Climate Challenge Fund Stage Two - Application Guidance
This document provides guidance for community-led organisations who are applying to the Scottish
Government’s Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) and who have been accepted through the Stage One
application phase and are proceeding to Stage Two.
Please read through this document before filling in the application form and associated spreadsheets. The
guidance provided here will help you to understand each section, and which specific areas to prioritise your
efforts. The guidance will also reiterate what items/activities are ineligible and highlight issues that may
prevent your application being presented to the independent CCF Grant Panel.
If you require advice or would like to request these documents in alternative formats, please use the CCF
reference number in all correspondence, and contact the CCF Team on 01786 468779.
For anyone who has applied to the CCF before, please ignore previous versions of these forms and
guidance notes as they have been superseded for this funding round.
In this document ‘we’ refers to CCF Team at Keep Scotland Beautiful.
This document is split into the following sections:
Introduction
About the CCF
Prerequisites
Key Information
Completing Part-A
Organisation Details
Project Proposal
Supporting Evidence
CCF Carbon Estimator
Completing Part-B
Budgets & Spend Projections
Staff Costs and Other Funding
Revenue Generation
State Aid
Declaration & Authorisation
What Happens Next
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 2
Introduction
About the Grant
The Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) is a Scottish Government grant programme, managed and developed
by Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB).
To be eligible to apply for any funding from the CCF organisations need to be:
▪ Scottish based - Local community-led organisations are eligible to apply to the CCF.
▪ Led by the community - Members of the target community group must be represented on the management committee/board of the organisation applying to the CCF.
▪ Operating on a not for profit basis - Profit making organisations are eligible to apply to the CCF on the condition that they are wholly owned by a Scottish based not for profit organisation.
▪ Legally constituted - The organisation must be legally constituted by the time of submitting their Stage One application.
To be eligible, applications must meet all four of the CCF’s key criteria:
▪ Community - Your community must be at the heart of the decision-making process of the project. Community demand for the project must be clearly demonstrated and projects must be designed and delivered by communities. Applicants to should show how they will work in partnership with other local organisations that are engaged in similar or related work.
▪ Improved Climate Literacy - The project must deliver increased awareness and understanding of climate change and enable the community to make informed choices to reduce its impact on climate change.
▪ Carbon (CO2e) Reduction - The project must lead to a measurable reduction in local carbon emissions through the activities it delivers.
▪ Sustainable Legacy - The project must deliver a low carbon legacy, with outcomes and/or behaviours that continue after the project is completed.
Prerequisites
Before proceeding with this application, please ensure that you fully understand the following aspects of
the grant. All CCF grant recipients need to:
▪ Be able to claim the grant in arrears
▪ Submit regular progress reports and a final report which is publicly accessible.
▪ Ensure that all activities and equipment are adequately insured
▪ Provide three quotes for goods or services over £5,000
▪ Retain evidence of all costs incurred for financial auditing purposes
▪ Follow an open, fair and transparent recruitment process for any staff hired
▪ Protect vulnerable citizens
▪ Manage all project staff in line with good practice
▪ Follow best practice in the governance of the project and delivery of project outcomes
Full terms and conditions of the CCF grant will be made available if your application is successful, and an
offer of award is made.
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 3
Key Information
The CCF is a popular grant and it is important to appreciate that not all Stage Two applications are
guaranteed to be presented to the CCF Grant Panel. Applications that are insufficiently developed or
contain ineligible elements will be notified that they have not succeeded at this stage and the remaining
applications will be forwarded to the independent CCF Grant Panel.
Application Support
We will provide advice to all eligible applicants via support from CCF Development Officers and through
our Capacity Building Programme which will be providing Application Development Webinars to cover
key aspects of the application pack and process. Details of these webinars will be posted on our website:
www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/ccfevents/
We recommend that you look at the resources available on the CCF website:
www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/ccf
Scoring
Your application will be tested firstly against core eligibility and then scored across the following categories
in the table below. Most questions throughout the application files contribute towards these scores and
each question is assigned a score code.
Score Code Score Category
O Organisation, Experience & Capacity
C Community, Evidence of Need
P Project, Planning, Carbon, Literacy & Deliverability
L Legacy
F Finances
Application Readiness and Timescales for Notification
All design work, planning permissions and additional funding must be completed by the Stage Two
deadline. Projects need to be ready to begin on 1st of April 2020 and should not be dependent on further
decisions or design work to be carried out.
Applicants will be notified after all the applications are considered at the CCF Grant Panel. In the past this
has been around mid/late February.
Weak or Ineligible Applications
Firstly, it should be made clear that there is a finite budget for the CCF and not all applications succeed.
Applications can be declined or rank lower than others for a broad range of reasons some of which are
listed below. If you have any questions about eligibility or the strength of your application, please speak to
your Development Officer to discuss this at the earliest opportunity. A few examples are listed below:
Organisation / Governance / Community
▪ Numbers of trustees might be below the minimum stated in your constitution document and trustees may not have sufficient powers to act on behalf of the organisation.
▪ Lack of experience of the board to manage a project of the scale and cost presented. Often linked to an overly ambitious project.
▪ Limited responses to a community consultation (or lack of consultation). Lacking enough evidence to show any need for the project.
▪ A proposal which presents as ‘service provision to’ a community rather than a project ‘developed and led by and for’ the community.
▪ A restriction that prevents the organisation from delivering the proposed activities. e.g. not having the rights to modify the windows/walls of a building under the existing lease.
Project / Planning
▪ Not meeting all four of the CCF Key Criteria.
▪ Lack of a clear legacy plan stating how assets and/or behaviours will continue or be maintained.
▪ Under-developed proposals for Climate Literacy elements of the project.
▪ Carbon saving estimations that are not clearly aligned to proposed activities and outcomes.
▪ Lack of evidence that there is a strong demand for continuing activities (if currently funded).
▪ Insufficient detail on project planning.
▪ Weak or un-evidenced assumptions, e.g. estimated costs of capital projects without providing estimates, assumptions that planning permission will be granted.
Finances
▪ Ineligible Budget Headings or items that cannot be claimed through the CCF.
▪ Including recoverable VAT in your figures.
▪ Exceeding de-minimus/State Aid limits (See Section 4.7)
▪ Management costs higher than 10% of the total project budget per annum and/or not clearly related to costs you may additionally incur due to supporting the CCF project. Any core costs/overheads must be clearly proportional to the delivery of the project as well. For example, if you run other projects not funded by the CCF then you can’t include 100% of any core costs.
▪ Contingency costs
▪ Mis-alignment between project milestones and timing of costs entered in Part-B Spend tabs.
Ineligible Costs
At Stage One you provided an estimate of the total cost of the project and summarised the range of staff,
resources and services that you will need to deliver your project.
At Stage Two you will need to give more detail about the costs of the project and justify these. More detail
on how to do this can be found later in this document, but the information below is a reminder of what the
CCF is not able to fund.
The CCF Grant has some restrictions on what it can and cannot fund, pre-conditions for certain projects
and an expectation that all purchasing will be done with due consideration to minimise the environmental
impacts and related carbon emissions.
The CCF does not fund:
▪ Projects or activities that the state has a legal obligation to provide, such as a local recycling service, bus stops, local bus services, etc.
▪ Items that other Scottish Government grants are available to finance, such as cycle paths which can be funded by Sustrans.
▪ Projects that involve improvements to buildings that are not owned by the applicant (a 50+ year lease would be sufficient as well), or significant infrastructure being installed on land that is not owned by the applicant (a 15+ year lease would be sufficient in this case). Relevant planning permission must be sought and approved by the Stage Two deadline date.
▪ Research studies, development costs, design fees, planning costs
▪ Costs incurred before the Project Start Date or after the Project End Date.
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 5
The CCF grant can only be used for funding the proposed project and related costs. Additionally, the CCF
does not fund the following:
▪ Contingency costs
▪ Core organisational or overhead costs - that are not directly related and proportional to the delivery of your project.
▪ Energy generating equipment – heating systems or renewable energy technology which would result in Grid displacement.
▪ Items or activities which benefit an individual rather than the community as a whole
▪ Fundraising activities or donations to other organisations
▪ Loans, interest payments, bank or credit card charges
▪ Political or religious activities
▪ Alcohol or tobacco
▪ Livestock and associated costs (e.g. food)
▪ VAT that you can recover from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
▪ Costs incurred using high-carbon modes of travel (flights, cars, taxis etc) when lower emission alternatives are available. All flights are ineligible unless there are extenuating circumstances.
▪ Projects that only involve the purchase of capital costs and do not include low-carbon behaviour change activities.
Key to filling out the application form
COLOURED OR Please do not edit these cells. These might be locked within spreadsheets, contain
the application questions, headings or pre-loaded values set by KSB. GREY CELLS
CELLS
WITHOUT
COLOUR
These are the cells that you should fill in. Some may contain drop-down menus or
tick boxes (not selected ☐ and selected ☒ ). If there is any initial text in the cell,
please remove before entering your own text, except where indicated to edit existing
text in blue.
X.XX Section - section numbers – these correspond to the sections in the application forms Part A and B.
Guidance Notes These contain advice which may help you understand how scoring is applied or may highlight aspects which might render your application ineligible.
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 6
Completing Part-A
Part-A is a Microsoft Word formatted document, containing a range of questions set out within tables and
organised into three sections, and each is colour coded as follows:
SECTION 1. About your organisation, CCF history and your community
SECTION 2. About your project proposal, themes, outcomes, legacy and milestones
SECTION 3. Checklists for supporting information and documentation
Part A - Front Page
The first page provides you with your unique CCF Reference Number that should be used on all
communications with KSB. It also lists the name of your Development Officer assigned to your application
should you need advice and support. Contact details for CCF Development Officers can be found at
keepscotlandbeautiful.org
1. Your Organisation and Community
1.1 Organisation Details
In the white boxes on the right of each section, please type in your organisation name and address as it
appears on your constitution or other formal registration documents.
Please also include links to your main website or social media pages.
These details may be used by KSB and The Scottish Government in the promotion of your project if your
application is successful.
Guidance Notes
Organisations changing their legal status (e.g. from un-incorporated to a registered charity) must have fully completed this transition by the Stage Two deadline.
1.2 Primary Contact
Enter the full name and contact details (phone & email) for the main person who knows all about the details
of this application and can answer any questions that KSB staff may have.
If the primary contact is not a member of the board or a trustee, it is essential that the Chairperson signs
the declaration section of this form.
In line with Data Protection legislation and KSB’s privacy policy, we will use these details to contact you at
various stages of the application process to either clarify the information you have provided or to contact
you about the status of the application. We will ask for further contact details if your application is
successful, so that they are the most appropriate to use to offer support to the project as it is being
delivered.
1.3 Organisation Information & Financial Summary (Score Code O)
A drop-down list is provided for Organisation Type. Please select the most appropriate option. If no
Organisation Type matches, then please select Other and type in the adjacent box to the right. If your
organisation is more than one legal type e.g. a Company and is also registered as a charity, then please
select the primary organisation type as defined by your constitution and use the Other box to the right to
add ‘Charity’. Also note in the Registration field all your registration numbers.
For the remaining boxes please give further details about your organisation. i.e. when it was first
established (the date that it started in its current legal status), how many trustees/board members, staff.
Provide the date of your most recent accounts (which you need to supply as mandatory organisational
documentation, (See Section 4.2) and from those accounts, your total income and expenditure for the
reported year. State how much your organisation has in savings or unrestricted funds at year end.
If your organisation does not have a set of financial accounts, then we will need to see a 12-month
projection of your organisation’s finances, signed by your treasurer or financial director.
1.4 Community Influence & Accountable Board/Committee (Score Code O)
Please provide a summary of your organisation. Who can join the organisation as an ordinary member or
board member, what are your aims and objectives, how is your organisation structured and governed? We
also need information about the membership of your Board or Management Committee including:
▪ How many are from the local community
▪ What their expertise is relating to the project
▪ Their accountability to the local community
Guidance Notes
Some organisations have restricted board/trustee membership or single-tier membership structures. In these cases, a separate project Steering Committee would need to exist or be formed with a majority of members being community members.
1.5 Past Projects (Score Code O)
In this section, we are interested in the track record of your organisation in terms of any other projects
which have been developed and managed, including information about how your organisation has worked
with other agencies and the outcomes of these projects. Within a 300-word limit, you should mention other
funding you have received in the past and details of how the funds were used. Please mention funds that
are relevant to your capacity to deliver this proposed project.
1.6 CCF Grant History (skip to section 1.7 if not applicable) (Score Code O)
In this section, please list all CCF grants your organisation has received in the past, listing their CCF
Reference Number, Project Name, Amount Awarded, Date Awarded and a summary of what was
accomplished. If there were several historical CCF Grants, then please describe them all.
Guidance Notes
History of previously funded CCF projects will be summarised to the Grant Panel and may be taken into consideration. If a problem occurred in a previously funded CCF project, please clearly state how this will be prevented from re-occurring.
1.7 About Your Community
Please enter (in numbers only) the total number of people in your local community (or community of
interest), and in the second box, enter a realistic estimate of the number of people that you think your
project will actively engage with.
Then in the box labelled ‘Describe your Community’, please use up to 250 words to define your community.
This may be a geographical community or a community of interest.
Geographical community, this is where a community is defined by a geographical centre - there are
many sources of useful statistics about population size, demographic split, area boundaries, etc. One of
the easiest to use is the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website, http://www.sns.gov.uk/ where you can
use postcodes to find a detailed profile of your area, with demographic breakdown and information about
health, crime, income, education, etc. If you have other data to back this up, then please use this and
reference the source.
Community of interest, this is where a community is defined by the activities or interests of its members –
for example; a workplace, a university, the users of a community resource, people within a specific age
range or ethnicity. This community of interest still needs to be limited to a defined region. For example, “All
young people in Scotland” would be too broad a definition and deemed ineligible.
Please identify and provide details about your community, specifying whether it is a geographical
community, a community of interest, or both.
1.8 Community Consultation / Evidence for Need (Score Code C)
Explain how this project is supported by your community, where has the project idea come from? Give
details on consultation work or local research work carried out and evidence that demonstrates a need for
the project. Please attach your consultation/survey work as an appendix to your application submission.
You must clearly evidence a need or demand for the activities you are intending to deliver and the
outcomes you aim to achieve. It should also be clear how you have arrived at the outcomes for the project
that you will be defining in Section 2.4 below.
If you received a CCF Development Grant to assist with the community consultation work, please mention
this in this section. Limit this section to 300 words max.
Guidance Notes
It is important to clearly demonstrate that the target community have expressed a need for this project and have contributed to the development of this application. Surveys should be representative of a realistic proportion of the target community. Survey results should include the number of responders.
Applications that present themselves as being ‘service provision’ to a target community without clear evidence of any community involvement in development will be declined.
1.9 Community’s Ability to Influence the Project (Score Code C)
Please describe how the target community will be able to affect any decision making throughout the
duration of this project and influence its ongoing development.
Tell us what mechanisms will be put in place to ensure the project community will be able to affect the
decision-making processes and how ongoing consultation will happen. For instance, will there be a sub
group, steering groups, and regular consultations? You can also mention what your targets and strategies
are for increasing the levels of involvement and engagement in this project.
Guidance Notes
The community must be at the heart of decision-making process of the project and projects must be designed and delivered by communities themselves. Applications which present as being projects delivered ‘to’ communities will be deemed as ‘service provision’ and will not be deemed as sufficiently meeting the Community criteria of the CCF.
2. About Your Project
2.1 Project Overview
Project Name - Please give your project a unique name. This name will be used by KSB and The Scottish
Government in the promotion of your project if your application is successful. This should be something
short (about 5 words max), easy to remember and easy to promote during the project.
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 9
Duration - Tick the appropriate box to confirm if this is a one or two-year project. If you anticipate that this
project will be less than a year in duration or only a proportion of the second year then please mention this
in the project summary in Section 2.3.
Postcode for Project – this is the postcode for the address where the project will take place which may be
different from your main organisational postcode. This field helps to accurately place a pin on our map of
funded projects.
Local Authority - a drop-down list of all Local Authorities in Scotland is provided in this box. Please select
the most appropriate option that best fits with the location of the project and not where your organisation is
registered (if different).
Press Release –edit the <blue text in brackets> and replace it with a few well-chosen words to describe
your project. If funded, this text will be used on any formal announcements by the Scottish Government
and/or KSB. It can also be used by your organisation in your own press releases. Maximum 100 words.
2.2 Themes and Key Behaviour Areas
Please tick the appropriate boxes to indicate which of the Key Behaviour Areas (KBA) (defined by The Scottish Government) that your project relates to. If there is not a KBA that fits your project, please select Other and specify in the adjacent box.
The example below could be for a project giving Home Energy Advice but not going as far as providing advice on renewable energy solutions.
Themes Key Behaviour Areas
Energy
☒ Keeping the heat in/cold out (insulation, draught proofing, etc.)
☒ Saving electricity (switching off, LED lighting, etc.)
☐ Promoting Renewable Energy solutions, Heat Pumps, etc.
Guidance Notes
Applications that wish to improve the energy efficiency of Community Buildings must select at least one other carbon saving KBA. The CCF is not a fund that can be used solely for improving buildings. Such projects need to deliver other carbon saving behaviour activities in addition to the fixed outcome of increasing climate literacy in their target community.
For Community Buildings, please note that technology such as Solar PV, Solar Thermal, new heating systems, hot water boilers or heat-pump based heating systems are not eligible for funding through the CCF. CCF will fund upgrades to existing heating controls but not the heating system itself.
If Selecting Other, please tick the box and provide clarity of what behaviour you intend your project to change. Please make sure this isn’t covered already by existing KBA’s above.
2.3 Project Summary (Score Code P)
This is your primary opportunity to sell your project proposal to the independent CCF Grant Panel. Please
use clear simple language, avoid jargon and acronyms. Maximum 500 words.
Ensure that within these 500 words, you clearly summarise the overall aims of your project, how you align
to all four of the CCF’s key criteria, why the project is needed, what you plan to do, what changes
(outcomes) will result, who will benefit and any potential non-environmental benefits from the project.
Additionality for currently funded organisations
If you are currently in receipt of a CCF grant and wish to apply to the CCF to continue your project, you
must clearly evidence the additional demand for your current project and clearly demonstrate the success
of your project and its approach.
Guidance Notes
The 500 words need to encapsulate your whole project.
Ideally, ask someone who doesn’t know the project or your organisation to read this Section before you finalise it. If they can easily understand what you are proposing, then it’s likely the CCF Grant Panel will as well.
Beware that the legacy aspects of any currently funded CCF project cannot be fully funded through this application.
2.4 Outcomes (Score Code P)
All applicants must agree to deliver on the pre-defined outcome number #1 (Increasing Climate Literacy)
as this is one of the mandatory eligibility criteria of the fund.
Additionally, applicants must also define at least one carbon saving outcome to meet the Carbon
Reduction criteria. Additional outcomes are optional, except for projects who are improving the energy
efficiency of a community building which require a minimum of two carbon outcomes. One for the building
work and one additional strand.
Outcomes can be classified either as Carbon or Non-Carbon. Carbon outcomes need to state the amount
of greenhouse gas emissions that they are aiming to reduce. This is measured in tCO2e (tonnes of Carbon
Dioxide equivalent) and values are derived using the CCF Carbon Estimator spreadsheet supplied as part
of your CCF Application Pack.
A maximum of six outcomes can be defined in your application.
Outcome #1 – This is a mandatory outcome for all CCF funded projects.
Replace the <text in blue> with the number of people you expect to engage with for the purposes of
increasing their understanding of Climate Change and enabling them to make informed choices to move to
low-carbon lifestyles.
Guidance Notes
Outcome#1 is pre-defined but the activities and monitoring are not. It is up to you to define how you might go about this in ways that are best suited to your community.
More information on Climate Change engagement can be found on our website.
Projects aiming to improve the energy efficiency of a community building must also define a second carbon outcome, perhaps for encouraging active travel to/from the venue, minimising waste, etc.
Be careful not to define outcomes that are too similar or are achieving the same result.
Writing Your Outcomes
An outcome is a short sentence that describes: what is changing (including a measurable target), how it is
changing, and who is changing.
What – e.g. “homes fitting insulation saving a total of 20 tCO2e”
All Carbon outcomes must be quantified, and you should use the relevant figures generated by the CCF
Carbon Estimator.
The Carbon Estimator has its own built in guidance notes and different tabs for each Theme along with
total carbon savings and recommendations on how to measure the change and collect appropriate data.
Guidance Notes
We recommend that you complete the Carbon Estimator before completing your outcomes as it will help you think about what your outcomes are, and how you will achieve them. The Carbon Estimator will give you the target savings for the different activities you intend to carry out to achieve your overall carbon saving for the project.
The CCF Carbon Estimator includes a range of activities that the majority of CCF applicants can select from. If your project does not fit with the options provided, please contact your Development Officer and include your own carbon saving estimations and associated calculations. (You might wish to look at DEFRA conversion factors)
The table below shows an example of what you could enter for a carbon outcome. Further examples of
Outcomes and use of the Carbon Estimator are available on the CCF website.
Outcome #2 The inhabitants of 100 households will reduce their carbon emissions by a total of 50.9 tCO2e, by receiving 1-to-1 home energy advice to help them lower energy usage in their homes.
Activities: ▪ Two Staff attending and passing City & Guilds Energy Advice course.
▪ Launch Event promoting the free impartial advice on offer.
▪ Promotional materials, social media posts and contact advice updated
▪ 100+ home energy audits with personalised reports and energy use data collected
Monitoring: ▪ Data Protected records of homes participating and reports generated
▪ Additional Energy facts collected for each home.
▪ Pledges per household and evidence after follow-up.
▪ Meter readings and data from energy bills.
Non-Carbon Outcomes
CCF projects deliver many other social, economic and environmental outcomes, some examples could
include:
▪ Educational – Increased Climate Literacy (Outcome #1), skills development, access to training and educational attainments, etc.
▪ Social - more volunteering opportunities, improved participation in community organisations, enriched relationships between community organisations, etc.
▪ Economic - reduced fuel poverty, increased employment opportunities, etc.
▪ Health - improved mental and physical activity, etc.
▪ Environmental - improved biodiversity, increased access to community green spaces, etc.
Each outcome table has two associated boxes that must also be completed. Activities and Monitoring.
You will need to list the main activities that you are planning to deliver to achieve each outcome. Each
needs to provide a clear sense of scale by including how many, how often and how much.
Some of your activities may repeat across more than one of the outcomes, e.g. holding an event may be
an activity that is working towards delivering several outcomes. This is fine and will give us an idea of how
your project has been designed to effectively use your resources.
Example activities could include:
▪ Targeted activities for your project community – food fairs, cycle workshops, etc.
▪ Setting up and operating a textile repair and swap shop
▪ Providing ‘One to One’ Home Energy audits.
▪ Information provision through newsletters, websites, events, videos, etc.
It must be clear how the activity links to the outcome and the changes you want to achieve.
Monitoring
An indicator is something you can measure that demonstrates that a change is happening. For example,
an increase in volunteer hours being worked will likely help you demonstrate that you have increased
volunteering opportunities.
In this box, you should list the indicators you have chosen to measure impact your project is making and
tell us how you will be collecting information about these indicators. This may be through food/travel
diaries, surveys, visits or a whole host of other data collection methods.
For the carbon saving outcomes, the Carbon Estimator has a Data Collection tab that lists the activities
you have set and the types of data collection which is required to measure each. This may help you to
define your outcomes and design a monitoring strategy. It will also be helpful to look at the Data Collection
sheets (available on the CCF website), which you will be using during the project if funding is awarded.
You should choose one or two key indicators for each outcome that can be collected regularly, alongside
your planned activities. We would recommend that you try to build data collection into the design of how
you deliver your activities as this makes easier to ensure you are always collecting the data as you go
along, and that data collection isn’t just seen as the extra task you need to do in addition to the activities.
For your carbon outcomes, you are required to gather primary data from individuals regarding their current
behaviour, and then their behaviour throughout the project as well to measure the change. For example:
▪ Home Energy - kilowatt hour usage and energy type
▪ Travel - miles / kilometres and mode of transport.
▪ Waste - kilogrammes and types of waste and disposal behaviours i.e. landfill
▪ Food Growing - kilogrammes of food harvested
Guidance Notes
Scoring in this section is based on quality and not quantity. Ensure you have clearly defined and measurable outcomes, with aligned activities and effective monitoring strategies.
If you do not include the two mandatory outcomes (Outcome #1 on Climate Literacy plus at least one carbon outcome, Outcome #2) your application will be declined.
2.5 Estimated Carbon Savings (Score Code P)
Transfer the total Carbon Savings from the CCF Carbon Estimator into the table in this section.
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 13
If your project will be saving carbon that the Carbon Estimator cannot calculate please make this clear in
this section and submit your manual calculations. Please use the most up to date DEFRA emissions
factors, which can be found here.
2.6 Key Milestones (Score Code P)
It is important that your project is properly planned out and that the activities and outcomes are achievable
within the timescales of your project. This section allows you to supply an outline of key stages during the
project and the relevant dates.
Examples might include:
▪ Date for key staff recruitment to be completed
▪ Deadline dates for tendering and purchasing major capital items
▪ Formal launch event
▪ Dates related to regular data collection, evaluation, reporting and management reviews, etc.
Guidance Notes
Key Milestones should align with your spend projections in the Finance Tables (Part-B). i.e. if you plan to have an Energy Showcase in August then the finances should reflect this.
You will be required to submit a progress report after the first month and then at 3-month intervals throughout, with a Final Report due at the end of the project.
2.7 Project Legacy (Score Code L)
One of the four key criteria of the CCF is a project legacy. Your project must have a positive legacy beyond
the funded period and develop a plan to ensure the project has a lasting impact.
We want to know how you plan to ensure that the effects of the project will continue beyond the funding
period. This might be in the form of continuing some of the project activities after the end of the project or
providing your community with access to resources produced during the project. For projects that involve
putting additional infrastructure in place (such as energy efficiency measures in community owned
buildings), this might be part of the legacy, but it will be important to show how the infrastructure will
continue to be used beyond the funding period.
Short-term, medium-term and long-term planning
This part of the application should be guided by short, medium, and long-term plans, which together create
a road map to developing a lasting project legacy. Whilst short-term legacy plans will generally be more
structured, medium-term legacy plans will be broader, and long-term legacy plans more aspirational.
Legacy planning will vary from project to project, depending on the size and scope of its ambitions and the
current/future capacity of your community.
Examples:
How will the project continue? By continuing activities beyond the lifetime of the project.
What will the project need? If you intend to carry on some of the activities after the funding period, you
should explain how you intend to do this. Will you need to purchase small capital items such as sewing
machines or cooking equipment? Will you need funding to pay a member of staff to deliver this, or will you
develop a network of volunteers who can carry this out with little or no further funding needed? You might
also want to create a way for participants to access information (from a website or leaflets), You should
consider how this will be managed after the CCF funding period.
How will the project continue? By generating revenue from project activities.
What will the project need? This might involve renting out a space in a community owned building, selling
produce from a community garden, or charging for services such as bike maintenance or energy efficient
advice. Do you have the skills and the knowledge needed to deliver the revenue generating activity? Will
you need to secure a space to work out of? How will you develop a programme to help you achieve long
term financial security? Do you need access to support and advice, and if so, who will you seek this from?
How will the project continue? By investing in large capital items or infrastructure.
What will the project need? If purchasing large capital items (such as EVs, e-bikes, industrial
composters, etc.), or investing in infrastructure (such as polytunnels, raised beds, building refurbishment
work, etc.) how will these be supported and maintained after the funding period?
For buildings, allotments and community gardens, therefore we ask for a long-term lease to be provided for
the sites, so it is clear that it will be in community ownership (or management) for the long term. For some
large capital items, there will likely be an ongoing maintenance cost involved; we want to see how you intend
to address this and how the costs will be covered in the long term.
Guidance Notes
All projects require to have some form of legacy.
Stronger applications pay close attention to this question and develop plans to retain skills, continue to use CCF funded resources and plan for maintenance and repair of capital items.
3.1 Key Delivery Partners (Score Code P)
Use this section to tell us about other organisations you are working with that are essential to support the
delivery of the project. This can include organisations such as your local authority, other national bodies,
non-government organisations, local businesses, charities, schools, etc.
Briefly explain the role that these partner organisations will have and how the relationships have been
developed so far.
Will the partner organisation be directly delivering some of the activities? If so, how will this affect your
organisation’s (and more importantly your community’s) ability to influence the delivery of the project?
You will need to provide a detailed letter of support or a formal partnership agreement for all key delivery
partners and these should be submitted along with the rest of your application. Please ☒ tick the
Evidenced column in this table is to confirm that supporting documentation has been supplied.
Guidance Notes
Key Delivery Partners such as Home Energy Scotland, Zero Waste Scotland or similar require enough notice to develop partnerships. Please do not leave this until the Stage Two deadline. Missing Letters of Support or Partnership Agreements will indicate that your discussions are not at an advanced stage and may weaken your application.
Projects must be predominantly delivered by the applicant organisation, their staff and volunteers. Support can be provided through partner organisations, if skills do not exist within your organisation, however this support must not exceed 49% of the total application budget in any year.
It is essential that the following documents are submitted with your application. Failure to submit this
evidence will render your application ineligible. Please tick the box in this section to confirm that all files
have been supplied. Mandatory documents are:
▪ Signed copy of CCF Application - Part-A, Project Proposal (please leave in WORD format) – you can submit a scanned copy of the Declaration & Authorisation page if required.
▪ Constitution, memorandum & articles or other governance documents
▪ A recent bank statement for your organisation – within the past four months
▪ Proof of address – within the past four months (your Bank Statement can be used)
▪ Most recent company accounts or a 12-month finance projection if new organisation
3.3 Project Related Documentation (Score Code P)
In addition to the documents listed in Section 3.2, KSB also need to receive other documents.
Two documents are mandatory for all applications.
▪ CCF Carbon Estimator – a copy of this spreadsheet completed and aligned your application.
▪ Community Consultation/Survey – or similar evidence justifying the need for the project
Other documents may be required depending on the type of project you are proposing
▪ If you are hiring staff - Job Descriptions for all staff posts
▪ If the project is co-financed by other funders – offer letters from other funders
▪ If you will be conducting building improvements - Building Title deeds (or lease of at least 50-years), Resource Efficient Scotland (RES) Report (or similar), Planning Permission, Building Warrant, Listed Building Consent (if required by your local authority).
▪ If you will be growing food – Land Title Deeds (or lease of at least 15-years), Planning Permission (if required by your local authority).
▪ If you will be handling waste and/or food waste - waste licence or exemptions from SEPA. (See link to SEPA website for regulations and exemptions)
▪ If you will be selling, renting or repairing items – letters of support from local organisations which offer a similar service, e.g. bike shop which offers repair and/or hire services.
Guidance Notes
Projects must be ready to deliver. CCF does not fund the development phase, so all applications must have planning and other legal evidence in place by the Application deadline. If you suspect that documents will not be available by this date, then we advise you to notify us that you are formally withdrawing your application. The CCF Grant Panel will not award any projects that are still awaiting permissions or pending funding that is not likely to be secured in time.
3.4 Declaration & Authorisation
Please ensure you read the declaration statement. The person that signs the form must be an authorised
member of your board or trustee. Ideally the Chair, Vice Chair or Treasurer.
Members of staff or contractors are not permitted to sign this application.
KSB will hold all information provided on record and will only share statistical summaries with the Scottish
Government and the CCF Grant Panel. Your records will be maintained so that KSB may trace a history of
your applications which may support future applications.
Guidance Notes
A key part of this declaration is agreeing that your organisation is not insolvent or facing insolvency, and that any change to this situation will be communicated to KSB immediately.
If you would like further information about how KSB process and maintain the security of information, as well as the rights available to individuals in relation to the information KSB process or queries regarding the personal data KSB hold visit: www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/privacy
Part-B is an excel spreadsheet containing multiple TABS as described below.
4. Finances, Other Funding, Staff, Revenue Generation & State Aid
Key Points to Note
Before starting to fill in the Part-B Finances spreadsheet there are some key points to note:
▪ You can apply for funding for one or two years at a maximum of £100,000 per organisation per year.
▪ Grants are funded for the period 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021 and for 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022.
▪ You cannot claim for costs incurred before 1st April 2020.
▪ Single year projects must start in April 2020, not April 2021.
▪ Funds for a 2-year project cannot be transferred between each financial year.
▪ Certain items are ineligible and cannot be claimed via the CCF. Please refer to the relevant section of the Stage One guidance notes.
▪ All purchasing using CCF funds should be based on good sustainable procurement practices to align with the values of the CCF and Greener Scotland campaigns, which include:
o Choosing locally produced goods over those transported distances
o Avoiding purchasing new goods if good quality second-hand goods are available
o Selecting goods with highest energy efficiency ratings
o Ensuring local suppliers are considered in tenders, etc.
o Opting for low-carbon food options when catering for events (local, vegetarian, vegan)
o Minimising project and volunteer travel by high-carbon transport modes when low-carbon alternatives exist. Walking, cycling, public transport, video conferencing, etc.
o Where suitable, opting for Fairtrade, organically produced, ethically sourced products.
o Avoiding single-use plastic at events.
o Aiming to achieve best value when making purchases.
o Partnering with other CCF groups and sharing resources or loaning items that do not need to be purchased.
▪ In the Part-B spreadsheet, TABS marked as: Budgets, Spend 2020-21 and State Aid are mandatory.
▪ TABs for Spend 2021-22, Other Funders, Staff and Revenue Generation are optional and only need completed if applicable to your project.
4.1 BUDGETS (Score Code F)
In the example below, you can see the Budget Headings that have been chosen. The Budget Headings
must be uniquely named as they will be used to claim your grant if you are successful. All headings
automatically transfer over onto the Spend-Year1 & Spend Year-2 tabs. The second column is there for
you to provide a longer description/justification and finally there are two columns for the total amounts that
you expect to claim per budget heading per year.
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 18
Budget Headings Description & Justification 2020-2021 2021-2022 TOTAL
Co-ordinator Salary 2-Year Salary plus ENI & Pension 22,000.00 23,000.00 45,000.00
Insulation External Wall insulation for Scout Hall 25,500.00 25,500.00
Marketing Costs for promoting project and monthly low-carbon youth events 3,000.00 3,000.00 6,000.00
Totals per Year and Full Grant requested 50,500.00 26,000.00 76,500.00
The CCF does not fund core organisational costs such as Annual General Meeting costs, membership
subscriptions and other fees that your organisation would normally incur if it were not running the CCF
project. For other organisational costs, which will be increased by the CCF funded project, budget
headings should specify what percentage will be claimed and justify why these are necessary to deliver the
project. If unsure, please discuss this with your Development Officer.
Value Added Tax (VAT) is an eligible cost to claim for items purchased via the CCF unless your
organisation is registered for and able to recover the VAT. It is extremely important that you inform us if
your organisation can recover VAT on the costs of your project before submitting this application. You
should then ensure that your budget figures are adjusted accordingly.
The Budgets TAB also contains fields for KSB Use Only.
Guidance Notes
It is not possible to transfer funding between financial years therefore it is important to ensure that this is accounted for when working out budgets per year.
Please refer to guidance on ineligible costs in the Stage One guidance notes. CCF cannot fund renewable energy systems, new boilers, recoverable VAT, etc.
It is not possible to claim against items that are not covered under Budget Headings or detailed in the application form, so make sure you have covered all the costs you will incur. For example, make sure you have covered capacity to perform the additional administrative tasks involved in delivering the project and reporting to us. Training is also available so ensure to include the costs in attending these if needed.
We strongly recommend that you obtain estimates for large expense items, to ensure that your budgets are realistic. This is essential for items over £5,000 and failing to do so will weaken your application and impact scoring.
If you create two identically named Budget Headings the spreadsheet will highlight these in red. Please make sure all Headings are uniquely named.
4.2 Spend 2020-21 (Score Code F)
Below is an example illustrating the monthly spend breakdown per budget heading. Note that for each row,
the Spend Total needs to match the Budget Total set earlier in the BUDGETS tab. Adjust your monthly
spend or the original budget until they match. Any variance will be flagged in red in the Difference column.
See the example below where Film Festival totals do not match.
Budget Headings
Apr-20
May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 … Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Spend Total
Film Festival 250.00 … 250.00 500.00 1,500.00 1,000.00
4.3 Spend 2021-22 (skip to section 4.4 if not applicable) (Score Code F)
This is the same format as for Spend 2020-21 tab except it is for the next financial year. Please note that
Budget Headings (as defined in the BUDGETS tab) will all automatically appear in the Spend 2021-22 tab,
so don’t worry if you have some budget headings with zero spend associated to them.
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 19
4.4 Other Funding (skip to section 4.5 if not applicable) (Score Code F)
If your project requires additional funding from other sources or you are contributing some of your own
financial reserves, then please list them all on this tab. If there is any potential risk associated with a
specific funding source this must be clarified in the second column. State the value of the other
grant/funding source and when it has been or will be secured by. Evidence of other funding will need to be
included with your application. Below is an example.
Funding Source
How does this help the project? (Please include a risk assessment if the other funding is not secured.)
Amount £ Date funding will
be Secured
Lottery Money for building 100,000.00 01/01/2020
Small Lottery Money for Tea and Coffee 500.00 01/03/2020
Big Lottery New Roof on the shed
Risk: If this funding is not secured in time, we will use our own unreserved funds to pay for the new roof.
2,000.00
03/05/2020
Own funds Using unreserved funds to pay for ground-works 3,000.00 01/01/2020
Total 105,500.00
Guidance Notes
We appreciate that different funders have different timescales for their application rounds, but we still need proof of when all funding for this project will be in place. You will need to supply copies of the official award letter(s) from these funders with your final application.
If any funding which is essential for the project has not been secured by the deadline, we advise you to notify KSB that you are formally withdrawing your application. The CCF Grant Panel will not award any projects that are still awaiting confirmation of essential funding.
4.5 Staff (skip to section 4.6 if not applicable) (Score Code F)
Please provide information about all members of staff that will be employed by your organisation to do any
work for the CCF project.
You should include the following:
▪ The title of the post, as it will appear on the job description and eventual contract with the employee.
▪ Their full contracted salary amount (as per the job description and/or contract).
▪ The full-time equivalence of the post. For example, if the employee will be working part time for 3 of 5 days per week then this would be 0.6
▪ The percentage of the post that CCF will be funding. i.e. It might be that a staff member’s post is part funded by another organisation, or you are using your own resources.
▪ Which themes of the project they are working on. For instance, if your project has a cycling element and an energy advice element some staff might only be working on one of these. If they are working on all of them then just enter ‘all’.
Remember that you must submit Job Descriptions for all staff positions to be funded (fully or partially) by
4.6 Revenue Generation (skip to section 4.7 if not applicable) (Score Code F)
If your project intends to generate revenue you will need to complete this tab.
The first column asks you to describe the activities that will generate the revenue, and it is important to
note that these should be specifically linked to ensuring the low carbon legacy of the project rather than
just general fundraising for your organisation.
Following columns request the total per activity per year for up to 3 years.
You will need to provide letters of support from any direct competitors you have identified. These should
detail how the relationship will be managed. Ideally the organisations should work in partnership to
complement each other.
4.7 State Aid (Score Code F)
The CCF is a Scottish Government resource and counts as ‘aid from a member state or through state
resources’ for the purposes of the European Commission. The Commission has State Aid Rules which
have been written to ensure that public subsidy does not distort the market across the European
Community. Therefore, all projects which apply to the CCF are assessed against the five State Aid Tests.
The main test that KSB will carry out is whether the potential funding for your project is likely to affect trade
between Member States across the European Community. Most projects are unlikely to be involved in
economic activity at this scale, but in some cases the Scottish Government might decide that State Aid
applies because of the proposed activities.
If State Aid applies, awards can only be made under the State Aid ‘de minimus‘ regulations. This is the
maximum amount which can be awarded from ALL State Resources (any funding or support from any local
or national government body) to each organisation (not each project). The ‘de minimus’ limit varies
according to the activity taking place; -
▪ Industrial - €200,000 over three financial years. Activity in this category covers most of the types of activities that CCF groups could be involved in.
▪ Agriculture - €15,000 over three financial years. Activity in this category includes:
o Production of fruit and vegetables
o Sale of fruit and vegetables as harvested
If you have received ‘de minimus’ funding from any other grant fund (in the current financial year or the
previous two), you must detail the amounts in this tab within the Part-B Finance spreadsheet.
All funders have an obligation to explain in the offer/award letter whether your award has been made under
‘de minimus’ regulations. If it is found that the regulations have not been properly followed, the recipient
organisation could be required to repay the funding, with interest.
You should be aware of the implications of State Aid and how it may be relevant to your project. For
information on State Aid please visit www.stateaidscotland.gov.uk
Name of Fund and Funder 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020
Funder A - Grant X 125,000.00 75,000.00
Funder B - Grant Y 15,000.00 15,000.00
Totals 125,000.00 90,000.00 15,000.00
CCF Application Guidance, v2020 21
What Happens Next
Submitting Your Application
Once you have completed Part-A, Part-B, the Carbon Estimator and have collated all the supporting
documents you should confirm that:
▪ you have all files and that they are clearly and uniquely named
▪ Part-A, Part-B and the Carbon Estimator are still in their original Word and Excel formats.
▪ Part-A is signed by an authorised person who has the authority to sign on behalf of your organisation, e.g. Chair, Vice Chair or Treasurer. (a signed and scanned copy of the Declaration page of Part-A can be attached if you do not wish to include a digital signature).
