Ormiston Trust: Our Eight Commitments
1. Don't waste time
We clearly state and provide detailed funding guidelines for our grant programme in both our grant application documents and available openly online on our website. We hope this will reduce the number of ineligible organisations submitting applications to us. We share as much information as possible with prospective applicants, by hosting online information sessions and 1:1 meetings, to help ensure that schools understand the requirements, exclusions and aims of our grant programmes.
2. Ask relevant questions
We tailor the questions in grant application forms to ensure they are clear, relevant and avoid repetition. OT is committed to constantly reviewing our application forms internally, as well as seeking feedback from applicants so that our approach can improve.
3. Accept risk
We are clear and concise about how risk is assessed. We are committed to learning and improving from projects that don’t work as planned.
4. Act with urgency
We are clear about our decision-making timelines and make applicants aware of any changes, and we seek to make decisions as quickly as possible to meet the needs of applicants and interested partners.
5. Be open
We will provide feedback, including reasons for rejections and areas for recommendation. OT will contact declined applicants with a decision letter providing an overall reason for declination and will offer all applicants the opportunity to have a phone call with a staff member for feedback if that would be helpful. We will analyse and share relevant data.
6. Enable flexibility
We will try to ensure our funding is as flexible as possible so that organisations can use funds appropriately as contexts and circumstances shift.
7. Communicate with purpose
Our contact with interested and successful applicants is purposeful. We are clear with our partners at the start of the funding relationship about what they can expect from us and what we will expect from them.
8. Be proportionate
We will ensure that the reporting we require is clear, meaningful and proportionate. OT is committed to reviewing our monitoring and evaluation approach to ensure that our requirements are proportionate for applicants and interested parties.
