The Phoenix Way Children and Youth Emergency Round - Application Feedback

Introduction

Thank you for applying to The Phoenix Way Children and Youth Emergency Round. We really appreciate the time and energy you put into applying for funding. In this blog post, we’ll explore the participatory panel process for decision making, and the main reasons applications were ineligible for funding.

The Participatory Grant Making Process:

The funding decisions for this funding round were made through a participatory grantmaking process. This process involved engaging with young people nominated by the Phoenix Way regional partners to carry out the decision- making, and this tends to take more time than a staff-led decision making body. It emphasises shared decision-making, transparency, and equal representation, allowing those that the funding will serve to make decisions about how it’s distributed. Participatory grantmaking encourages collaboration and inclusivity, allowing diverse perspectives to shape the funding decisions. The panel made a number of commitments to the way they worked and their decision making, which included:

• Seeing the variety of opinions and debate around criteria as exciting
• Honouring the applicants and the work that they do
• Seeking to understand the concept aims of the applicants rather than focusing on the application alone
• Making decision-making easier for grassroots organisations

The panel reviewed all eligible applications and met virtually to discuss and make decisions on the applications. The panel voted on applications through two rounds of voting and then finalised in a virtual session, the grantees for this emergency round.

Top reasons for ineligible and unsuccessful applications:

Due to the nature of the participatory panel process, we’re unable to provide specific feedback on individual applications for this round. However, we have analysed the top reasons as to why organisations didn’t make it through the initial eligibility sift. The full eligibility criteria can be found here.

This is important because we received 519 applications, but of these only 184 were eligible. Of the applications we received, just under 1 in 10 of total applications were funded, and out of those which were eligible, over 1 in 4 applications were funded.

The top reason for an organisation being ineligible was that youth violence was not their primary focus – this was the case in 95% of organisations unsuccessful applications. As this was a round focused on emergency funding, it was important that the primary focus of the organisation was working with Black and racially minoritised children and young people to prevent or reduce violence in their communities and lives. We saw many amazing youth violence projects apply but for many, this was only one aspect of the work they did in communities. We hope that future rounds can also consider project funding. More of the detailed reasons for missing the initial eligibility sift include:

1. Some organisations’ definition of youth violence didn’t meet the criteria, for example the organisation works with young people, however their activities did not necessarily prevent or reduce youth violence – this was the case of 25% of applications.
2. In order to be eligible for this fund, organisations needed to work with participants and communities that are primarily 18 or under, but children and young people were not the primary focus of the organisation – 5% of cases.
3. In order to be eligible for this fund, organisations needed to have annual operating budgets of up to £150,000 per year, and the organisation’s income was too high – 3% of applications.
4. The organisation worked with families or whole communities but did not specifically focus on young people – 3% of applications.
5. In a handful of cases, the organisation was not based in England.
6. Some either did not submit a full application or did not provide additional information when requested – 3%.

We sincerely appreciate the considerable effort invested in your funding application, and we hope this information provides you with insight to understand the factors that may have influenced your outcome.

There will be future funding rounds, so please do keep an eye out for those. In the future, we hope to offer opportunities for organisations that seek support and collaboration, including webinars, seminar and networking events.

To stay up to date with the latest opportunities, please follow The Phoenix Way, Ubele Initiative and Global Fund for Children.