Micro Fund: Business
Application Form and Guidance
The closing date for this application round is
5pm on Monday 14th August 2017
We’ll let you know our decision by 25th September 2017
Clicking on the text in blue takes you straight to the documents on our website
If you are applying as a voluntary / community organisation, this isn’t the Form for you – you’ll need our
‘Micro Fund: Community’ Form.
Please read through the form and guidance notes before you start writing.
Who can apply?
You are eligible to apply for a Micro Fund: Business grant if you have an idea for a new business and just need a small
grant to get it started or to gain essential skills to get it started, or if your business has 9 employees or fewer and you
have plans to expand and develop.
How much can I apply for?
Micro Fund: Business grants normally range from £300 - £1,000, though can be for the maximum £5,000 if the proposal
is strong and is likely to lead to future employment opportunities. The Micro Fund cannot support ongoing costs and
you shouldn’t expect to apply every year for the same activity. You should be able to demonstrate that you are working
towards making your business sustainable.
What kinds of things does the Fund support?
Micro Fund: Business grants can support, for example, the purchase of essential equipment, infrastructure which will
enable business growth, essential skills training for business growth, start-up costs. It’s best if you talk to us about your
proposal before you start on your application.
Please write simply and clearly and avoid jargon and abbreviations – we might not know what they stand for! Make
sure that you show how your proposed business activity links clearly with at least one of the Fund’s nine themes.
Submitting your application (you are welcome to apply in the language of your choice)
It’s always useful to ask someone outside your organisation to check over your application before you send it off. We
prefer to receive applications by email, but it’s also fine to post paper copies – remember to keep a copy for yourself.
By email: [email protected]
Please put the names of your project and organisation in the subject field of your email. We’ll send you confirmation
that we’ve received it.
By post: Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm Community Fund CIC, 4 Gadlys Enterprise Centre (Venture Wales Buildings), Depot
Road, Aberdare CF44 8DL
Please read the Guidance and answer all the questions – we’ll have to come back to you if you
don’t, and it’ll take us longer to make a decision.
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Application Reference:
(internal use only)
M F
B
1. BUSINESS / ENTERPRISE AND CONTACT DETAILS
All the questions in section 1 help us to understand your business or enterprise - what your overall aims and priorities are,
how you’re set up and so on. If your business is new, tell us as much as you can about how you plan to address each
issue.
1.1
Business Name:
Business Registered Address: (including
postcode):
Contact Telephone Number:
Email Address:
Website: (if you have one)
Who will be our main contact? To help protect the Fund from fraud, if your application is successful, we will use an independent
agency to carry out basic identity checks as part of our risk assessment procedure. These are not credit checks.
Name:
Email Address:
Landline Number:
Mobile Number:
Date of Birth:
Main contact’s personal address:
(if you have lived here fewer than 3 years
please provide previous address)
Role/Position in the Business:
2.
ABOUT THE BUSINESS / ENTERPRISE
2.1
What does your business do – what are its main aims and activities?
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2.2
How do, or how will, people find out about your business? How do you publicise your activities? Explain what you do to
make sure that people from all backgrounds know about your business and how to benefit from it. Anyone who wants
to access your services should be welcome to do so, unless there are clear reasons why this isn’t possible. If there are
any restrictions, you should explain why.
2.3
When was your business/enterprise
established?
2.4
What type of business are you?
☐
Co-operative
Number:
☐
Limited Company
Number:
☐
Partnership
Number:
☐
Sole Trader
2.5
How many of the following are involved in the organisation?
We’re asking this to give us an idea of the size of your business, who is involved and how they are involved.
Full Time Paid Staff (including yourself)
2.6
3
3.1
3.2
Part Time Paid Staff (including yourself)
Does your business have the following? (please tick and explain)
Public Liability Insurance?
☐
Other Insurances? (if so what are they)
☐
MANAGING YOUR MONEY
Yes ☐
Are you VAT registered?
If you can reclaim VAT from HMRC, you
should exclude it from your grant
application
No ☐
Give us the main details of your business’ income and expenditure over the last year?
Total Income last accounting year
£
Total Expenditure last accounting year
£
Net Surplus / Deficit
£
Current Unrestricted Reserves
£
Why can these unrestricted reserves not be
used for this project?
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4
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT OR ACTIVITY
4.1
What’s the name of your proposed business activity or project?
Give it a short and snappy title!
4.2
Which Micro Fund themes best match your activity aims? See the Prospectus and application guidance notes for more
information about what each theme includes:
Local Jobs
and the
Economy
Transport and Health and
Connections Wellbeing
Safety
Community
and
Spaces
Housing
Environment Tourism Culture
4.3
Tell us about your project. Be as specific as possible and stick to the word limits shown.
A
What are you applying for funds to do? What will it involve?
Up to 300 words
B
How do you know it’s needed?
Up to 200 words
C
How do you know there are no other businesses out there doing the same thing?
Up to 100 words
D
How will your business benefit? Up to 200 words
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Schools
and
Training
E
Approximately how many people will benefit?
F
Where do the people who will benefit live – what’s the name of the main community / town / area?
It is possible for applicants to be based outside the area of benefit, but you’ll need to explain clearly how the activity or project
proposed directly benefits communities in the upper reaches of the Neath, Afan, Rhondda and Cynon Valleys. Include details of
where your customers live and where the people who will benefit live.
G
Have you received development guidance
and support from another business or
organisation?
If so please explain
If you are working with partners, please include brief letters of support and confirmation from them with your application.
H
Will any permissions or regulatory approval
be needed for you to carry out your activity,
or will you need relevant qualifications to
proceed? YES
NO
If Yes, tell us what these are and if they are
already in place
4.4
When is the expected start and end date of the project?
The start date should be at least two months after the date you submit your application to give us time to assess it and
make a decision.
Unless there are exceptional circumstances, you should aim to spend your grant within 12 months of receiving our offer
letter.
Start Date
4.5
End Date
What will have been achieved when your activity or project is completed? What difference will it have made to your
business and your customers? Up to 300 words
This is an important question – we’ll look carefully at your response when assessing your application. Tell us, for
example, if people will have developed new skills or social networks, if there will be better access to the outdoors,
improved social interaction, or health and wellbeing, better collaboration between local organisations etc.
At the end of your activity, we’ll ask you to let us know how it all went - what was achieved, what you learned and what
you might do differently next time.
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4.6
Details of Grant Requested
Item or Activity
Total Cost
Amount Requested from Pen y Cymoedd Community Fund
Total £
If you are not requesting 100% funding and are contributing your own funds or applying for funding from other sources,
please complete the table below:
Amount £
Source
Date you Expect to Know Result
5 Referee
5.1
Please give us the name and contact details of someone outside and independent of your organisation who knows about
your proposed activity and who would be willing to talk to us about it. Make sure you share your application with them and
have their permission to include their name here.
Name:
Organisation / Position:
Telephone Number:
Email Address:
Address:
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5.2
Confirmation and Sign-off
By signing this application, I am confirming that:
 I’m authorised to make the application – the Management Committee /Board has discussed and agreed it
 The Objects in our governing document enable us to undertake the project we’re proposing
 The information I’ve given is correct to the best of my knowledge
 I’ve read the Micro Fund Guidance
 I agree that we can use the information you give us
for identity verification, fraud prevention and detection purposes
Name:
Signature:
Date:
5.3
How did you hear about the Micro Fund?
5.4
Please help us to improve how we manage the Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm Community Fund!
We welcome and act on feedback and would appreciate the opportunity to ask what you think of the application process
and service you've received.
Tick if you DO NOT wish to be contacted. ☐
5.5
Data Protection Statement
We will keep and use the information you give us during assessment and during the life of your grant (if awarded) to administer
and analyse grants and for our own research purposes. We may give copies of all or some of this information to individuals and
organisations we consult when assessing applications, administering the programme, monitoring grants and evaluating funding
processes and impacts. These organisations may include accountants, external evaluators and other organisations or groups
involved in delivering the project.
We have a duty to safeguard the Community Fund, and so we may also share information with organisations providing match
funding or for the prevention and detection of crime. We might use personal information you provide to conduct appropriate
identity and verification checks. Personal information that you provide may be disclosed to a fraud prevention agency, which
may keep a record of that information. If you provide false or inaccurate information in your application or at any point in the
life of any funding we award to you and fraud is identified, we will provide details to fraud prevention agencies, to prevent fraud
and money laundering. We recognise the need to maintain the confidentiality of vulnerable groups and their details will not be
made public in any way, except as required by law.
Guidance Notes
2.3
If you haven’t yet set up your business, the HM Revenue and Customs website has useful guidance on setting
up – you can find out more here. When did you start trading? It’s fine to be new – just tell us when you
expect to be trading
2.5
We’re asking this to give us an idea of the size of your business. To be eligible for a Micro Business grant, you
should have fewer than 5 full-time employees (or their part-time equivalents).
2.6
It’s essential that you have appropriate insurance cover in place and appropriate safeguarding policies and
procedures in place if applicable. We may ask to see these.
If you need advice, the Business Wales website is a good starting point.
4.2
If you think only one or two themes apply that’s fine, but think carefully about your proposal – it might have
wider benefits that you haven’t spotted.
5.1
We may ask for these to help us in the application assessment process. An external, independent perspective
can help us to understand more about what’s planned and how it will benefit local people. Referees could
include, for example, Local Authority, Town or Community Councillors, local teachers. Please make sure that
your referee has seen your application before you submit it, and that you have permission to give us their
names.
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