Monitoring

What’s involved in monitoring at CFFC?

Community Foundation for Calderdale (CFFC) asks you to complete an online monitoring form if you are successful in receiving a grant. You’ll receive a unique link via email to click into the form. Please click here to view a sample monitoring form.

Once you click into the form, you will see that we ask you to provide us with different kinds of data:

  • Quantitative – figures about how many people your grant has benefitted, where they came from (postcodes/wards) and their gender/ethnicity/disability status
  • Qualitative – case studies and narrative feedback on your impact
  • Analysis – the monitoring includes a financial analysis of how you spent your grant compared to the original budget plan you sent in via the application form. There’s plenty of space in text boxes below this budget to explain any differences.

Why do I need to complete monitoring for CFFC awards?

We ask you to complete a monitoring form for three main reasons:

  • Impact – we want to demonstrate the huge impact the voluntary and community sector has on improving lives of Calderdale residents. We want to inform commissioning by our colleagues in the Council, NHS and UK Government with information about the need in Calderdale and the extent to which this is met by voluntary and community groups.
  • Accountability – CFFC awards grants to voluntary and community groups from public, donated funds and our own endowment income. As a not-for-profit charity, CFFC is accountable to all funders and to regulatory bodies for how it allocates these funds. The monitoring you provide helps to demonstrate the funds have been used in the best way possible and helps us in engaging with new donors and bringing new money for the Voluntary Sector in Calderdale.
  • Funder request – donors may ask for specific feedback on themes that are relevant to them and sometimes we tailor the monitoring form to meet these requests. Forms will still look similar to above but there may be a slight change in the types of questions asked. Similarly, funders may ask for extra monitoring outside the usual CFFC form above. In this case you should be provided with the extra forms to complete.

What happens if I don’t complete monitoring after receiving an award?

If monitoring is not received it could jeopardise CFFC receiving future funds from a specific funder. It’s therefore very important to us that you complete your monitoring. Groups who have missed monitoring are sent email reminders automatically by the system we use to manage grants. So there are several opportunities to send in late monitoring.

Groups who haven’t submitted their monitoring following all the reminders, have a flag placed on their account. If groups apply for further funds, the flag is noted during due diligence checks and these groups are automatically ruled out of receiving an award. Flags are easily removed by completing the monitoring, even if it is very late.

If you find that you need more time to complete the project and/or haven’t spent all the grant you were awarded by the time of the monitoring deadline, please get in touch. In most cases we can negotiate an extension to your grant spend period.

Top Tips for completing monitoring

The electronic monitoring form is currently in the process of being reviewed and updated. It’s a national form, so making alterations is a lengthy process. There are some issues that groups have come across that you should bear in mind when completing:

  • Attachments – the monitoring form only accepts a limited number of attachments. If you have lots of invoices, receipts etc to send on as evidence you can scan and send to grants@cffc.co.uk although please make clear what your application is for and who you are. It’s also handy if you can include your application number in the email – it starts with an ‘A’ and looks like this – A625435
  • Commas – when completing the budget please don’t use commas e.g. £15,234
  • £ – please don’t use pound signs within the budget section
  • Underspend/overspend – use the narrative boxes to explain these. The budget section will not accept overspend being included in figures. This is because it considers you unable to spend over what was allocated. Obviously, there are cases where this happens, and it is useful to understand the need and demand for funds/services/support so please share with us in the narrative boxes
  • If anything changes regarding your project and you need to make alterations, e.g. to your budget, to extend the project, change aspects of it etc, which might impact your ability to complete the monitoring form, please let us know as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for taking the time to complete monitoring for your funds. We do appreciate your time and capacity is limited.

If you need any support with completing CFFC monitoring, you can contact us on 01422 349700 or grants@cffc.co.uk