Do...
- Research CLLD and the CLLD area – read the CLLD Strategy, Handbook and other available information – this should help you decide if CLLD funding is right for you and understand CLLD’s aims and objectives; find out what else is going on in the area, how does this compliment your project or is your project completely new?;
- Use the support provided – CLLD has a dedicated Communities Officer who can help with project development, your Expression of Interest and Full Application;
- Be clear about your project’s target groups and their needs – be precise about who your project is going to support, don’t just ‘copy and paste’ CLLD target groups from the Strategy; explain what you know about their needs and the obstacles they face; don’t just quote the statistics – we know them! We used them to develop the CLLD Strategy; we are more interested in your experiences and the evidence we don’t know about;
- Be clear about your project’s activities and what you are going to achieve - don’t explain absolutely everything that your organisation is doing and has achieved – focus on this one project; you need to be clear on your delivery model; it’s better to be straight to the point when explaining the project than worry about hitting the word count!
- Think about partnerships – especially if you are a regional or national organisation, an organisation new to the CLLD area or an organisation not experienced in European funding – CLLD is looking for projects rooted in the communities and values genuine local partnerships; equally, smaller organisations could benefit from the support of a more experienced group to meet funding requirements; also don’t try and ‘re-invent’ the wheel - if you know a project that already delivers something similar, should you consider a partnership?;
Don't...
- Get carried away with the size of your project - you may expect 250 people to walk through your door but not all of these people will actually engage with your project activities and you will have a lot of paperwork to complete!
- Copy and paste from other funding applications – every funder has their own aims, objectives and requirements and your answers need to reflect this;
- Inflate your project’s budget worrying that you may only get a proportion of it – be realistic about how much it is going to cost to deliver your planned activities; also consider the value of staff time needed to complete and process all the paperwork;
- Underestimate the amount of time you will need to prepare a good application – filling in the form is just the final step of your project development, you need to do lots of thinking, reading and number crunching beforehand!
- Forget to identify genuine progression routes available for your project beneficiaries.
North OF Tyne community LED LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
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