Funding Report Back

Over the last month or two we have applied for, and been awarded, funds from a variety of private trusts. These funds are for specific purposes per the funding agreement with the benefactor. This document aims to give full visibility and transparency about how we got the money, what we plan to do with it, who gets paid for the work they do for TTT and how much.... and also about how we aim to move from external funding to revenue generation.

How do we decide what needs funding?

We asked for current and planned project ideas from all the TTT groups, and a sub-group of the core group evaluated this list against 10 criteria. These criteria reflect TTT's desired outcomes such as:

• Increased community involvement
• Reduced CO2 emissions
• Increased community self reliance
• Increased community resilience
• Provide cost savings
• Improved personal wellbeing
• Replicable through the Transition Network
• Creating or strengthening local partnerships
• Raise visibility / awareness of TTT
• Informing the Energy Descent Pathways project
• 
Each project was scored against the criteria from 0-3 and this then helped identify the projects that are most 'strategic' in helping us meet our aims. This somewhat scientific process was sense-checked to see if the ranking felt right and appropriate, and then adjusted as required.

These projects were then assessed for funding needs - of course, some can and do carry on very succesfully with no external funding needed. Other projects not making the top of the list are also extremely valuable to TTT overall  - this process is used only to highlight those that we want to focus on initially for external funding support. For each of the 16 or so strategic projects, we created a detailed project summary document that then formed the basis for any funding applications. Very early on in TTT we did some work to identify what central/back office roles are most important to support the TTT groups and projects (e.g. administrator, project support etc.) and these roles were also added to the list of things that need funding.
We then came up with a short list of potential funders and put in a number of applications, most of which have been succesful, even if we did not always get the full amount we bid for.

How much money did we get, and what are we planning on spending it on?

We received £20,000 from the Ashden Trust for core costs - from April 08 for 12 months - this pays for our administrator (full time job share by Lou and Noni), half a day a week for Sophy's operational management time, the rest goes to rent, utilities and the accountant.

We received £39,000 from Esmee Fairbairn for the Energy Descent Pathways project - from May 08 for 12 months - this pays for Rob as the EDP project leader for 2 days per week, and Jacqi as the EDP project co-ordinator full-time. We also receievd £5,000 from Artists' Project Earth (APE) for EDP project costs - this will be spent on recruitment costs for the co-ordinator post (now filled by Jacqi) but mainly on events, materials, publicity as well as producing and sharing the final Energy Descent Action Plan.

We received £10,000 from Polden-Puckham for Project Support for all TTT projects - both current and those arising from the Energy Descent Pathways project - from May 08 for 12 months - this will pay for Fiona as TTT project enabler/co-ordinator for about 1 day per week, with the remainder to be spent on project -support related training providers (ideally from within the TTT / Totnes community)  plus some materials, with a small contribution to core costs. Paid work will be offered through the TTT bulletin and the website once the needs have been further defined - interested parties will be asked to apply at that time.

We received £12,500 from Calouste-Gulbenkian towards the Transition Teams project - from May 08 for 12 months - this will pay for Sophy as project leader for about half a day per week, with the remainder to be spent on a variety of resources including training providers (ideally from within the TTT / Totnes community), venues, reference materials, some research and some materials, with a small contribution to core costs. Paid work will be offered through the TTT bulletin and the website once the needs have been further defined - interested parties will be asked to apply at that time.

We received £6,000 from The Funding Network for the Transition Tales project, currently in operation at KEVICCS, that is being led by Hannah.  Other small amounts and donations have been received.

It's great to have been awarded this much... however we are still going to be short on paying our core costs (rent, utilities, insurance, printing etc.) by about £5,000 per our forecast for this year. Core costs are notoriously hard to fund - funders generally prefer the sexy projects! So we are especially grateful to the Ashden Trust for their generous contribution. We also have a number of key projects that would greatly benefit from some funding support, e.g. the Totnes Pound, or that really do need some funding to get started such as the Community Garden. 

So we are continuing to work on funding applications and to build relationships with funders, in particular with government funded bodies that are more viable for long term support.

So how do we decide who gets paid for the work they do?

There are a lots of people putting in a lot of unpaid time in TTT groups and projects. We want to ensure that the 'funding allocation' process is fair and open. We (the core group) have been formulating a guideline, still in draft form, that recommends a recruitment process based on the level and duration of the funding available.  This should ensure an open process while ensuring that the amount of time, £ and effort going into recruitment is proportionate to the duration and 'value' of the role. We also aim to ensure that first refusals go to people already involved with TTT.

For example, if up to about £5,000 is available to pay someone on a fixed duration, part-time basis for a TTT role/project - then a proposal for a named person to do the work, usually based on who has been doing the job unpaid but competently until that point, can be made to the core group who can accept/decline the proposal.
If about £5,000-£15,000 is available then some paid management time will be allocated to someone from the core group to manage the work (if required) but the main role will be advertised throughout TTT on the website and using the monthly bulletin, asking for a CV and a cover letter - then a short-list of 3-5 candidates will be interviewed by the project manager plus 1-2 others from the relevant group/core team.

Anything above this amount and/or more than 3 days paid work per week will go to a full public recruitment process per the recent EDP co-ordinator role.

This is only a proposal and the core team are still finalising the details - which will be available on the website once it is finalised. This is roughly how we have allocated paid work so far. There are many other complexities too detailed to go into here - e.g. if someone goes and gets their own significant funding for a TTT project, can they then just do the job without going through any of this process?

How do we decide how much someone gets paid?

This depends on the role in question, the types of skills and experience required and what is typical of other local not-for-profit organisations. This is all under discussion, along with the recruitment guidelines outlined above. We think we will end up with 4-5 salary levels each with a salary range e.g. Administrator (£15-20k?), Project worker (£20-25k?), Project leader (£25-30k?) etc.  Currently all employment is on a self-employed fixed term contract, all but the EDP co-ordinator post are part-time. We allow for 5 weeks paid holiday plus bank holidays for a 37.5 hour working week. Once the salary levels have been discussed and agreed with the core group, the info will be made available here and any existing roles may be harmonised as required - once this process has been completed all salary details will be made available on request.

From funding to revenue

All this money is fantastic and but it is NOT our intent to rely on unsustainable levels of funding year on year. We also want to ensure that the TTT model can be replicated elsewhere, and most places will not have the same access to funds - we are certainly benefiting from being the first transition town to be approaching these funders. Also, we feel that the funding landscape will change - as the impacts of peak oil and climate change become more tangible then government support is likely to increase to groups that are showing real change in terms of carbon reduction, re-localisation, increased community cohesion and resilience.

It is essential that TTT can succeed with sustainable levels of financial support combined with our own means to generate income - maybe a 50:50 ratio? Therefore we are now starting to explore ways to generate our own revenue - possibly through training, services, consulting, products... probably a whole range of things. This is particulary exciting when we consider the business opportunities that exist in a re-localised economy. This work is only just starting, more updates will be available over the next few months.

If you require further information on any of these topics please contact us. If you want to have input to this kind of operational discussion and process, and you are part of a TTT group , then just let us know - you will be very welcome.

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Finally... we are extremely grateful to Sky Chapman who has paid for Fiona's time in doing all the funding research and applications (and until recently, Sky has been paying for the admin role and other core costs). His investment in the funding work has been multiplied over 30 times so far in real terms!