Frequently Asked Questions

Harrow Giving’s purpose is to raise funds for Harrow community groups. These might be charities, but also community interest companies. Funds are collected and then distributed through open and accountable grant programmes. Some of our funds come from large organisations, such as the NHS, who might struggle to work with small, grassroots groups directly. We help them to have more impact by reaching harder to engage communities. We also raise donations from companies and individuals.

We fund organisations who are:

  • a constituted not-for-profit organisation (company limited by guarantee, community interest company limited by guarantee, registered charity, co-operative, unincorporated organisation)
  • with a minimum of 2 unrelated trustees / directors
  • with a bank account in the name of the organisation
  • The activities which they are applying for funding for need to be legally charitable and benefit Harrow residents.
  • We will only fund organisations that have a track record of working in Harrow.

Current process for all grants / contacts:

  • check against the Charity Commission / Companies House
  • if organisation is not registered then we ask for a copy of their constitution
  • addresses of all trustees
  • accounts if they not available on charity commission.
  • a bank statement

We also check the organisation’s track record if they have previously received funding from us – making sure monitoring was completed and the agreed activities took place to a high standard.

On awarding of a grant, a grant agreement is signed that sets out what activities the grant covers, and the monitoring and reporting requirements.

Each funding round has its own decision-making grants committee, who have received training, including on unconscious-bias. They usually meet online.

We publish clear guidelines and criteria for each grant round, with an application process that is designed to be as accessible and straight-forward as possible. Once the closing date has passed, we carry out due-diligence checks and then pass applications to the grants committee, who assess applications against the criteria.

Activities undertaken as part of a grant from Harrow Giving are monitored by our experienced grant management team. Many of the organisations we work with are very small and run by volunteers, therefore for small grants, monitoring is a single, straight-forward form at the end of the grant period. Larger grants may be monitored on a more regular basis, and support is offered to organisations who need help to identify the information needed for these grants.

We ask for case studies and photos as part of the monitoring, and will sometimes ask to visit, where appropriate.

We then combine the information we’ve collected into reports that show the overall impact of a grant scheme. This can be in a report back to our funders, but when we have resources to do so, we also adapt this information for the public and our stakeholders.

Harrow Giving is a trading name of Harrow Together (registered charity no. 1167770) and managed by Voluntary Action Harrow Co-operative. (VAH). This means that the day-to-day work is carried out by staff employed by VAH, and overseen by a sub-committee responsible to the Harrow Together board of trustees.

Harrow Together (HT) is a registered charity (no. 1167770) and a consortium working to strengthen the voluntary & community sector. HT provides opportunities for Harrow organisations to work in partnership to secure larger contracts.

HT is run by the sector for the sector and aims to create a stronger sense of local identity, engagement, support, collaboration and focused mission for the voluntary & community sector.

Decision-making committees are established for each grant round. These committees are made up of people who don’t have a conflict of interest e.g. they are not part of or affiliated to an organisation who has applied for funding.

Each grant round will have its own decision-making committee, which could be made up from; Harrow Together Trustees, Harrow Voluntary & Community Sector Forum Representatives and funders and members of the community, who have received training and support to take part.

A conflict of interest register will be kept for each committee.

We keep the website updated with details of the organisations who receive grants and Harrow Together publishes accounts in line with Charity Commission regulations.You can see these accounts by searching for Harrow Together on the Charity Commission website.

Please take a look at our complaints policy, and fill out our form. We take all complaints very seriously and will get back to you within 20 days.

In the first instance, you should complain to the organisation directly. Look at their website, or for their contact details on the Charity Commission.

If you feel you need to escalate your complaint then you can also complain to the Charity Commission or report fraud to the police.