Ministry of Justice Specialist Fund

The Application Guidance(opens in new window) and FAQs(opens in new window) are there to support you with any fund-specific questions you may have. If you experience any technical issues with our application, please get in touch with fundinginfo@comicrelief.com(opens in new window). 

If technical issues are preventing you from submitting your application before the deadline (12:00 / noon 20th July 2021), please get in touch with fundinginfo@comicrelief.com(opens in new window) as soon as possible.

Please note that submitting an application does not impose an obligation on Comic Relief to award you with any funding. Any award of funding to an organisation is conditional on many factors including an organisation being successful at shortlisting and assessment stages, Comic Relief’s Social Impact Committee approving your proposal, your organisation passing our due diligence checks and entering into and meeting our conditions of funding.

We invite all applicants to share feedback on our application process for this fund. You can do this by completing an Applicant Survey HERE(opens in new window). Our applicant survey will be open throughout the application window, and for a limited time after the deadline.

The opportunity

Comic Relief will deliver £1,713,000 of Ministry of Justice funding for specialist organisations in England and Wales that support survivors / victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, who are led 'by, with and for' communities facing racial inequality, disabled people or LGBTQ+ communities. 

Funds will support costs, including hardware and software, which improve digital and remote capacity, provide continuity in support, and enhance future sustainability. 

Alongside funding, successful applicants will receive digital and technical coaching and expertise from a support partner. 

This practical expertise is central to the programme and will enable funded partners in the initial 1-2 months of the fund to scope, validate and explore what digital approaches and upgrades are most appropriate for their organisations, staff and service users.

Funding is available for a maximum of five months. We are expecting payments to made to successful applicants at the end of September 2021 and for projects to finish end of February 2022.

This programme is part of a £40 million funding boost announced by the Ministry of Justice earlier this year, in February 2021, for specialist support services to help survivors and victims of rape and domestic abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

THE SCOPE

Defining ‘by / with and for’ organisations:

To be eligible for this fund, your organisation must be able to demonstrate that your organisations is a ‘by / with and for’ organisation with alignment to the elements below.

Mission

You promote the rights of survivors / victims who experience additional injustice, due to being from communities facing racial inequality, disabled people and / or LGBTQ+ as your primary mission. You will be able to demonstrate a track record of delivering the majority of your support to people from these backgrounds.

Approach

Your approach reflects an understanding of the ways in which sexism, racism, ageism, class discrimination, hetero sexism and ableism interact. You will have a proven understanding of how to navigate the social and cultural contexts of survivors and victims from these groups.

Leadership

You recognise the value of lived experience of the people you work with and this is demonstrably included across your organisation. You have systems of accountability to the people you serve and they are centred in strategy development and decision making (this will look different for different organisations, so please tell us how you do this). Trustee and staff make-up (majority made up of your users) could be one example of the way you might demonstrate this. Other ways might be annual strategy meetings where strategy is set with users with accountability mechanisms built in to ensure delivery against this.

Change

You are committed to structural change to achieve social justice. Your work to affect structural change will be visible both within your own organisation and your external influencing. Your organisation recognises the value of lived experience in the staff team and enables it to shape your approach.

If you are unsure about meeting this criteria, please do not hesitate to contact us at fundinginfo@comicrelief.com(opens in new window) and we can discuss further.

Defining ‘digital’:

We recognise the term ‘digital’ is as much about the culture and practice of digital as it is about digital technologies and hardware. While this fund will focus on the latter, the technical support partner will work with successful applicants to introduce them to digital ways of working and its capabilities.

In your proposal you will tell us about what your internal service delivery ongoing problems, issues or ‘pain points’ that you think improved digital infrastructure will help you solve are, in order to support you to respond to the programme’s outcomes:

Increase organisations digital capacity through: 

• Building additional capability– this could cover updating digital infrastructure e.g CRM, purchasing hardware and equipment, website design, online chat functions and signposting.

• Scoping need – working to plan, design and test digital and remote provision, so you are able to pilot new ways of working, supporting more survivors and victims, while gathering evidence and rationale to develop this beyond the funding period, and strengthen the prospect of future funding

For example, proposals could include:

• Specific technical assistance where time allows in the fund e.g. digital designers and consultants, developers

• Core costs connected to digital capability (e.g. internal training, post to embed digital, CRM system strengthening)

• Internal hardware purchases and software upgrades

• Related to the above, development of digital capacity to enable organisations to offer real-time services, improved support and reach more potential service users.

• Website updates to facilitate beneficiary access & strengthening referral pathways if appropriate

• Technical coaching and implementation support around the re-use or adaptation of existing technology/ software into their service or organisation where this is suitable

• Scoping user needs

We understand that many small, specialist organisations struggle to find the time and capacity to explore the ways in which technology could enhance and improve their service capacity and reach. We know that the language of tech can also feel confusing initially. 

Please know that we do not expect fully polished plans or budgets, we understand that your organisation will be on a journey and would like to accompany and support you on this.  

We will do our best to answer any queries that come in (there are no bad questions) and will also hold Q&A Zoom sessions to provide support during the application window (see Key Dates section below for details).

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA 

Before beginning an application, please take the eligibility quiz(opens in new window), check our main eligibility criteria and consult the Application Guidance(opens in new window) thoroughly for fund-specific criteria.

For this fund, we have lowered the minimum annual income of eligible organisations to £75,000.

KEY DATES

We are holding Q&A sessions via Zoom to provide support during the application window. These sessions provide an opportunity for questions about proposals, eligibility and the application process.

You will have the opportunity to submit questions ahead of the session when you register, and you are welcome to ask additional questions during the session. We will circulate the Zoom details once you have registered.

Details of the Zoom sessions and links to register are below:

• Thursday 1st July 2021, 12:30 – 13:30 (BST)

• Thursday 8th July 2021, 12:30 – 13:30 (BST)

• Thursday 15th July 2021, 12:30 – 13:30 (BST) REGISTER HERE(opens in new window)

Applications open online: 09:00 (BST) Tuesday 22nd June 2021 

Application closes: 12:00 (noon) (BST) Tuesday 20th July 2021 

Assessments: August 2021 

Decisions: September 2021

Payments: We expect to make payments to successful applicants at the end of September 2021

Programme closes: Successful applicants to finish projects by end of February 2022

Applications can be made at any time once the application window is open (09:00 22nd June – noon 20th July). We will not accept late proposals and strongly urge that any questions are addressed early on, to make sure that proposals are completed and submitted in time.

The Application Guidance(opens in new window) and FAQs(opens in new window) are there to support you with any fund-specific questions you may have. If you experience any technical issues with our application portal, please get in touch with fundinginfo@comicrelief.com(opens in new window). 

If technical issues are preventing you from submitting your application before the deadline (12:00 / noon 20th July 2021), please get in touch with fundinginfo@comicrelief.com(opens in new window) as soon as possible.