FAQs
Here are some of our Frequently Asked Questions:
Is my organisation eligible for funding?
We fund Arts Organisations or partnership projects between youth-focused groups and Arts Organisation. Although you do not have to have charitable status to be a successful grant-holder we will do due diligence checks to ensure appropriate Safeguarding and Governance are in place.
To find out more you can take our eligibility quiz here
How much money can I apply for?
We fund projects up between £250-£10,000 with our grant average at £6.5k per project.
We advise that organisations new to the fund look at asking for between £4-6K as a starting project with us.
When writing your application, please consider the value for money against the amount of young people you will be reaching. If you can only engage a small number of young people but the impact is clear then we welcome you to explain this within your application.
We have funded a handful of projects over £10,000 and are open to proposals. These projects will be scrutinised in more detail and should fit with all 3 I AM Fund priorities.
How often can I apply?
You can only apply for the fund if any past projects have been completed and a monitoring form has been returned to the panel. We are unable to fund more than one project per organisation at one time.
We ask for funding to be spent within 1 year of receiving the grant.
What age groups should I be targeting?
We support projects that engage young people aged 4-25.
The I AM Fund are particularly interested in projects which engage children at primary school age (4-11 years).
TIP: if you are working with a specific age group and/or one at the older end of the scale, please be sure to explain why this is needed for this age group in your application. Evidence of this need will strengthen your application.
Any top tips for application writing?
Always contact the I AM Fund Engagement Officer before applying, to chat through your project. Email ak@heysmilefoundation.org (they only work on a freelance basis so may not get back to you ASAP but will respond within 6 weeks of the application deadline)
Always read the Grant Guidance and check out our previous grant-holders to understand more about the types of projects we support
If you struggle to articulate yourself in writing, we welcome video or audio applications as well.
Write your application ‘offline’ on a word document before copying and pasting into the online format. You can access the questions in a word document here
Where possible get someone to proof-read your application. Ideally this should be someone who isn’t connected to the project so they can sense-check it. If this isn’t possible, you can ‘submit for review’ your application and the I AM Fund Engagement Officer will read it for you and send any notes through.
Be as specific as you can. The more details the better- this includes, dates, times, partners, quotes for budget, artist names.