BA Better World Community Fund
Eligibility Criteria
Introduction
This funding aims to support life-changing opportunities in the UK communities we serve, enabling us to invest in projects that deliver benefits for climate, communities and nature. We want to support projects and organisations who are working to enrich their communities and support long term change.
Our funding aims to help organisations who are supporting social mobility, driving opportunity for education and employability in disadvantaged communities and supporting individuals from ethnic minorities as well as providing opportunities for girls in STEM. Our funding will also target organisations who support and provide crisis support and health and wellbeing services to those in need. There will also be funding available to support projects who help their local community become more sustainable by providing innovative ideas to prevent or reduce the impacts of climate change.
We provide funding in a variety of ways including a match fund and an employee giving scheme. Applicants will be informed at the time of making an application which funding type or types are available. The different funding types work in different ways so please see the relevant sections below for further details.
Eligibility Criteria
This funding is designed to help organisations and social enterprises drive change in their local communities.
To be eligible to apply, organisations must be:
• Registered UK Charities
• Registered community benefit organisations
• Registered social enterprises and charity companies
And do one or more of the following:
• Deliver support in areas experiencing social and economic deprivation, including rural communities
• Work with one or more of the following groups as a main focus:
○ lower socio-economic groups,
○ Culturally diverse communities
○ Disadvantaged females exploring STEM opportunities
○ Individuals struggling with mental health and wellbeing
○ Groups exploring or providing solutions for Climate Change
Priority will be given to:
• Projects located in the surrounding areas of London City and London Heathrow airports
• Projects providing training and skills to help disadvantaged groups access employment and education
• Projects creating opportunities for people in underrepresented groups particularly focused on improving gender and ethnic diversity and accessibility for people with disabilities
• Innovative projects tackling environmental and climate challenges with sustainable long term outcomes
The following are not eligible for funding:
• Individuals or sole traders
• For profit businesses or partnerships
• Local authorities
• Schools, colleges and universities
• Faith or Religious Groups
Organisations set up as trusts (including charitable trusts) are not currently eligible to participate.
Exclusions
There are some things that we’re not able to invest in, these primarily being:
• Organisations without a trustee board/management committee (with 3 people minimum)
• Applications from individuals, or which are for the benefit of one individual
• Applications from private, profit making businesses
• Applications for ongoing or pre-existing core/salary costs
• Applications for vehicle/building purchases
• Projects promoting religion
• Organisations seeking to distribute grants on our behalf
• Projects intended for private gain
• Closed or Always On campaigns on Crowdfunder
• Organisations that have been operating for less than 12 months
• Organisations that do not have published online accounts
• Applications for capital expenditure over £5000
Selection process
All applications that meet the criteria set out above will be assessed to determine which projects will be selected for the relevant fund or programme. Project owners will be notified whether their application has been successful or not.
We will focus on ensuring funding is distributed equitably, particularly in terms of geographic location and types of beneficiaries. A range of projects will be selected to achieve this.
If your application is approved, you will need to launch your crowdfunding campaign within 6 weeks of notification of approval otherwise the offer will be rescinded.
Please note, British Airways funding will be allocated to projects that meet their current priorities. Meeting the eligibility criteria does not guarantee funding.
Employee Giving Programme Criteria
British Airways will provide employees with funds which each employee may allocate to approved projects as they see fit.
Being approved for the Programme does not guarantee you will receive any funding from the Programme
Match Funding Criteria
If your project is approved for the BA Better World Community Match Fund , to receive match funding, the following conditions apply:
1. For every pledge made towards your project we'll match it up to £250, so if your project receives a pledge of £20 we'll add another £20, if your project receives a pledge of £600 then you'll receive an additional £250.
2. Only one pledge per supporter will be matched and not any subsequent Pledges to the same Project by the same Supporter.
3. Your project must receive pledges from a minimum of 25 unique Supporters. To verify whether Supporters are unique we will take account of information including, but not limited to: name, address, email addresses and payment card used.
4. Your project can receive a maximum of the lessor of £10,000 or 50% of your project target from the BA Better Community Match Fund.
5. All Or Nothing Projects must reach their project target by the end of their fundraising period to receive BA Better World Community Match Funding.
6. This fund will be distributed on a first come first serve basis. Matching will stop automatically when the funds are fully allocated. Being approved for BA Better World Community Match Fund does not guarantee you will receive any funding.
BA Better World Community Fund reserves the right to vary these pledge criteria; projects will be notified if their pledge criteria will vary from the stated terms above.
You will be ineligible for funding from BA Better World Community Fund if, at BABWCF’s sole discretion, it is not satisfied that all the Supporter pledges on your project are genuine pledges or if it becomes apparent that any of the criteria are not being met.
Additional Requirements
Following approval for funding, if you wish to make any changes to your campaign target, or any significant changes to your rewards or other page content you must notify us.
Crowdfunder may continue to review your Project even after it is accepted to participate in the programme or fund and British Airways reserves the right to remove a Project from the programme or fund at any time if it is identified that the Eligibility Criteria are not met.
Where projects or pledges are identified as fraudulent, potentially fraudulent, or demonstrative of manipulating the pledging on a project in order to obtain match funding, this is taken very seriously. Where appropriate, the police or other relevant authorities will be informed. In addition:
• Your application for funding will be refused and any existing commitment for funding will be withdrawn.
• Your Crowdfunding project may be cancelled and you may be ineligible for future applications or projects.
• Action will be taken to recover funding which has been paid out.