Community Radio Fund: award of grants for 2012/13 Round 1

Published 03|07|12

Ofcom's Community Radio Fund Panel met on Monday 25 June 2012 to consider applications in the first round of grant awards for 2012/13. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has allocated £429,000 for the Community Radio Fund for 2012/13.

In summary, at the meeting:

• 57 applications for grants were considered
• Funding applications totalled £1,171,833
• 16 applicants were awarded grants which totalled £196,841
• 41 applicants were not awarded a grant

First round of applications for funding in 2012/13

The Panel reviewed each application and awarded funding based on the information provided, and with reference to the Community Radio Fund guidance notes. The Panel’s decisions were for:

• a full award;
• a partial award; or
• not to award any funding.

The average grant in this round was £12,303; the size of award ranged from £3,000 to £16,500. A table setting out the awards is at the end of this statement.

Issues of note arising from the Panel meeting

In the current financial climate the Panel felt strongly that, as much as possible, grants from the Community Radio Fund should help further a station’s financial stability and future sustainability. Therefore proposals for posts to promote long-term financial security and which could become self-sustaining were favoured by the Panel, rather than applications for other support posts, even if they were considered core station functions.

With regard to the applications considered in this funding round, the Panel would like to make the following points:

• The Panel has a limited amount of funding available, and so it cannot make grants to all applicant stations.
• Applicants need to make their case sufficiently well for the Panel to be confident that a grant will be well-spent, and enhance the future viability and sustainability of the station.
• The relevant guidance notes, published statements and instructions within the application form should be read before applying to the Fund. Some applications in this round sought funding for items that the Panel considered ineligible. This included, for example, applications for equipment, website costs, printing and publicity costs. A list of exclusions the Fund cannot support is listed in Annex A of the Community Radio Fund Guidance Notes. (http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/broadcast/radio-ops/crf/crfguidancenotes.pdf)
• Some applicants did not include sufficient information, job descriptions and/or work plans in their submissions for staff funding (question four of the application form specifies that this is a requirement). This information is important to the Panel in order to consider whether the job description for a post corresponds with the outline description given in an application, or alternatively to ensure that the work plan for a post-holder matches the work priorities outlined in the Fund application.
• With regard to roles specifically to raise funds for stations, such as fundraiser and business development roles, the Panel considers that as an absolute minimum the post holder should aim  to raise the equivalent of their own salary in the course of the grant spend, as well as securing funding towards station costs, and in so doing make the role self-sustaining and likely to continue once the grant has been spent.  When a station reports back on how the grant was spent, the Panel would like to know how much money the postholder raised.
• Lastly, the Panel would like to emphasise the importance of consistency in an application.  For example, a number of applications included a job description that appeared to be different from the role described in the application

Priorities

The Panel considers promoting long-term sustainability a critical, core activity,. The Panel also continues to believe there is scope for collaborative working or joint applications from stations.

Summary of grants awarded in June 2012 (first round for 2012/13)

Applications for the second round of funding in 2012/13

• Applications will be invited in October 2012 with a closing date in November, dates to be confirmed. 
• The Panel will meet to make decisions on these applications in January 2013.
• £232,159 will be available for the 2012/13 second round.

June 2012