The Village Halls Podcast
A podcast for anyone involved in the running of Britain's 10,000 village, church and community and anyone interested in the vital community services they provide.
The Village Halls Podcast
How to Secure Grant Funding for your Village Hall
Fundraising shouldn’t feel like wading through fog. We sit down with Chris Rush, director at TJB Community, to cut through the noise and show a clear route from idea to funded project for village, community and church halls. If you’ve ever felt lost in a maze of grants and acronyms, this conversation gives you the map, the compass and the checkpoints.
Chris breaks down practical steps to build proof: village-wide surveys with comments, letters from user groups, meeting minutes that show the idea’s journey, and a social media trail that demonstrates real demand.
Whether you’re planning a new roof, safer flooring, or more inclusive activities, you’ll leave with a practical playbook: map the funders, prove the need, speak in your community’s voice and show clear impact. If you want help, Chris’s team works on a success basis and offers advice freely—because the goal is simple: keep vital halls open, active and welcoming.
Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share this with your committee, and leave a quick review so more halls can find it.
Hello, my name is Mark Smith, and welcome to the Village Halls Podcast, sponsored by Allied Westminster, the UK's largest specialist provider of Village Hall insurance and the home of VillageGuard. So today I'm joined by Chris Rush, Company Director of TJB Community.com, who work with Village Halls and Community Projects on a no-win-no-fee basis to secure funding. So Chris has a hands-on approach to demystifying grants and turning good ideas into fundable, deliverable projects. So Chris, thank you very much for joining me.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks very much.
Marc Smith:Well, I'm glad you're here because after we I normally record a podcast with the guest off-air, we'll have a normal conversation. But the the topic always goes back to funding. So I've been wanting to do a podcast for quite a while about funding. So I've been online as you do, as everyone will do, looking for information, and it's a minefield. And I don't think that my research could have done any justice to what is out there because there's so many so the criteria is so vast. So I'm not putting any pressure on you here, Chris, but I'm assuming you're the Einstein of trend funding because I it's I found it incredibly challenging to get any information that I thought was of any value to the listeners. So to start, it'd be great if you can introduce yourself and tell us what it is that you do at TGBcommunity.com.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so so as as a company, we've we've sort of been operating for the last five, six years, really coming out of COVID. Um we're we're we're five people, soon to be six people within the company. Uh we're all uh volunteers within our own sort of not-for-profit uh community entities and therefore have had experience of putting grant applications together prior to actually being part of the business. Um we, as you said, we we work on a non-no-win, no-fee basis and and work across the UK. So we work with organisations from Aberdeen down to Cornwall, some in Northern Ireland, um, and support them, put high-quality uh grant funding applications uh in if they feel like they've not got, I guess, the time or the expertise uh to be able to do that in-house. Obviously, we're volunteers and we understand the time pressure of life and how, like you've just said, you know, navigating a bit of the minefield of grant funding is is a challenge and requires a lot of time first and foremost. Um so yeah, that that's that's who we are really. Um now we we do also offer plenty of information out for free and and uh happy to be at the end of emails um if people are doing it themselves and want to put applications together themselves and might have some questions. Hopefully, within this, we might be able to answer some of those questions for people.
Marc Smith:So, what was it that drew you to village halls? Because I know you you you've you help all sorts of community companies, don't you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so so village halls uh specifically. I mean, we just to be clear, we work with not-for-profit sports clubs, um churches, village halls, charities, community centres, village halls in particular. I mean, we're we're based in the northwest, uh East Lancashire, uh a lot of villages around us, we're in Clitheroe. Um, and I think from a village hall perspective, a lot of them are in obviously rural areas and and and a lack of facilities typically within each of those villages, and the village hall really acts as the mainstay for pretty much everything that goes on in the village. So, from a point our point of view of reward, I guess, of of securing grant funding for people, um, it is that making sure that people within the village actually continue to have access to high-quality facilities for whatever goes on at the village hall.
Marc Smith:So, from your experience, what do you see in the in the world of village halls? Why do why do you think they struggle? Because I know everyone that I've spoken to, it's obviously a lot of people have achieved what they've wanted, but they've always said it's been a struggle to get there. So, why is it such a struggle? Why isn't it easier? Obviously, you have to have a good idea uh or a reasonable reason to have the funding, but why is it so difficult to get that funding?
SPEAKER_00:I I think well, the first point would be knowing where the funding is. Um, I mean, if you were to do a search on Google, you'd probably you'd find thousands of grant funds across the country. Yeah. Um, and then obviously to work out what's applicable to your project or to the whole, um, that that can be a challenge that requires its time in itself. Um, so knowing where that funding is, because sometimes if you think, well, we can only really apply to the lottery, or we can only apply to this one funder, it might be pigeonholing yourself into something where there's other funders out there that you actually might be more successful with. Um, I mean, I'm happy to reel off some of the I guess funders that that that people might be able to access. So lottery funding I've I've mentioned there, I would presume most people would be aware of that.
Marc Smith:Um yeah, that's been a long, a lot that's been a long time.
SPEAKER_00:And it's the most accessible funder in the country, A, because it's got the most amount of money, but also there's no uh geography based around it, you know, anybody can apply. It suits village halls very much because of what they're trying to support, which is you know, community facilities, uh, they do a lot of capital upgrade support. Um, the awards for all program in particular, you can apply for up to£20,000 and you can actually apply theoretically every year. So as long as you do a project, spend that money, complete everything, theoretically within 12 months you can apply again.
Marc Smith:So that's right.
SPEAKER_00:So long-term planning of your facilities, uh like I say, you've obviously got to meet the criteria and put applications together, but theoretically, you could use that as a source of funding if you've got a five-year plan, a 10-year plan, and you can drip feed money into the into the uh the hall to to upgrade the facilities, then that's a really accessible.
Marc Smith:Yeah, that's really good, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and then and then probably less well, uh, people who will have heard about it but maybe not thought about it, it would be Sport England, um, who have who have now kind of transitioned a little bit, not transitioned away from supporting sport, but their main focus now is enhancing physical activity, particularly physical activity in people who may not traditionally have traditionally play sport or be comfortable going to mainstream gyms or not have access to mainstream gyms. Um and that obviously village halls, a lot of which deliver Pilates classes, yoga classes, line dancing, all these different things that get people physically active that that maybe traditionally uh yeah, struggle to access facilities to do that. And and Sport England will support projects up to£15,000. They can be delivering a project in the sense of we're gonna run this community group and we need X amount of money to run it, or we need a new floor because we're doing yoga sessions on the floor and it's you know dirty and broken or whatever, yeah, and that sort of thing. So, again, maybe something that people might not have thought about. Um, they're both national funders, you know. As long as you've got community activity going on, then you can apply to those, and then location specific. So, this is where it becomes a little bit more tricky because you kind of need to put your postcode in and check that you're applicable for some of this stuff. But uh, waste management companies um have big grant funds because they put a lot of uh waste into landfill uh and get tax credits for having quite big grant funds. Ah, really? Yeah, and and and those that that's a good source of a uh for a big project. So if you're talking a£50,000 or£100,000 project, if you're in a location that can access that type of funding, then that's a really good funder to go for. And there's lots of different people who roll that out. So some of the bigger national companies that do it would be Suez and Veolia, where you'll see the vans, the waste management vans, and and uh they might have as a total pot for the year three, four million. So they can be sizeable, yeah, fairly sizable funders. Um some people might not be applicable for them just because of your location. You need to be in some instances within 10 miles of a site or five miles of a site. Um, but uh positive news story: there's less going in Lamfill at the moment, and yet there's more solar and wind farm uh wind farms cropping up, which also have their own grant funds as well. So it's again, this is this is still tricky because you still kind of need to go and search for these sorts of things and put your location in and try and find out what you're applicable for. But I guess it gives anybody who's listening to the podcast at least some searchable terms where you can say definitely, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Lamfill sites or Lanfill funding around around me, really. Um, and I won't listen, we won't get too nitty-gritty onto this, but there's the community foundation, which all have regional sites so that that will uh manage maybe 10 to 20 grant funds um as well that it might be some funds there that are applicable to what you're trying to achieve, charitable trusts, things like Asda and Morrisons are more national uh funders when it comes to charitable trusts. So if you are a registered charity, you can apply to them. And these are all sort of programmes that are 10 grand, 15 grand, yeah, yeah, decent, decent pots, uh government funding. Uh, there's there's the shared prosperity scheme that's run over the last couple of years that's all uh government funding but in regional, uh regionally rolled out um that's replaced the EU funding uh since Brexit. So it's I guess from our point of view that we're in a good place whereby we we know these funders. So usually if we were to work with an organization, we would have a have a Zoom with with somebody and kind of have done a search for them and said, well, these are the things you're applicable for. But if someone's doing this themselves, those are the key things to to see, yeah, what what what's uh what's available in the area.
Marc Smith:That's amazing. I would have no idea that there was like just companies that everyone would have heard of. Like I maybe I was searching too niche uh online, but I would never have thought to Google, you know, to search for uh just like waste management or or even Morrison's. I I do know that um there was a podcast, uh it was uh one of the early ones that I did, they got funding from Tonix, the tea cake maker. Uh so it's amazing. I suppose if you don't ask, you don't get it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. Um and and yeah, there's there's so many, like say, charity arms to bigger companies that that will surprise people. Um sometimes it can be very, very competitive, sometimes you could put anything in as an application and get the funding because the the least you know the less well heard of the fund is, then obviously the less competitive it is as well.
Marc Smith:So how how would a whole so what's the first uh thing a whole should do? Say they need something done and they're wanting to get funding, what is the first thing they should do? So let's let's say, for example, it that they they're not going to use yourselves for this, they want to just try and get funding themselves. What would be their what would you advise them to do? What's the first protocol for them?
SPEAKER_00:So the first thing is try and engage, try and engage the community in the process as as best you can. I think when we have conversations with Halls and we say how you you know kind of come up with the idea of the project, it's usually well we've we've had a committee meeting amongst the trustees and said we need to do X, which is fine and the real situation. From a from an application point of view, a funder's always going to want to see how the community's been involved in in firstly kind of saying why they need the project, and then potentially even the design and the delivery of the project. And how that might look is uh you've potentially issued a survey showing that people really need this particular project, uh, maybe even comments in there highlighting why they need it, um, letters of support from key community groups that might be impacted by the project. But that these sorts of things give you the next tier of um I guess proof and evidence that that it's it's a it's a must-have for the community rather than a like to have. I think you can put an application together and kind of say, you know, we've got a we've got a broken floor, we need to address it. Um but actually proving as to why is is really really important.
Marc Smith:Ah, right, right. Just uh in your experience, uh when village halls get in touch with you, at what stage have they normally thought, oh no, this is it's too much for us? Like where do you normally do you normally pick them up at the right at the very start? They just say, right, like we need help from this from the beginning, or do they sometimes come to you after they realize it's maybe just a bit a bit too difficult? Uh which I totally understand.
SPEAKER_00:Um Yeah, yeah, so so probably a bit of a mix. I think we so we we we will have calls with with organizations and they may even say, you know what, we're gonna have a go at this ourselves. Um they might not have been successful, and then they come back to us in six months' time and say, you know what, we'd like your support. Um sometimes it can be uh volunteer change at the hall, and it might be a perception that that grant funding something that is just the hall's never really done, um, and yet there's not the time uh or expertise to to kind of do it in-house, yeah. Um so it can be very, very varied. I think I think time is a huge factor, you know. Everybody's struggles for time, and and even though a lot of halls might have retired individuals, for argument's sake, involved and maybe have some free time to put this stuff together, it's also the inclination, you know, it's not the most exciting and sexiest thing to get involved in. And often it tends to be the thing that gets pushed back as well because at a weekend there's always something going on, there's always maybe an event to sort out or whatever it would be, and then maybe grant you know, applying for a grant or a project, it's well, we'll do that next month or next year or whatever. So it tends to be the thing that gets pushed back, and then probably ultimately people go, Well, let's just get somebody in to help support us do this.
Marc Smith:Now I'm gonna move on to a topic here uh that I think is important. Uh when writing a grant application, is it advisable to use AI or is it better to go down the approach of more more personal because I always think it's a community thing, so like people want to know the story. Yeah. What what what do you think about that? That's a new topic now. This AI, you know, the chat GPT generation now is well underway.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely, and and it's a it's it's a language model, first and foremost, chat GPT. Um so it actually um produces very, very good uh grammar, sort of it it it can it can be of utility, but I would almost say what chat GPT produces, which is a general answer to questions, is the opposite of really what you should be trying to achieve with your application, which is it has to be personal, um, it has to tell stories, yeah. Um and really the there's gonna be somebody else assessing this application, uh, and they're gonna be reading 20-30 applications uh at a time, and and it has to your application has to stand out, has to jump off the page. And the only way that can really happen is by to telling those personal stories of either the types of people who use the hall, um how the history of the hall, the the challenges within the area that there might be, all these different things is what will get the applications jump off the page. And and and chat GPT is just not gonna know those know those things. You can definitely use it from an editing point of view, of once you've got those stories down on a paper on paper and sort of built this this really strong case of maybe some final editing. Um, but I'd be very, very reluctant to kind of use it fairly heavy-handed to put an application together because I do feel like having worked with some halls who've maybe had a go at this previously and kind of sent us their applications, that that might be something that's that's becoming more and more common, which probably means then from an assessor's point of view, they're just seeing the same types of bids over and over again.
Marc Smith:Yeah, yeah. It's it's a shame because I when I use Claude and Chat GPD quite a lot, um for coding. But as soon as you read something from AI, you know it's you know it's AI. Video's getting harder at a spot. I must admit, videos getting harder at a spot. But the when you read the text, you think, oh, I know that's not a person. It's just there's something lacking. So yeah, having that I think that personal approach to your application, uh if I was to read yeah, 30 applications and I knew they were all AI, I'd be like, well, I picked the one that I thought was the least AI. You know, that's even though it's could it could be all be a an amazing uh reason for having them the funding approved, it's still not it's not that personal, personal approach.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just being even willing to be a bit uh kooky and a bit out of the box with the things that you can, and and sometimes people might be averse to that of you know telling a funny story or that might link to the project or even coming up with a project title name that's a little bit out of the box again. It just gives it this uniqueness that's maybe going to sit in the assessor's head a little bit more and sell that project to them a little bit more.
Marc Smith:Yeah. So if if a hall is going for funding, what's the first step for them? Would you say I would in my head I'd be like, oh, let's check the criteria or maybe a location that so you're not spending all this time writing an application that's you know, they've you know, they maybe they're given their what you have to do, but all of a sudden you realize there's uh there's an issue with the criteria, or it or is there something before that that you should be checking before you start even starting your application?
SPEAKER_00:The first thing that I would do is check the funders' aims, um, because the assessor will have a checklist in front of them uh making sure first and foremost what it is that you're trying to do or the hall in general meets their funding aims, and and you can be explicit within your application to say you know, a lot of people probably won't read those aims, and and really the the key would be chucking those aims back at the funder to say, you know, you're trying to achieve this, and this is what how we're meeting it within this project. So reading the guidance is really important, understanding um, you know, as an entity, the way that you set up, are you applicable? Um, if you're ever not sure about that, don't be fearful of just contacting the funder um and saying, you know, we are this entity, we are a village hall, and and can we apply? Um, because they tend to be pretty good at coming back to you and giving you some answers. Um, so so yeah, that that's important. Checking the guidance. Obviously, that's very boring of sitting down and reading a 10-page document, but drawing out their funding aims and making sure that you're applicable is is is really important as a starting block. Um, and then I guess the preparation of your project and your evidence. Um, different funders will ask for different things, but before you probably put pen to paper, you should you should really have a quote, a design for the project, um, ideally a few quotes to show value for money.
Marc Smith:Ah, right, right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and then and then guess the things that we've just discussed are the evidence of the need of the project, of how the communities come up with the idea and how the communities support. project um and really if you can establish that that evidence prior to writing the application then it starts you in a in a very strong point.
Marc Smith:Excellent. That's really good. So how do how from your perspective, how does your sorry from the the the village hall's perspective, so how do you how does your no win no fee approach work for them? Because obviously you hear you hear that and you think well you think well is it too good to be true you know but because you because you're you know you've explained who you are it's it's it does help. But what what can village halls expect if they contact you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah I mean the the connotation of no win no fee isn't great and we always say this on a call I mean success basis is probably a better way to turn it you know what yeah that's but yeah that's better um yeah but no win no fees yes it uh does what it says on the tin. Um yeah so so we are like say this isn't a sales pitch it is a genuine we are an open book we are happy to give free advice we've got a couple of presentations this week that we're just doing for free for uh two acro groups Cambridge uh village halls and Lancashire Village Halls where it's similar to this kind of presentations on putting high quality applications together and we're happy to be at the end of emails for just just questions um if you're doing it yourselves how how our process works if somebody wants to explore working with us we'll tend to get on a a a video call maybe just a phone call for half an hour talk about the projects that Haw may have um maybe outline some of the funding streams that they they could apply for uh and then how and then how we how we work what our fees and charges are um and and really from that point the the no win no fee or success basis charges is just that we if we are asked to kind of take things forward um we prepare the bid the bid goes in um and the and the whole will get the the funding and if they do and they go ahead with the project and everything gets um finalized and there's a consultancy fee at the end of it until that point there is no charge for our services and and the web the reason we have structured that is a we are very very not salesy businessy people we are we are genuinely people who volunteer within our community entities and we understand that um if people want grant funded support paying up front for it with no chance with no notion or understanding of whether it's going to be successful or not is mostly a non-starter and it does require being salesy and we don't want to be that we want to be uh a genuine support mechanism albeit we are a business and and you know if people do want to work with us and we're successful then you know we we obviously uh have a business at the end of that that's really good it's very uh admirable that you're doing that in all honesty uh because I mean I found a lot of companies that kind of help but it's they're all they are they're salesy they are salesy so it's nice that you're actually you care enough um to to to help uh who needs help so what's your uh success rate like you don't have to give an exact like percentage but what's do you normally see quite I take it you've honed your craft over the last five years to you know you know what works and know what doesn't work obviously things will never go according to plan 100% but uh do I take it you've got quite a good success rate with your with well with any application let's just not say village halls but any application that you put through yeah like you say I mean success rates will be very uh funder specific yeah if that makes sense so uh because landfill funding you know you're applying for a 50,000 or 100,000 pound grant naturally you you'll tend to have a lower success rate than than than some of the the other applications and one thing we always state is we are definitely not successful all the time. I guess the beauty of of what we do is because I mean we put nearly 10 million pounds worth of grant funding applications in last year across about 500 applications. So naturally we we we get rejections but we see the feedback so like you say you can hone the craft um and gradually nudge the success rates up but you know broadly I guess in terms of broad success rates it might be 60% of the time which probably doesn't sound so it's really good actually and this is the other thing of where our support I suppose sometimes can come in because people maybe think I've put the time into putting an application in and then you get really confident that it's going to come in you know I've put a really strong case and you know even something like the lottery I would say it might be a one in two that application comes in but if you've spent the time putting it in and then you don't get it it's obviously pretty disappointing really as as somebody doing it I guess as a volunteer um so we kind of as a company take that risk away uh and time pressure away um of course if we're not successful we ultimately don't have a business so it's it's massively within within our interest to get that project over the line um but success rates is the important thing to because I know that there's maybe some some people out there will say you know we're we're 90% successful I mean if somebody's 90% successful they're doing an amazing job. But yeah that that uh that's important to note because what you can actually do to a lot of the funders is just is is is go back to them with the same project. So if you get turned down it doesn't mean that you you're completely turned down for a project. And I'd say that we turn around a lot of things that way whereby you initially get turned down but you take the feedback and you address the feedback and then you reapply reapply and and you're successful second time round. So although you may not be successful first time round ultimately the we'd like to think we could get a project funded that's really good advice there. That's basically the part I always think that you learn from the mistakes like you can't learn you know you can learn from success but you you mostly learn from mistakes like how to do it better the next time what are some of the I even just one uh tip that you've had back from funders what's if you could see say one what would you what would you say is the best tip you've been given well again I mean I'm gonna I'm sort of flogging a dead horse here but the community uh consultation uh involving the community within the process seems to be the way that the majority of funders go in of have using it's interesting yeah yeah how now it is a challenge because all the trustees will be part of the community and sometimes it can be a little bit frustrating because maybe some of the trustees are even some of the organisers of the community groups and the users who who so it's fair to say on the committee or amongst the trustees there's a good representation of what the community needs anyway but a lot of funders like to see some evidence that either the the village has been consulted more broadly or at least the current users of the hall have been consulted more broadly as well and it seems to be that is is a really uh key thing of what funders want to see at the moment and then naturally meeting the funders' aims um being explicit of of how you do that um is yeah I'd say the the absolute two key of the feedback that you get from most funders now. I would never have thought that would have been I knew it would matter but I didn't know it would matter as much as that so how how how would the committee go about doing that would it be like um uh like an e like an email going out like with a questionnaire would it be uh meetings and people taking notes and writing up what's the best way because I know that's something that you know they could they could quite easily do is to get the the community's feedback um before they even start yeah there's there's multiple options I would say typically especially with the bigger bids we would support the whole um putting some sort of online survey together um so again not necessarily something the whole would have to do themselves but an online survey where you can send a link out to to anybody in the village and they can give their opinion on either the facilities from a broad point of view the project in particular add comments so so that then gives you that broad overarching feedback on the project in terms of maybe the the village as a whole um letters of support from key users so you know if you've got community groups using the whole let's say there's an amateur dramatics group using the hall and you want to refurbish the stage a letter of support from that group saying we support this and and these are the reasons as to why meeting minutes from steering groups so let's say that you know it's a reroof project and you say right we're going to create a steering group and ask these five people to come in and be part of it having some meeting minutes outlining how the project's uh developed over time. It may be even meeting minutes from trustee and and uh uh committee meetings it's useful just to see the development of the project um one thing actually that I've not mentioned and and I'd probably say is a key tip is use your social media I mean Facebook for most people I think but use that to sell because funders will look at your Facebook page and think do they really snip do they? Yeah yeah they'll look are these community actually using actually using um the hall like it's being said but also you can build a story around the project on your Facebook page say it's a leaking roof for argument's sake um you can outline the problems and and would you support us changing it and then maybe you post your link to your survey on there and potentially people comment about on on the Facebook page of of why it's important that the project goes ahead um and selling your wares really because you can't underplay how important village halls are to those rural communities and selling those the stories on your Facebook page again just gives another layer of evidence um that that the impact that the hall has in the area and the project may have as well yeah that's amazing I did I didn't think they would they would do that but it's supposed it makes sense I nowadays employers are now looking uh at uh Facebook pages and whatnot so yeah it only makes sense that yeah you want to know it's genuine so there's another good uh and a good good tip there um that's that's that's really quite amazing uh so yeah what when when so when you take over say a hall comes to you and they're like let's let's go ahead what's the bid process like once they've they've got you on board? Yeah so so again probably depending on what the project is and who the funder is that we're applying to um but but the first thing is obviously a conversation um with the hall about all these things you know who does use the hall we we tend to try and at a distance research the area or the village uh more broadly so that we can go into that chat and say it looks like either you've got an elderly community you've got some level of rural deprivation you know does the hall address any of those things with the community group activities so really from our point of view it's it's information gathering and understanding that we can transfer the knowledge of the trustees into the application in itself then if there is um you know any any need to set up an online survey for the whole uh write you know helping them sort of understand what a good letter of support might look like and what we're keen to do is the whole's commitment to the process is mostly conversations not really having to sit down at a computer too much and do much work that's that's kind of what we want to take away from the hall. And and yeah so so so then once we've built that information base up and you know start to put the application together uh send a draft over re-edit the draft based on any further comments and and um yeah comments from the hall because although we want to take this the stress away the time pressure away from the whole we want it it has to be a collaboration it has to be something at the end of the process that that we're all really really happy with and and we feel like there's you know got as much chance of success as possible um so so there is that collaboration albeit we try and take that time pressure uh away as much as possible um and then obviously it's a case of waiting for the funding decision uh and then hopefully you know it's it's a successful project the hall will then go and implement the project and uh the last little bits would be uh post-award processes which typically the whole leads off on but most funders will just want you to take some pictures of of the project being completed send some invoices in and that sort of thing um and yeah that's pretty much start to finish how how it looks ah so there's so there's accountability in there so once you are awarded the funding for whatever reason yeah do you have to send is it just at the end when it's been done or do you have to send like updates throughout so say you're putting a new roof on the hall do you have to send updates when the the structure's been done then the the felt's been put down and whatnot or again every fund are very very different. Especially so if it was a big project a hundred grand project for argument's sake uh and you'd got landfill funding for it it's almost a like um release of funds like you were building a your own house and we'll give you 25% to put the deposit down then we'll give you another 25% when you've got to this stage and then we'll give you 50% at the end of the process and most contractors will work on that basis and be happy to pay be paid on that basis as well um so so that would probably be the more in-depth uh way of getting the funding out and at the end of the process the maybe after six months the the funder might come back and say uh you said you were going to have you know these two community groups using the building at the end of the project you know has that happened and it may just be responding to an email of saying yeah these two groups are using us and we've got 60 new users now we've got the project completed but every funder will some funders believe it or not will just drop the money in your account and you'll never hear from them again because they they are simply you know they just want good news stories and that's what we grant funding for uh from a marketing point of view others are really really in-depth and and maybe will want some more reporting and that usually comes from council and government uh funds of the one that they'll have metrics so it might be an environmental fund they'll say we want you to save X amount of carbon and we might report on well our energy usage via our bills has dropped by 15,000 kilowatts an hour and saved X amount of carbon uh that sort of thing but it's not overly in depth in terms of how much you need to do yeah what's the most successful category I I in my head I would say sustainability is something that obviously a lot of people want to put money into a bit like village halls wise but is that one of the biggest grant funds that are available or is there is there something else? So I mean sustainability is obviously a very very broad concept because there's financial sustainability environmental sustainability and then just sustainability of you know putting a new roof on although it may not impact financial or environmental sustainability it's the sustainability of the facilities I think if you naturally the the world's moved into this sort of net zero reducing carbon emissions uh you know way of working and what I would say is if you can link even if a project has got nothing to do with environmental sustainability linking elements of environmental sustainability into a project is useful. So say that you're doing a toilet refurb can you talk about push button taps rather than turn taps that can be left on and reducing water waste for either so although I wouldn't say there's any particular category that's got more chances of success building in elements of environmental sustainability into any project will will tend to give it much more of a chance um the the solar panel and heat pump and energy efficiency support there was lots of grant funds a couple of years ago that they're becoming less um for for no other reason than I think the country's actually made really good strides in that area. Oh yeah that's good to hear yeah yeah and that's what you don't tend to hear many good news stories do you but you've got boots on the ground you kind of do see that that a lot of this stuff is going on um and and maybe yeah that that that there's not that there isn't any support for that anymore but but maybe less albeit the lottery have committed in the last year to put 10% of their money into purely environmental projects so so that there's still money floating around for those projects but really just anything that if you can evidence a real need for a project whatever that would be we've got 100 people waiting to use the hall but we can't get them in until we do X is really the types of projects that are going to have a high chance of grant funding success.
Marc Smith:Excellent that's really really interesting really interesting yeah I just think there's been a a wealth of information there.
SPEAKER_00:Well yeah there's there's there's so much to go at I mean we we um we do an in-house training session between us every week so you can imagine we could probably fill 20 hours worth of content of where the funds are and how you search for them and what websites and how you write a bid but um yeah yeah hopefully you know from a people who are listening point of view you know if if there are any questions feel free to to get in contact we're not going to be sat at the end of of anything thinking there want these guys are 100% going to come and work with us but great if they they would we're also really really keen to get out to places you know we do do a lot remotely but we are keen sort of yeah from this point forward of you know we are in Lancashire but if somebody in you know there's a group of halls in Aberdeen that want us to go out and and see them and we can get four or five visits in a day then we're more than happy to do that and go out and actually have some face-to-face time with people and see if we can support them that way so of course you know if if any of that sounds good to anybody then then feel free to contact I mean the contact just uh chris at tjbcommunity dot com is is my email address and probably best point well what I'll do is uh I'll put all your details at the bottom of the podcast page yeah uh so people can get in touch with you uh as well if if they want to even just for for advice as well uh but it's nice that you actually do it you it's of it that's what can I when you emailed me uh originally the the the your company does it seems like the company you'd want to work with that's you know you get that's it's it's small enough that it's you care enough that's you know that type of feeling yeah so well and and and I'm uh that's that's really positive that that that you've said that because again in the world of of a lot of sales that I feel like that is genuine you know we we if we if anybody wanted testimonials from people that that we've worked with previously I'm I'm sure that there'd be plenty of people that that would would back that up or would definitely like to think the case that was the case anyway.
Marc Smith:Excellent well that's perfect. Well I think that's um everything well I've still got a mountain of stuff to ask in my head but that's for an another day. I'm sure uh we'll get Some feedback on the podcast uh as well. So we might get some more questions in in the future and welcome you back on if if you would be um if you would come back on. I think this is definitely the number one topic of um that everyone has questions about. Uh I've I've asked all mine just now, but if it is in the future, I'm sure we can we can do something else as well. So uh thank you very much uh for your time today. It's it's massively appreciated, uh especially on this topic. It's as I've learned so much just in the and I've and I've been Googling this for a while, and I just didn't uh some of the things I didn't know at all. So uh thank you very much for your time.
SPEAKER_00:No, thanks very much for inviting us on as well.
Marc Smith:Many thanks to our headline sponsor and specialist village hall insurance provider, Allied Westminster, the home of VillageGuard, for making this podcast possible, and to online booking system provider Hallmaster, who also sponsor our podcast and can be found at hallmaster.co.uk. You've been listening to the Village Halls Podcast, a unique listening community for Britain's village, community, and church halls, and anyone interested in the vital community services they provide. We'll be back again soon with another episode. For more information, please visit the Village Hallspodcast.com where you'll also find links to our social media pages. Thanks again for listening in, and until the next time, goodbye for now.
