Awards for All

From Edmonton Camera Club deciding that we would look for funding to obtain some digital equipment, to receiving the grant award took about 12 months. We could have probably done it much quicker but as with all clubs, members work on a voluntary basis and things get things done as & when they can.
Once the form was completed with the supporting paperwork and it was sent off, approximately 3 months passed before we heard that we had been successful.

From research it seemed that Awards for All was a good place to try as they have a wide remit to community groups and had helped numerous organisations with in our locality with projects. As they state on their website:

“Awards for All is a Lottery grants scheme aimed at local communities. We award grants of between £500 and £5,000 in a simple and straightforward way”

One of the first things the club needed to do was to collate information with regards to club members. A questionnaire was produced requesting members anonymously give information about their working background i.e. in employment/ retired, also their age category, ethnicity, whether they considered themselves to have a disability & if they were registered as disabled.

We discussed what we would like to use the grant for. We decided that the club needed to enter the digital world and we listed the equipment and brands we would like: laptop computer, printer, software, cabling etc.
We felt that with this equipment we could offer digital presentation sessions to members and to those in the local community. Edmonton Camera Club is always looking out for ways of promoting itself and to encourage new members to join. In Enfield (Edmonton is part of the London Borough of Enfield) people have a choice, there are 3 camera clubs/ photographic societies in the borough, so it seemed a very beneficial move to offer something a little different and for which we could see there would be a need.

We obtained an application form and began to work through it. One word of caution, either use pencil to fill in the form or make copies and use them until you are certain of your information. You will need to make changes; delete things, add them in and move items around.

When filling in the grant application, the questions were fairly straightforward and the help notes were very useful. A couple of committee members worked on the draft and requested information as necessary from others, i.e. banking details from our treasurer, equipment information from our computer whiz.

A specific project or equipment is the thing to go for; Awards for All do not grant monies for ongoing running costs, such as hire of a room.

Again, be mindful that equipment may change. We did not change what we had asked for, but had to change models as the specified equipment we’d requested was no longer available when the money arrived. Things move very swiftly in the world of computing!

Another tip, remember that you may need to add in an amount to your grant request for storage of equipment, if nothing you already have is suitable e.g. some kind of carrying case.

Once you receive an award, be sure to keep all receipts, photos advertising your award, anything you place in local papers, feedback sheets, and flyers for an event or whatever. All this will be useful to include in the report you will be drawing up for Awards for All, as to how your project went.

If you are successful, publicise your grant award, this is something that Awards for All asks organisations to do and as they have been kind enough to give a grant it seems the least you can do!
If you are unsuccessful, ask for feedback as to why and try again. If you don’t ask, you don’t get!

If you decide to go for a grant, don’t worry. It’s not nearly as arduous a procedure as you might expect. Keep information clear and straightforward and most important of all make the most of and enjoy your grant.
Good luck!

Edmonton Camera Club’s 60th Anniversary Lecture, on 11th April 2005, was given by celebrated wildlife photographer Andy Rouse at Millfield Theatre. At the end of the evening he was pleased to present club President, Marilyn Steward, with a certificate from ‘Awards for All’ to mark the granting of our award.

Award Amount: was £4268 granted on 24th March 2005

Edmonton Camera Club would like to express its sincere gratitude to Awards for All for the grant made to us in March 2005. It was granted on the exact month which marked our 60th Anniversary, which was an extra special way of celebrating. Thank you.