Bristol Impact Fund Consultation

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Voluntary, community and social enterprise groups (VCSE) play a vital role in the city. The COVID-19 emergency demonstrated the vitality of community and voluntary groups across the city and the power of citizen action. The community and voluntary sector are crucial partners in meeting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sector will also be crucial in how we recover, helping the city to build back better and achieve the aims of the Bristol City Council Corporate Strategy and One City Plan. The sector showcases Bristol citizens’ drive and determination to improve their own communities.

Bristol City Council has a proud history of grant investment in the community and voluntary sector. This has helped to build the strong foundations which have enabled the city to respond quickly at a time of crisis in the COVID-19 emergency. The 2017 launch of the Bristol Impact Fund signalled a new strategic approach to grant investment, with the city council pooling eight grant budgets to provide a four year grant investment programme for VCSE organisations in Bristol.

The first Bristol Impact Fund aimed to reduce disadvantage and inequality, improve health and wellbeing, and increase resilience by funding projects that deliver support to people facing disadvantage and inequality in the city. This first round of funding ends on 30 June 2021.
Bristol City Council is consulting on the following elements of the Bristol Impact Fund 2:
  • The proposed overall goal of the fund
  • The proposed 7 ways of working
  • The proposed impact of the fund i.e. the difference that we would like the fund to make
  • Approach to funding
  • Monitoring and evaluation
What is the budget?

We are proposing to invest £5,400,000 over four years: £1.2m in year one and then £1.4m for a further three years in grants to community and voluntary organisations through the second Bristol Impact Fund (BIF2).

In addition to the Bristol Impact Fund there will be a Community Resilience Fund of £4m capital funding in 2021/22. This fund is to help achieve the priorities identified through the VCSE research being undertaken by Black South West Network in partnership with Voscur and Locality. This will fund one-off capital projects, enabling communities to adapt and find opportunities to build back better. Capital is funding for physical assets such as buildings, technology, or equipment. Projects might include digital connectivity in community spaces, improvements to community facilities or equipment. The money will be targeted at communities hardest hit by COVID-19 and facing deepening inequality. Our aim is to work with community networks so that decisions about priorities are made by communities.

An additional £850k will be allocated to support the delivery of a £4million Community Resilience Fund for capital investment in the VCSE sector. This will include grant funding so that organisations have the ability to develop local priorities and proposals, and enable the proposals to happen. It will also provide capacity to involve communities in decision making and to deliver the fund. Any spending shortfalls in this allocation will be reinvested in BIF.

We will be working with partners through the VCSE Strategy Group and in particular Black Southwest Network, Locality and Voscur to develop our approach to this additional funding opportunity.

Please note this consultation is about the Bristol Impact Fund only.

How does this compare with the budget in 2017?

The first Bristol Impact Fund was £3.28 million per year. Out of that fund:
We have made a saving of £348,000 by applying a 15% taper to medium and large grants and the Voice and Influence contract. £140k was allocated to a contract for Voice and Influence work with Equalities communities, which also received a 15% taper to £119k. The Voice and Influence Funding will now be re-integrated into the BIF2 monies.

£690k was ring fenced for community transport. This funding continues but is now managed by the West of England Combined Authority (WECA).

£850k will be allocated to support delivery of the Community Resilience Fund.

The format of this consultation survey

This survey is split into 3 sections inviting your views on different elements of the Bristol Impact Fund 2. In each section, we will ask a series of multiple choice questions and at the end of the section there is an open text box for you to make further comments on any element of that section. If you are unable to complete the survey in one go, you can save your progress and continue later by clicking "save and continue" at the bottom of the page. You will then be emailed a link, which will take you back to your partial survey.