As part of our assessment, we carry out due diligence checks on your chosen locally trusted organisation(s). As part of this process we check if the organisation:
- is constituted and can act as a locally trusted organisation within its objects – we ask for the organisation’s governing documents and contact details
- has the experience and capability to administer and account for the funding – we ask for the organisation’s most recent set of financial accounts (published within a year) and use these to check the organisation’s financial position
- has the capacity to support the partnership in its role as locally trusted organisation – we ask how the organisation was chosen and the working relationship between you
- has a bank account in the name of the organisation with at least two signatories who are not related to one another or reside at the same address – we ask for a signed form to show the account and signatory details, as well as a copy of a cheque or paying-in slip as evidence of the account details.
Once we’ve completed our assessment and due diligence checks, we send your locally trusted organisation an offer letter that sets out the amount of funding endorsed, the payment schedule, and the terms and conditions of funding. We copy in the chair of the Big Local partnership and the Big Local rep. The locally trusted organisation signs the terms and conditions, also known as the funding agreement, to indicate that they agree to them. We release the funding once we receive a signed copy of this agreement. You can see a copy of the standard terms and conditions of funding here.
Once the funding agreement has ended it’s up to the Big Local partnership and locally trusted organisation to decide whether to continue the relationship when you submit a new plan to us, or whether to choose another locally trusted organisation.
We carry out due diligence checks each time a new funding agreement is put in place. We may also require your locally trusted organisations to send us their annual financial accounts each year once published.