Beinneun Community Fund – criteria

1. What is the Beinneun Community Benefit Fund?

The Beinneun Community Benefit Fund is a fund that has been established to support community groups and charitable organisations that benefit the communities living in the community council areas of Fort Augustus & Glenmoriston and Glengarry. The Fund is provided by Beinneun Wind Farm Limited, the company which owns and operates the Beinneun wind farm development (the “Project”). The Fund will be available as long the operational life of the wind farm development which is currently expected to be up to 25 years.

2. How much annually will the Fund have to distribute?

An annual payment of circa £544,000, less administrative fees, will be made by the Project to the overall fund. The annual payment also supports a winter fuel payment to households within a specified range of the wind farm and a number of scholarship awards to local students. If the annual funding is not fully allocated within the calendar year, the surplus will be rolled-over to the next year. The fund will be open twice annually for applications. The fund website will be updated with the results of each funding round and specify the overall budget remaining after each funding round.

3. What is the purpose of the Fund?

The Fund will provide grants to community groups, social enterprises and charitable organisations to support their activities within the catchment area of the development. Ideally, the Fund will support projects and infrastructure which promote the economic, social and/or environmental sustainability of the catchment area. Most of all, the wind farm owners wish to ensure that successful applications are translated into real projects that make a material difference and deliver a lasting legacy to the host communities. To that end, one of the roles of the fund manager will be to evaluate the impact of its work so that it can make sure the funds deliver the best value against the objectives and also improve or modify the funding process/criteria when necessary.

4. Who can apply?

Groups and organisations working to benefit the people or the environment in the Beinneun Windfarm Development catchment area, the community council areas of Fort Augustus & Glenmoriston and Glengarry, can apply for a grant. The group must have a constitution (governing document, memorandum and articles, set of rules or similar, which must be supplied with an application). The organisation does not need to be a registered charity to apply. The applicant will have to show evidence of a bank statement in the organisations’ name and a set of accounts for the last financial year at the time of applying to the fund.

5. How much funding can be applied for?

The minimum award is £250. The maximum award figure is £100,000, however, in exceptional circumstances, this may be increased for larger project applications. The Fund will support up to 90% of the overall project costs (e.g. if your overall project cost is £10,000, the fund may support up to £9,000 of this by the grant). Applicants will have to evidence that the remaining percentage of match funding of the project costs has been secured.

The Fund Manager will be available to give advice regarding other external funding availability if the applicant is using monies, gained from the fund, towards the costs of a larger project. Grants from the Fund will pay for both revenue costs (time-bound) and capital items (with some exceptions…see what “the fund will not support section”). Only one funded application can be made per organisation/group per the calendar year. If unsuccessful within a calendar year then a new application can be made.

6. How do you apply?

All applicants will need to complete an application form which can be found on the fund website and provide the required supporting documentation.

A Community Fund Panel with representatives from both areas will meet two times per year to review all applications to this fund. Their recommendations will be ratified by the owners of the wind development along with funding amounts. There is no right to appeal a decision. Groups that receive funding will normally have up to 12 months to spend their grant. Funding will be released when evidence of spend is forthcoming (bills, paid invoice, wage slips, receipts etc) although dispensation may be given if the applicant organisation does not hold enough reserves to cover any initial outlays. The Fund Manager will work with the applicant to ensure a mutually convenient fund payment solution.

All applications must include asked for supporting documentation which may include; planning permissions (if required), match funding approvals, business plans, cash flows, organisation memo and arts/constitution, bank details, legacy planning. The Fund may share this information to individuals and organisations we consult when assessing applications when monitoring grants and evaluating our programmes. Such organisations and individuals may include the parish or local council, other grant providers, statutory bodies or governmental departments.

Each successful group or applicant will agree to a monitoring and evaluation process for their project. The Fund reserves the right to promote any successful awards through its media channels. For our statement on data protection please see our privacy policy.

7. What the Fund will not support

The Beinneun Community Fund will not support:

• Projects which do not primarily benefit people living within the specified development catchment area.
• Groups without a constitution and a bank account in the name of the organisation.
• The advancement of religious or political objectives.
• Overseas trips or the repayment of loans or payment of debts. Knowledge trips within the UK are allowable. The Fund encourages sustainable and eco-friendly travel at all times.
• Retrospective funding (i.e. paying for costs incurred before a decision on an application has been made, including loans or debts).
• Activities contrary to the commercial or reputational interests of the windfarm or other contributors to the Fund.
• Purchase of Vehicles. Dispensation maybe given for a community owned vehicle as part of an innovative or critical project for the area. Again, the Fund would be looking for a sustainable and environmentally sustainable transport solution.
• Groups or organisations who will then distribute received funds directly as grants or bursaries to third parties.
• Projects that are detrimental to the environment
• Anti-renewable energy/anti-wind development activities.
• The building or development of assets not wholly owned by the applicant organisation. This also applies to building developments or new constructions on land not owned by the applicant organisation (although some dispensation maybe allowed i.e. long term leases or leases matching the life of the project).
• Applications that include core revenue costs (wages, utilities, rents etc) will only be considered for a maximum of two years of funding although this can be reviewed in exceptional circumstances.

Apply

Please note: Any additional supporting documents which we might need to progress your application are detailed within the application form.