Open and Trusting Grantmaking

corra staff and volunteers smiling

Corra recognises that we can do more to be an open and trusting grantmaker. We want to make grants in a way that reflects the realities facing charities now and for the foreseeable future.

We do this by:

  • Asking all applicants and grantholders about their experience of Corra through an annual customer experience survey.
  • Continually make improvements to our funding practices and publish information on these changes.
  • Publishing our commitments and annual reporting on progress.

Corra’s grant making

We publish data on all of the grants made on our website and on 360 Giving. View grant holder data.

Corra distributes funding across Scotland, and in some international countries. We do this on behalf of other funders, Government, alongside distributing Corra’s own funds. Below you’ll find information on our grant making in throughout 2022 – 2023.

1807

Applications received

889

Grants made

£41m

Distributed in funding

52%

Success rate

wdt_ID Size of organisation (by income) Average success rate Average grant amount Total grants to cover core costs and unrestricted
1 Small (under £250,000) 62% £12,094 £1,881,975
2 Medium (under £500,000) 21% £91,271 £4,163,167
3 Large (over £1m) 31% £160,383 £15,466,129

The success rate various dependent on the fund and size of organisation. Detailed success rates are shared on individual funding pages.

Open and trusting grant making commitments

Corra’s commitments are aligned to IVAR’s Open and Trusting Grant Making. We want our systems and processes to prioritise trust and support people to make positive change in their communities. The commitments we’ve made and some key progress we’ve made is shared below.

group of community members

Not wasting applicants' time

Eligibility checkers for all funds. Video applications for some funds. Increase tailored support and providing space to chat to us before you apply.

child having fun

Asking only relevant questions

Reduced questions on application forms and working with partners to do the same.

two people smiling

Accepting our share of risk

Removed detailed finance questions on smaller applications. Introduced fiscal hosting to support non-constituted groups to access our funds.

person walking through forest

Acting with urgency

77% of applications for less than £2000 received a decision within 30 working days. We are working to reduce decision wait times across all of our funds.

drawing of decision making and ideas

Be transparent about decisions

Information on decision making process for all funds. All grant holder data on Corra’s website and 360Giving.

two people supporting each other

Support grant holders to work flexibly

All Henry Duncan grants offer unrestricted multi-year funding. Encourage partners to be flexible in how funding is used. Distributed £4.4 m in cash first funding.

group of three people working together

Be clear about our relationship

All funds detail the reporting expectations at the point of application. Provided more detail in grant offer letters in response to customer feedback.

young person involved in The Listening Fund

Make reporting light touch where possible

For our small grants, only a single end of year report required that confirms funding has been spent.

Further reading and related content

Below are further resources and links that we think you might be interested in. If you’d like to find out more about our grant making approaches and open and trusting grant making, please get in touch with us at hello@corra.scot