1. Be really clear about what you are trying to do for your community. It's really important to tell us your story: what you want to achieve; why this is important and how you will use the funds raised.

2. Decide which of our priority themes your project will address, it may be more than one:

• Address Inequalities 
• Improve Health and Wellbeing 
• Get People Active 
• Support Communities Working Together to Address Local Needs 
• Encourage Volunteering 
• Improve Where We Live
• Support community-based arts and cultural activities
• Promote digital inclusion

3. You will need to demonstrate that there is community support for your project. You can do this by describing how you identified the need for your project – did you do local surveys or engagement events? Show pictures and describe what you did. 

4. Have a think about what the impact of your work will be, what difference will it make to your community? Consider:

• What needs to change and why?
• What will you do to make this change?
• How do you know this will create the change you want?
• What will you look at and measure to see if your change has worked?
• What will be the output and outcomes from your project? Outputs show what was produced or accomplished (numbers), outcomes show the effect of these outputs on the desired result, e.g.– by running three play events we have helped to build cohesiveness and social inclusion in our community.
• How many people will benefit from the project?

5. All of our grants will need to see some element of match funding. This may be in the form of volunteer hours (ward grants), but the City grants need to have a minimum of 20% cash match funding. You will be expected to provide details about where this funding has come from so we can see how our grant is contributing to the overall project.

6. If your project is based in a Exeter City Council priority area, there is support available from your local Community Builder who can link you with other local people who may be interested in working with you.

These priority areas include:

• Exwick
• Redhills
• St Thomas
• St David’s
• City Centre
• Newtown
• Mincinglake
• Beacon Heath
• Whipton
• Wonford
• Countess Wear

7. Your local Ward Councillors will want to support your project and will want to be familiar with what you are trying to achieve. To find out who your Councillor is, please use our find my Councillor page.