Who can apply?

Any organisation, from voluntary or community groups, to professional bodies and charities, as long as you have: 

• a written governing document / constitution

• a bank account

• at least two unrelated people on your governing body (the same person cannot be listed for more than one position on the form)

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We can’t accept applications from:

• individuals

• sole traders

• profit-making organisations (for example a company limited by shares)

• organisations based outside the UK

• one organisation applying for funding on behalf another

 

What we can’t fund?

• activities that are statutory or will replace statutory funding (eg activities on a school’s curriculum or within school lesson hours)

• any activity or expenditure that takes place earlier than five weeks after the application deadline.
  NB we cannot fund activity for which tickets are already on sale to the public

• any organisation which has received funding from the same strand (Create, Engage or Inspire) within the last 12 months

• any capital expenditure (eg instruments, recording equipment, uniforms)

• activities that are aimed predominantly at audiences outside Wales

• applications that are exclusively to fund travel costs

• applications to solely cover the costs of making a commercial recording 

• existing staff costs; we can pay for individuals to deliver short-term activities

• organisational overheads (for example utility bills, council tax, rent and insurance)

• fundraising activity

• recoverable VAT

 

Priorities for funding

The panel will look to fund projects that provide excellent opportunities for artists / participants / audiences. Alongside this, your activity should respond to the priorities below. We appreciate that not all projects will respond to all priorities, but in competitive funding rounds, projects working in more of the priority areas will be favoured:

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• Nurturing new music.

• Creating partnerships between artists and organisations.

• Helping to bring communities together.

• Inspiring young people.

• Working with and for individuals and communities that are under-represented or have been neglected and excluded.

• Supporting the development of the Welsh language.

• Strategic promotion of health and wellbeing (eg in partnership with a health organisation/body).

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As well as these priorities, the panel will look at the geographic spread and the type of organisations applying to make sure our funds are targeted as widely as possible. 

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When can we apply?

There are four application deadlines per year – in January, April, July and October; precise dates are published on the main Lottery page.

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How to apply 
To make the process easier, we have created an online portal to submit your application which can be accessed via a link HERE.  The portal allows you to give all the required information about your organisation, such as legal and contact details, charity numbers etc. Alongside this you will need to complete a project details form and a budget & location document.  Both documents should be uploaded to the portal before you submit your application.

 

▶ Project details form - for Create applications 

▶ Project details form - for Engage and Inspire applications

▶ Budget & location document - for all applications

You can’t save and return to your application so you must complete it in one go but you can view the portal as many times as necessary to see what information is required.

Alternatively you are welcome to send a video application to us. Your video should be no longer than 5 minutes, and must answer the same questions as written bids. You should submit it through the same online portal, with a budget & location document, uploaded alongside the video. If you need a member of the Tŷ Cerdd team to help you create the budget document, please contact us.

 

Your budget

We’ll need to you submit a budget, using the template above. The budget includes both expenditure (costs for delivering the project) and income, and must balance (ie the total expenditure cost must match the total income). We cannot accept a budget which forecasts a profit or loss.

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If your organisation has applied to another body for formal funding towards the project (such as a charitable trust, foundation etc) you must state whether this funding is confirmed. This may have a bearing on your application when discussed at panel.

 

We can only fund up to 90% of the total project cost, so you will need to show 10% of income coming from other sources (eg ticket-income, your own funds, donations). NB: your 10% of match funding cannot come from Lottery sources.

 

For the Engage and Inspire funds, the 10% match can be support in-kind. Support in-kind is a non-cash contribution to your project (eg venue provided free of charge). This does not include resources or services provided by the organisation applying. For the Create fund, in-kind match funds cannot be used towards artists’ fees. We have created a separate section on the budget for this information.

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Further information and tips to help with your application

• Your application will be put to a panel of advisors; we commit to ensuring that our panels are diverse and represent a range of backgrounds and musical approaches / genres.

 

• When the panel members assess your application, they’ll consider how your project will make a difference to artists and audiences, and how you plan to reach communities and participants. They’ll want to see an exciting and well-thought-out initiative, supported by a balanced (and realistic) budget.

 

• Do not assume the panel members will have prior knowledge of your organisation and its activity. Please ensure that you provide brief context and background on the organisation before launching into the detail of the activity you would like us to fund.  If you feel it would help your bid to add supporting information, you may attach a word-document of no more than 2 sides of A4, 12-point.

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If you need support of any kind with your application, please contact lottery@tycerdd.org or phone

029 2063 5640 and we will do our best to assist you.

 

What happens next?

We’ll let you know our decision within five weeks of the application deadline.

 

If your application is unsuccessful we’ll tell you why.

 

If we offer you funding we’ll contact you by email, detailing any conditions of grant (where applicable). You must return the agreement to us within 28 days of the email, together with confirmation that you can fulfil any conditions, upon which we’ll release 75% of the funds to you.

As your project nears completion, we’ll send you a link to the project report to fill in, which helps us to find out how it went, what worked and what didn’t, and what the outcomes were. The remaining 25% of your grant will be triggered after the report is approved and we’ll let you know once it’s been paid. 

Note to successful CREATE applicants: you should return the completion report to us as soon as your music-creator has delivered their score or completed their work (rather than waiting until after the first performance), to ensure the music-creator receives full payment as soon as possible.

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▶ How to make an application

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▶ Writing a strong funding application

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▶ Terms & Conditions

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▶ Lottery Funding

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▶ Create

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▶ Engage

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▶ Inspire

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