million, contact us to discuss your application first. You can still apply but will be a lower priority.
You can apply for a capital grant of between £1,000 and £25,000, to fund up to 20% of your total project costs.
If you plan to use the funding for feasibility studies or first stage conceptual development, we can fund up to 20% of your total project costs up to a maximum value of £15,000.
If you plan to use some of your grant to cover project management costs, you can request up to 10% of your total grant to go towards these costs, up to a maximum value of £2,500.
Funding must be matched by other funding from outside of your organisation. You will need to give evidence of external funding before we can release our funding to you.
We expect demand for funding to be very high so we may award you less than you apply for.
If your organisation has other projects funded by capital funding from us (for example, capital leverage or leisure development funding), they must be completed before applying to this fund.
Your application will be assessed by the grants panel on the next assessment date after you apply.
Applications to be received no later than Friday 1 September 2023.
Applications to be received no later than Monday 8 January 2024.
We may defer applications to the next round for assessment where demand is high.
We will award funding to successful applicants on the following dates:
Funds will be available for 2 years after an award is made. This will be reviewed by a monitoring officer after 12 months.
You must tell us about any changes to your project. Failure to do so may result in part or all the grant awarded having to be returned or not allocated.
For projects being delivered by a consortium or partnership, the leaseholder will act as the lead partner. They will be responsible for overseeing the delivery and monitoring of the project.
You will be asked to sign a standard grant agreement with full details of your grant award including any terms and conditions.
You will be required to submit an annual progress report during the project followed by an end of project report.
If your application is unsuccessful, we will contact you to discuss whether you’d like it to be deferred and considered at a future round of funding. Our advice is given on a case-by-case basis.
Decisions made by our grants panel are final. There is no appeals process.
These organisations cannot apply for funding:
Funding cannot be used for:
This fund is subject to the following terms and conditions:
We will shortlist, review and make recommendations for funding via our grant panel(s).
There will be 2 rounds of grant assessments throughout the year. Assessment dates and final award decision dates are published on this page and in the grants guidance document. Where demand for grants is high, we reserve the right to change these dates.
There will be 2 grant panels. One panel will consider applications from the voluntary and community sector, whilst the second will focus on applications from the cultural sector.
Each Grant Panel will comprise of at least 3 specialist officers (one acts as the panel chair), the portfolio holder for communities and at least one representative who brings with them their expertise and knowledge of Dorset’s community and cultural sectors.
Applications will be screened by each member of their respective grants panel to ensure fairness.
Where a conflict of interest occurs, the relevant officer/representative will not take part in the assessment and the conflict of interest will be recorded.
An assessment summary of all eligible and shortlisted applications, with officer recommendations are put forward by our grants officer/manager, to be considered by each of the grant panels. The recommendation by the grants officer/manager is for guidance only.
Councillors will be able to comment and offer feedback on specific projects in their ward through a ‘councillor feedback ‘ form which is linked to the online application form.
The panel will assess each application against the fund criteria and use a scoring matrix to agree and prioritise awards. Decisions are made by a majority vote. Where there is no majority, our portfolio holder for communities will have the deciding vote. The panel decision is final.
If an applicant withdraws their application after the panel decision has been made, the chair, in consultation with the other panel members, can agree to award the grant to another applicant.
Any decision to amend the award if the project or organisation has changed, or new information comes to light that affects the application will be considered by the grants officer/manager and panel chair, in consultation with other panel members as appropriate.
We share basic data information regarding your application with other local grant managers/funding streams.
This enables us to:
We also make sure that applicants data is stored appropriately. See details of our Data Privacy and GDPR policy.