Discovery Fund

We want to work with you to tackle marginalisation and under representation

The wider tech sector broadly fails to engage a cross section that is representative of society and the community tech sector must not emulate this. We want to support groups that are typically underrepresented in the wider tech sector, and therefore are particularly interested to hear from community businesses that are tackling marginalisation and recognise that the best of this work is often led by members / groups within these marginalised communities. 

Marginalised groups include, but are not limited to: racialised ethnicities, LGBTQIA+, disabled people, young (under 35) and older (more than 60) people, long-term unemployed, educationally or economically disadvantaged, people with experience of homelessness, women and girls, ex-offenders, and refugees and migrants. 

Throughout the assessment process we will be monitoring the progress of applications from organisations majority-led by any of these groups. At each stage we will analyse our assessment data to look for and correct any patterns of unintended exclusion.

If you require any further information about this funding programme, or need help applying, you can contact communitytech@powertochange.org.uk

This is responsive, flexible funding which means you have control over how you spend your funding and can use it to cover any eligible costs that help you meet the fund objectives. We will ask to see evidence of what you’ve spent at the end of the grant, but not a detailed plan of how the money will be spent in advance.

How the discovery funding could be used (£10,000)  

• Research – reading, interviews, mapping, workshops etc as a way to ask questions, discover knowledge, refine ideas, scope out potential 
• Identifying and building partnerships to develop community tech  
• Spending time consulting with different experts 
• Undertaking learning journey’s  
• Prototyping, testing and experimenting 
• Undertaking the Community Explore design process

How the open working funding could be used (£2,000)

• Documenting your work in the Commons 
• Paying for staff time to attend an open working course
• Paying for staff time to write weeknotes or blogs
• Time and travel costs to engage with the community tech community of practice
• Involvement in Discovery Fund evaluation activity

The Discovery Fund opens at midday on 1 June and closes at midday on 21 July 2023. Assessment will take place between 24 July and 7 September 2023, and we will communicate all results by Tuesday 12th September.

An initial eligibility check on whether applicants meets the community business criteria (outlined in ‘Are you eligible’?) will be completed by Power to Change.

The five scoring questions from each eligible application will then be assessed by pairs of external tech experts, who will not see the rest of the application.

The top highest scoring applications will be recommended for funding to a Grants Committee, which will make the final decision.

Between each stage of application process, rejected applications will be analysed to look for patterns of exclusion. Should any of our eligibility or marking criteria be shown to be disproportionately impacting a specific marginalised group, we will alter this and reassess before moving on to the next stage.

During any part of the process we may want to find out more about your discovery idea and organisation. If so, we will contact you to find out the best method to get in touch.

Whilst it is flexible funding (we don’t need to see a detailed project plan and budget) as a charitable foundation, all our grants must further our charitable objects for the public benefit. This does not mean that your organisation must be a charity, as we will fund a variety of legal structures, but we cannot fund activities which don’t further a charitable purpose for public benefit. In the application we will ask you to state the option that best describes the charitable purpose being furthered by the grant, from the list below:

• The advancement of education, training or retraining
• The advancement of health or the saving of lives
• The advancement of citizenship or community development
• The advancement of arts, culture, heritage or science
• The advancement of environmental protection or improvement, and the promotion of sustainable development
• The relief of those in need by reason of, youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage
• The prevention or relief of poverty
• The relief on unemployment
• The promotion of urban and rural regeneration
• The promotion of social inclusion

As part of our due diligence, we will also check:

Governance

• You have an appropriate Company Structure for the programme (inc. formal charitable/social purpose),
• You are listed on the appropriate UK company registration site (Companies House, Charities or Mutual Public Register). Where you appear on more than one we will check both to ensure there is a consistency of information between the two,
• You have at least 2 unrelated directors,
• You have submitted all appropriate financial/information records on time,
• None of your directors are currently subject to disqualification or insolvency actions,
• You have appropriate policies in place (e.g. Conflicts of Interest, GDPR, Safeguarding (where applicable).

Finance

• Based on the current financial information recorded on Companies House, Charities or Mutual Public Register we will undertake an assessment to include a review of your income/expenditure and balance sheet to understand your financial viability for the duration of the grant conditions.

Subsidy Control
Power to Change grants qualify within the definition of Subsidy, and we must abide by the UK Subsidy Control Rules. We have determined that grant awards under this fund are likely to be exempted from the Subsidy Control Rules where the subsidies received by a grantee in the last three financial years (including the grant under this fund) do not exceed the relevant permitted small amount of subsidies that you can receive over the same period, as set out in the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (currently £315,000).

Our application process will help us to identify the Subsidy position of your application. In your application you will be required to provide details of any subsidy (or previously, EU State Aid) support received previously. In the event that all or any part of the grant is deemed by a court or other agency of competent jurisdiction not to comply with the Subsidy Control Rules, we may recover all or that part of the grant from you. If you are concerned about Subsidy Control Rules, you must seek independent legal advice.

Although the Discovery funding is flexible and we don’t need to see a detailed project plan and budget, as a charitable foundation, we can only fund activity that furthers charitable purposes, which we have listed below. This does not mean that your organisation must be a charity, as we will fund a variety of legal structures. In the application we will ask you to state the option that best describes your charitable purpose from the list below:  

• The advancement of education, training or retraining  
• The advancement of health or the saving of lives  
• The advancement of citizenship or community development  
• The advancement of arts, culture, heritage or science  
• The advancement of environmental protection or improvement, and the promotion of sustainable development  
• The relief of those in need by reason of, youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage.  
• The prevention or relief of poverty  
• The relief on unemployment  
• The promotion of urban and rural regeneration  
• The promotion of social inclusion   

Board or committee members:  

You need to have at least two people on your board or committee who are unrelated. By unrelated we mean people who are not:  

• Related by blood to each other  
• Married to each other  
• In a civil partnership with each other  
• In a long-term relationship with each other  
• Living together at the same address.   

We cannot accept applications from:  

• Individuals  
• Sole traders  
• Organisations focussed on making profits and sharing these profits privately – including companies limited by shares, organisations without the right asset locks, or organisations that can pay profits to directors or shareholders  
• Organisations based outside the UK  
• Applications made by one organisation on behalf of another  
• Schools.