Grant Management Services
Blue Orchid can provide full grant management services for Local Authorities, LEPs and others seeking to deliver support services which incorporate finanical grants to businesses whether for targeted purposes e.g. low carbon technology installation or specifc geographic or sector target groups. Building on years of experience delivering multiple grant programmes, including more than £2m of Covid support grants to SMEs, our expert team can support the design, development & management of grant and voucher programmes such as business engagement, one-to-one applicant support, procurement guidance, etc, within complex environments and often in response to significant macro-economic challenges including recession and large-scale business closures.
Within our Grant Management Services we provide a number of core and bespoke development functions which will be available to Access; including,
Through our national networks, marketing and social media engagement Blue Orchid will work with contract managers to develop and implement a marketing strategy that drives up interest and applications to their programme.
We understand that every Public funding source or programme has its own target beneficiaries, complex eligibility, expenditure and output requirements, as such we design bespoke application forms, guidance documentation and decision-making processes.
Depending upon preference of the contracting organisation we can utilise either a paper-based application system or an online application portal which will be developed using our Microsoft Dynamics CRM system and its portal functionality.
We understand that in administering public funds not only is it important to ensure that the funding is used to achieve the aims of the overarching programme but also to be able to demonstrate probity and integrity in all decision making. Therefore we utilise grant application and decision-making systems in which different senior staff wo have no direct engagement with an applicant make funding decisions. This creates a transparent approval system which demonstrates impartiality should any audit or complaint arise.
As we manage and award grants from public funds, we are aware of the need to ensure that the awards are not only correctly decided but can be demonstrated to be impartial and free from any corruption or external influence. As such we have a rigorous internal process in place conduct a due dilligence check on grant awardees and where necessary any service suppliers or contractors engaged to carry our any activity funded by the grant.
Where grants are administered on a defrayal basis, i.e. grant money is paid to the awardee upon submission of evidence of expenditure on eligible items/activities Blue Orchid can design and management a claim system, including additional due diligence, eligibility checks and claim tracking for grants paid in tranches. This ensures that all claims are profiled with scheduled submission, review and payment dates.
Recognising that in both driving future demand and demonstrating value for money and impact for government funders case studies are invaluable tool, Blue Orchid will use monitoring data and contact manager input to identify successful awardees as potential case study subjects, we can then provide information and introductions to Access’s in house our chosen marketing experts or can develop the case study in house either in writing, video or both.
All Blue Orchid Projects are monitored using our programme management systems and CRM against a number of metrics including the location of engagements and support activity whilst our Kanban workflow management charts and email & calendar tracking integration with Outlook and strategic overview dashboards allow us to quickly identify areas of higher demand or lower than forecast take-up and take mitigation actions such as reallocation of resources and increasing delivery in areas where performance lags against the agreed profile.
In order to ensure that we can both effectively monitor and manage your project and provide up to the minute data to support monitoring and decision making we can create project specific dashboards which provide contract managers with real-time infomration across a range of metrics & methods of the data analysis;
Application Progress/Stage Funnel Charts; these charts provide contract managers with an overview of the programme pipeline this provides assurance that the project is operating well and particularly where any delays are identified whether this is a significant risk to the overall project delivery.
Progress against target/profile; these can be set to report against any metrics selected e.g. engagements, applications, approval, grant expenditure, etc.
Application & Output by date; these charts help contract mangers to understand the underlying demand for the grants and any peaks within the application processes.
Geographic mapping of engagement & grant awards; Our monitoring dashboard can be configured to provide location-based data for each engagement, application and grant award. This can not only help to ensure that the benefit of the programme is spread across the LEP area but can support targeted
To find out more about how Blue Orchid can help your organisation to successfull deliver grant programmes to support businesses or households in your area contact info@blueorchid.co.uk to arrange a meeting with our Strategic Director.