Assessment criteria

1. Help the Hospices grants team

Officers working at Help the Hospices will check that your application meets the basic eligibility criteria.

2. Help the Hospices major grants committee

During the second stage all applications will be considered by the Help the Hospices’ major grants committee, which includes representatives from the Rank Foundation.

It will be assessed against the following criteria:

• extent to which the project demonstrates a direct benefit for older patients

• extent to which the project will enhance end of life care for older patients

• the number of older patients directly benefiting from the project over a twelve month period

• demonstration of the need for the project you intend to provide

• how you plan to evaluate/measure the effectiveness of the project

• extent to which the project represents value for money.

It is important that you address each point in your application. These are not listed in order of importance.

In considering the overall strength of your application, the grant committee will particularly look at:

• How your project will make a difference to the lives of older patients, for example, the types of services or facilities you will offer and how closely your project meets the criteria.

• Why you think it will succeed in doing this, for example the strength of the project, assurance of further funding and plans to actively involve users in all stages of the project.  

If we receive more applications than the amount of funding available, then the free reserve levels of your hospice may be taken into account and priority may be given to those in areas of economic deprivation.

Your application’s success can not be guaranteed and the committee’s decision is final.

What happens if successful?

If your application for a grant is successful then we will send an award letter, together with an acceptance form, to the application sponsor, usually the chief executive, clinical director or equivalent of the hospice.

The acceptance form must be signed by the application sponsor, as well as the applicant, agreeing to the conditions of the grant. We also ask you to confirm which date the project will start and when you expect to complete it.

All grants must be claimed within twelve months of the award date. We reserve the right to withdraw funding after twelve months if it is not claimed, so it is important that you keep us up to date with progress.

Payments are made on submission of a grant claim form, together with evidence of expenditure, such as copies of paid receipts and invoices in relation to the grant.

After the work is done

Twelve months after you receive your grant, we will ask you for a final report. This asks for further information about what you have achieved and what wider differences the work has made to your hospice.