FMS Grant Making Policy

1. Applications from charities registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland are preferred. Where this is not possible the charity committee will ensure that the project meets the same standard of reporting detail as the UK bodies require. As a Board we are responsible for the money transferred to a charity and that the money is spent in the manner agreed.
2. Every such application will be Our charity committee will look at published data about the recipient charity to satisfy itself about its financial stability and probity and ensure that the application complies with FMS policy.
3. Applications from smaller charities will be given FMS is itself a relatively small charity and we believe that we have a duty to our members to ensure that every penny of the money they raise goes to the cause that we are supporting and will do the most for the most.
4. The application must be focused on a specific project with a defined time frame. The timeframe should be one or two years and who is to benefit must be clearly stated. Some projects will have a natural progression but will require further application for later stages. Often the initial project is something which should ideally be funded by government and showing the project can succeed may persuade government to continue to support it.
5. The project must be health or education-based. Within FMS our trustees and members have many different skills which we use to help the projects that we take on.
6. The project must have an element of capacity building, in other words it must leave a legacy of enduring benefit. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life,” Capacity building also gives a sense of ownership to the people who are running a project. Indirectly this helps to combat opportunities for corruption.
7. FMS does not support funding for international or domestic airfares, but may occasionally support local transport or similar where it is an integral part of a projected course. To elaborate further we would not fund travel for consultants from the UK to visit remote hospitals but we would give consideration to supporting poor health workers travelling relatively short
8. Successful charities are expected to provide a five-minute video for the FMS web site demonstrating to the membership how their donation has been used, what benefits it has provided and to whom. Restrictions of time will mean that in future this may be published on our website.
9. Successful applications will usually have a champion within FMS, someone who would oversee the project and may be able to visit it. We encourage members to become champions of projects so that we can receive up-to-date news on progress and ensure that the project is kept on track.
10. FMS will strive to ensure a project delivers the greatest possible benefit for the sum FMS members work extremely hard at festivals to raise the money that goes into providing these grants to other charities. It is only right that we take on projects that produce clearly defined benefits so that our members can be motivated to carry on with this work.
11. FMS will satisfy itself that all donations are used in a non-partisan way and take all reasonable steps to ensure these are not used to support terrorist activities as determined by the Terrorism, Counter Terrorism and Border Security Acts.