Do IT Foundation has resumed its work of transforming the funding landscape for small and micro voluntary organisations.
Having had to halt its grant making during the pandemic, the Foundation was able to resume some of its work in the early part of 2021, working with the Do IT Life social enterprise to develop a new digital grant delivery system.
Called Fund, the system has since been piloted by Do IT Life with a number of partners including UK Youth and in the summer of this year the Foundation was finally able to test the system out for itself. Working with a national charity and corporate donor, the Foundation has given out over £200k of small grants to hundreds of micro voluntary groups across the UK.
By enabling pre-selected groups to register through a simple digital interface - accessible via a mobile, tablet or laptop - all parties had the facility to take part in the assessment process using a simple digital scoring system, where assessors could swap notes with each other and ask questions and seek further information from grant applicants.
Once funding decisions were agreed the Foundation was able to push out grant payments quickly using a mix of Faster Payments and pre-loaded Debit Cards for those groups that did not have a bank account.
Commenting on the system, Do IT Foundation's Jamie Ward-Smith,
"I said last year that Do IT Life's Fund system would be a game changer for small groups to access funding. This experience goes a long way to supporting that, enabling us to get micro grants out to over 200 local groups in just a matter of weeks. It's also provided a highly impactful way for donors to diversify the way they fund community programmes, helping them to connect with the many small groups that all too miss out on main stream funding."
Do IT Foundation aims to work with more donors that share its vision of supporting grass root community projects - for more information on how to get involved click here.
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