Claims guidance for community benefit funds

Community benefit claims stage

For REF, Clyde, CLLD and other community benefit grants on Grantvisor.

The letter of grant sets out the offer and conditions and any outcomes or monitoring requirements. The offer of grant and the completed application together are the grant agreement and set out what the grant is to be used for and what should be achieved.

Following the return of the accepted offer of grant the application will be moved to the claims stage and a claim can be submitted through the Grantvisor system.

Advance of up to 50% of the grant can be approved but requires justification from the applicant as to why an advance of funds is appropriate or required. This should be done as part of the first claim where an option for advance payment is available on the system.

For resilience and budget oversight a minimum of two independent people from the group should be involved in the grant acceptance and overseeing all grant claims. This could be an employee and should be at least 1 member of the groups management, board or group governance structure. These people should not be related.

Evidence

Grant claims must be evidenced, an advance claim and payment must be followed up with claim evidence submitted prior to further claims being paid, the claim will stay open for this information to be added. If only a percentage of the advance is evidenced a second advance of the equivalent of the evidenced spend may be requested.

100% of the projects financial spend evidence requires to be submitted although the grant may be for a percentage of the total project value.

Example, a £50,000 REF grant to £100,000 project is 50% of the project. Evidence of all £100,000 requires to be submitted so the 50% can be justified.  

Claims evidence required

Invoices, receipts, QS valuations can be submitted as evidence of spend.

Matching bank statement clearly showing the group’s name, bank account number, sort code and the defrayment from the account matching the invoices, receipts of valuation must be submitted. Bank statements should show also show grant income related to the project. Invoices should be addressed to the group and all information should be dated.

For larger claims it can be easier to cross reference the invoice and payment through the bank account using numbering or lettering.

Information can be uploaded as PDFs or photographs, added assurance is provided where two sets of initials are provided to evidence involvement of 2 people within the claim. 

Staff costs

Staff costs require evidence of pay roll, payslip and defrayment through the groups bank account. Information can have personal details redacted but must be linked and payments followable.

Full cost recover

Where projects have included full cost recover within the application this will be based on an agreed percentage of the total running cost of the organisation. Evidence of the total costs are required, invoices and bank defrayment.

Example, if a project was paying for 1 member of staff for a year but the organisation had 3 other members of staff the application may propose 25% of the overhead costs are appropriate to the project. At claims stage the actual, costs of the overheads (lighting, heating, insurance, and so on) are required to be submitted to support the 25% claim.

Summary of claims information required

Petty cash and costs through individuals bank accounts or cash are not eligible costs.  

Change request

Projects do change the community benefit funds approach is to be flexible during the application and delivery stage and support groups and communities while ensuring an auditable process and due governance is in place.  Any changes to the project, financial delivery or timescales should be discussed with the grant officer. If a change request is required a simple change request form can be provided this should be used for all of the following:

• Changes to the timescale and completion date
• Financial changes including to the match funding or the total value
• Any changes to how the finances are used
• Changes to how the project is being delivered or the results
• Changes  to contracts, tenders’ prices, quotes
• Use of contingencies
• Changes to staff, board and or chairpersons, treasurer, secretary

If the change is approved this will be uploaded and aid any following claims.

Project completion

On project completion all financial evidence should have been uploaded to Grantvisor evidencing invoices and bank statement defrayment.

Evidence of the project delivery should also be uploaded photographs of equipment material or events upload, if the grant has contributed to reports surveys, feasibility plans and so on, these should be uploaded as evidence of completion. We would expect to have been consulted in any draft feasibility plans especially where the resultant work may seek further community benefit grant funding.    

Outcomes and results

Many projects will not need a completion report, but groups may want to consider preparing a short report summarising what the grant achieved who benefited and to what extent and any lessons learnt, the format of this reporting is for groups to choose.

The exception to this is revenue funding projects running for 1 to 3 years where annual reports and updates are required demonstrating the progress of the project.     

Overview

In 2024/25 the Community Benefit Fund awarded over 125 grants ranging in value from £2,000 to £700k with a total value above £4m. Not all the above detail will be appropriate for all groups, monitoring and reporting will be proportionate to the type of group and scale of project. The funds is flexible with groups to help deliver and evidence local projects to support vibrant communities. However, all financial spend requires to be appropriately evidenced and reported.