Agenda item

Report of the Chief Funding Director

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Funding Director providing an update on the Anchor Programme and confirming the budget allocation recommended for the second round in spring 2024 as £13.9m, incorporating the £3.9m remaining from the original allocation plus a total uplift of an additional £10m. The Chief Funding Director introduced the report and highlighted the key points for Members, also recalling the Committee’s discussion in September in which officers were asked to assess whether the programme would benefit from further budget uplift to the £5m agreed at that meeting. Consequently, a further £5m allocation was proposed, making a total uplift of £10m and overall programme allocation of £30m.

In response to a question from a Member, the Chief Funding Director advised that website communications and pre-application webinars would be used to make as clear as possible to funded organisations that this would be the final round of the programme. The webinars would also be used to communicate eligibility as clearly as possible, given it was intended to narrow the criteria.

The Committee was advised that TSIP had been engaged as learning partner to reflect on Round One, which should help with this. The Chief Funding Director advised that more time would be allowed for the sifting of applications and for the assessment of applications by Funding Managers, based on learnings from the first round. It was planned to launch Round Two in May, with recommendations to be brought to the December 2024 meeting of the Committee.

The Chief Funding Director confirmed that it was intended to retain the two-stage application process, with a lighter-touch Expression of Interest form at the first stage hopefully avoiding undue burden on applicants. However, feedback from the sector would be invited on Round One which would be taken into consideration.

A Member commended the co-design process incorporated into the programme, noting that this was an ambition of the charity going back several years. The Member added that there were some organisations on the list of rejected applications that were clearly ineligible and hoped that this could be minimised for Round Two.

The Chair then invited the Committee to consider the recommendations, which were agreed.

RESOLVED – That the Funding Committee of the City Bridge Foundation Board, in the discharge of functions for the City Corporation as Trustee of City Bridge Foundation and solely in the charity’s best interests:

i)     Agree an additional allocation of £5m to the Anchor Programme, bringing the total allocation from £25m to approximately £30m, and increasing the funds available to spend in Round Two from £3.9m to £13.9m.