To help you plan your application before beginning the online form please find all the questions in the order you will find them. Please also familiarise yourself with the key supporting documents that you will need to provide as part of your application.
Eligibility checklist
We will require you to answer ‘yes ‘or ‘no’ to some standard questions. If you are not eligible to apply you may receive an alert in this part of the form.
About your organisation
- organisation name
- postcode
- website
- social Media Info (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter ) optional
- when was your organisation first set up?
Q. Which type of organisation are you?
- registered charity including charitable incorporated organisations
- constituted community group
- community benefit societies
- company limited by guarantee
- social enterprise
- Community Interest Company (CIC) (must be limited by guarantee and have community benefit objectives)
Q. Charity or company number (optional)
Q. What is your organisation’s primary purpose (max 1400 characters)
Q. Are you an Arts Council Portfolio Organisation (NPO)?
About You
- name
- position held in your organisation
- address, if different from your organisation's
- email address
- preferred contact number
Organisational Health
Q. What level of reserves does your organisation currently have?
Q. What is your organisation’s turnover in the last accounting year?
Q. Organisation’s turnover over the last accounting year?
Q. Summarise your organisation’s business model, identifying how you generate income and raise funds (max 1400 characters)
Q. Specify in amounts in relation to overall turnover and state what relative percentages of your turnover are earned income and annual grant income. If you anticipate this model will change significantly over the next three years, tell us how your model will evolve.
Q. How many full time staff do you currently employ?
Q. How many part time staff do you currently employ?
Q. How may seasonal staff do you currently employ?
Q. How many temporary staff do you currently employ?
Q. How many other staff do you currently employ?
Q. Does your organisation provide any of the following opportunities? (select all that apply)
- Internships
- Mentoring
- Student placements
- Work experience
- Other
Q. What levels of volunteering does your organisation currently support? Please specify the number of volunteer hours contributed over the last 12 months.
Q. Specify the types of volunteering activities that will be available, the number of volunteers you expect to involve and the total number of volunteer hours you anticipate annually.
Funding
Organisations can apply for between £5,000 and £50,000. However, due to the limited amount of funding available we are only able to fund a small number of organisations over the sum of £20,000.
All organisations will need to demonstrate how they will meet our key criteria: relevance, distinctiveness, impact and inclusivity.
Those organisations who have significant and multifaceted community reach and perform highly against these key criteria can apply for up to £50,000.
Your offer may be less than you apply for due to the competitive funding environment.
Q. How much revenue funding are you requesting per year?
- £5k
- £10k
- £15k
- £20k
- £25k
- £30k
- £35k
- £40k
- £45k
- £50k
Q. Describe what your business plan priorities are over the next three years and how our revenue grant will help you achieve them (max 3500 characters).
Strategic ambitions
Which Dorset Council priorities does your application meet? (select all that apply)
- becoming a more responsive customer focused council
- creating stronger, healthier communities
- creating sustainable development and housing
- driving economic prosperity
- protecting our natural environment, climate and ecology
All applications must meet at least one of the priorities identified in Dorset Council's Plan 2022 to 2024
Cultural priorities
Q. Explain how our revenue funding will help you deliver against the priorities identified in Dorset's Cultural Strategy 2021 to 2026.
You will need to be able to demonstrate contribution against all assessment areas: relevance, distinctiveness, impact and inclusivity.
Relevance
- museums, heritage and cultural sites will inspire and host progressive, cross sector programming.
- co-producing and co-designing creative programmes with our communities; genuinely listening to different voices and valuing our communities' innate creativity.
- greater support for leaders, curators and producers of arts, heritage and culture.
Q. You will need to evidence significant participation in sustained cultural programming and demonstrate how you reach 5,000 people. Describe how you meet local need and demand and how you consult and involve your local community in co-production. Show us how your programming is diverse and how you target different groups/demographics within the community. (Max 2800 characters)
Distinctiveness
- an increase in Dorset's national and international reputation
- arts, heritage, and culture bringing communities together
- with the predicted growth in housing needed in Dorset; how arts and culture can help integrate people moving into Dorset for work to create that sense of belonging and "feeling like a local"
Q. Tell us whether your organisation has a unique or distinctive cultural value across a defined area of Dorset (e.g. are you the only provider in that area with a breadth and depth of offer?). Tell us if you facilitate cultural provision in underserved areas of Dorset where there is limited cultural provision or venues. (Max 2800 characters)
Impact
- our sector is more widely valued, and its impact evidenced and recognised
- stronger relationships with a wide range of cross-sector partners in particular health and wellbeing partners
- an improvement in health and wellbeing and a decrease in social isolation in our communities
Q. Tell us your cultural impact through your programme or through your infrastructure. How you are increasing community engagement/decreasing social isolation – evidence through objective evaluation.
Evidence how you have improved resident's wellbeing and quality of life through your organisation's contributions and how you plan to continue this over the next three years. Please talk about your organisation's capacity and ability to provide skills development opportunities for community members and your own work force. (Max 2800 characters).
Inclusivity
- our arts, heritage and cultural offer is accessible and open to everyone; encouraging more people to regularly engage in arts, heritage and culture.
- increased diversity of people participating in culture and those entering employment in our sector
- more young people involved in the cultural sector in Dorset
Q. You will need to demonstrate and provide evidence-based understanding of current users and non-users of your services. Do you have an established plan for developing a range of users over the next three years? Tell us if you have a track record of working with priority audiences highlighted by Dorset Council. Tell us about your plans to develop or further develop physical, sensory and intellectual access to your programming and/or your cultural facility. (2800)
Beneficiaries
Which areas of Dorset does your organisation do most of its work? (select all that apply)
- East Dorset
- North Dorset
- Purbeck
- West Dorset
- Weymouth and Portland
Q. What evidence do you have to demonstrate your geographical reach?
Q. Roughly how many people does your organisation reach per year?
Q. How do you collect and monitor data on audience participation numbers?
Q. You will need to demonstrate how your organisation will reach over 5000 people per year.
Q. Which ethnic groups is your organisation seeking to engage with? (select all that apply). Only tick those who you genuinely plan to engage with – it will not affect your application if you only target a small number of groups
- White British
- White Irish
- Gypsy or Irish Traveller
- Any other White background
- White and Black Caribbean
- White and Black African
- White and Asian
- any other mixed background
- Indian
- Pakistan
- Bangladeshi
- Chinese
- any other Asian background
- Black African
- Black Caribbean
- Any other Black background
- Arab
- any other ethnic group
Q. Which other groups will benefit from your grant? (select all that apply)
Only tick those who you genuinely plan to engage with – it will not affect your application if you only target a small number of groups
- Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups
- carers
- ex-offenders/at risk of offending
- families/parents/lone parents
- homeless people
- lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender
- long term unemployed
- men
- Military personnel or veterans
- not in education/training/employment
- older people
- people in care/suffering serious illness
- people living in poverty
- people with alcohol/drug addictions
- people with learning difficulties
- people with mental health issues
- people with multiple disabilities
- people with physical difficulties
- refugees/asylum seekers/immigrants
- rural isolation
- victims of crime/violence/abuse
- women
Q. Which age groups will your organisation's activities focus on? (select all that apply)
Only tick those who you genuinely plan to engage with – it will not affect your application if you only target a small number of groups
- early years 0 to 4
- children 5 to 12
- young people 13 to 18
- young adults 19 to 25
- adults 26 to 64
- seniors 65+
Q. Describe the initiatives or activities you are intending to deliver to engage the target audiences you have identified (max 2100 chars)
Declaration
You will be asked to tick some final boxes and submit your application form
Next step
Go to your confirmation email which will have a copy of the pdf that will have been sent to both you and to the culture team and click on the link provided on this confirmation email to take you to section 2 of the application form.
Section 2
Supporting Documents (final part of the form)
The remaining documents that we will need uploading here to complete your application:
- a copy of your safeguarding policy/guidelines
- a copy of your environmental policy
- a copy of your equality policy/statement
- a copy of your GDPR policy/statement
- a copy of your volunteering policy (if appropriate)
- a copy of your organisation’s business plan covering up to 2027
- a copy of your last three bank statements
- a copy of the last published set of accounts
Please do not upload large data files that exceed 3MB per file.
Where possible convert to a PDF to reduce the sizes of files before uploading.
Limit files containing graphics.