A message has been shared by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust for anyone currently involved in funded projects and activities:
We are in extraordinary times; and we’d like to let you know that we’ll do all we can to help you keep supporting the people who benefit from the grant that we have awarded to you.
We know your organisation will be deciding how best to respond to the Government’s advice; and making the best choices for your staff, volunteers and your beneficiaries should be your priority.
We have stayed open; and our small staff team are ready to support you in delivering your grants. We’ll make sure that any payments you are due continue to reach you in good time. We are also continuing to work on our new programmes which will begin to open in the coming months.
Changes to how we are working
The small staff team at the Trust are now working remotely. Please do not send us any more correspondence by post. We have a mechanism in place to collect anything that you have sent us recently
We will be writing to you soon to tell you about the new system we are putting in place that will let you send confidential information relating to payments or grant agreements.
Any payments that you have already submitted complete information for will be paid in the normal way and we will contact you if we have a query
Making changes to your grant
We expect that most of the organisations that we have awarded grants to will need to either
Change the activities that they are doing:
This means changing what you are doing now to keep offering support to those identified beneficiaries for whom your project was targetted. For example, you may have stopped offering sessions that people can come to, but now offer support to people who are isolated at home.
Extend the overall length of their grant
This means that you would like to have more time; so that you can pause the activities that you were doing, and restart them when restrictions relating to Covid-19 have lifted
Some organisations may like to do both.
We’ll be creating a short form to make it easier for you to tell us what you would like to do. If you haven’t already been in touch with us, please continue to think about what your plans are. We’ll contact you when the form is ready for you to use.
Other sources of support
Cobseo; the Confederation of Service charities has published an online set of resources regarding the pandemic; which they are keeping updated. You may find these useful; and they can be accessed at https://www.cobseo.org.uk/about-us/coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/
The Charity Commission has published a guide to help you keep running your organisation at this time https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-the-charity-sector
