Good Guiding Fund

The fund will open at 9am on 20 September and remain open until midnight on 31 October. We won’t be able to accept applications outside of these dates.  

You can apply for up to £500. If your project or activity costs more than £500 to deliver, you can still apply but you will need to seek the balance of funding elsewhere.  

Priority will be given to units, districts, divisions and counties that haven’t had funding previously. It’s very unlikely that a unit would receive funding for a cost or activity that has previously been supported by the Good Guiding Fund (e.g. we’d be unlikely to fund unit subscriptions for two years in a row).  

If you do decide to apply to the Good Guiding Fund, an application will only be considered if you have already completed the evaluation for any Good Guiding Funding you received previously.  

Yes, they can. If your application is successful, the funding will be paid out to the district, division or county named on the application form. 

We won’t start making decisions until the fund closes on 31 October. We’ll aim to let everyone know whether they’ve been successful by 20 December. We’ll ask you to complete an acceptance form by the end of January.

This funding aims to help deliver good guiding, whatever that may look like in your area. You will be asked to choose from up to 3 categories when making your application – the categories covered by our standard application form are:  

• Hall rent  
• Subscriptions 
• Resources (including programme materials, badges, equipment)
• Trips, residential or outdoor activities (excluding international)
• Uniform
• Training
• Recruitment
• Thanks and recognition 

There is a separate form for International activities. 

This funding won’t cover things that have already happened – that includes bills you have already paid or orders you’ve placed. It also won’t fund property and building-related projects. For international trips, we will only be supporting trips where girls are involved. You must have REN Part one-authorisation in place (where a REN is required) to be considered.  

Our trustees set out the overall criteria for the Good Guiding Fund with advice from our business management and finance committee. A panel of staff and volunteers will review applications against the criteria.  

By the time you apply for funding you should have a good idea of how much funding you need and be able to show how you came up with this figure. This helps ensure the funding is being allocated to projects or plans that are likely to go ahead as described.  

Yes, there is a specific application form for funding for international activities. You can find the international application form here.

Where a REN is required, your trip must have REN Part-one authorisation in place when you apply. If you apply before your trip is at this stage, your application will be refused. Please be aware we cannot provide contingency funding. We will require evidence of your REN (if required for your activity) and a copy of your trip budget. We recommend that the trip leader coordinate the application to avoid more than one application being made per trip.  

Due to the high demand anticipated we will only be able to support one application per unit.   

Activities taking place within the United Kingdom are not considered international activities for the purposes of the Good Guiding Fund. You should complete our standard application form. You can fill in the standard application form here. 

Yes, although if you’ve had these covered by the Good Guiding Fund previously, it’s very unlikely that you would receive support with these costs a second time unless in exceptional circumstances. You can’t apply for subscriptions support for girls that are not recorded as members of your unit on GO.  

By the time you apply for funding you should have a good idea of how much funding you need and be able to show how you came up with this figure. If you don’t yet know what your local levy will be, you may want to consider applying for funding for something else.  

Yes, the funding can be used to support training for individuals or groups (e.g. at district or division level). It can also be used to help support thanks and recognition activities designed to retain members.  It is not available to support groups of adults taking an international trip.  

Yes! This funding can support recruitment and welcome activities for potential members. In such cases, the application should be submitted in the name of the level delivering the funded activity.

Yes, if you have completed any reporting requirements attached to those funds and aren’t applying for duplicate funding.  

You will need to know your membership number; the level number (from GO) of the unit, district, division or county you’re applying on behalf of; how many girls and adults you hope will benefit; when you plan to spend the funding if successful. You’ll also need to be able to supply a recent bank statement for your unit, district, division or county. You’ll also need to know that the latest due accounts have been completed and submitted to your commissioner. For applications that include international activities, you’ll need to upload a copy of the trip REN (where required for the activity) and a copy of the trip budget.  

Unless you are planning a district, division or county-level event or training, or an international trip, you should submit one application per unit.  For a clear audit trail, we must be able to track back funding issued to the application for funding. Therefore, one application per unit will enable effective financial governance.   

Yes, as long as you aren’t seeking support for costs that have already been sought via a unit, district, division or county-level application. If you are unsure whether to apply as an individual or as a unit, contact funding@girlguiding-scot.org.uk for advice.  

We’d encourage parents/carers to apply via their unit leader. This is to ensure local sources of support have been explored first and to avoid duplicate support requests being made.  

No. The fund will remain open until 31 October and we won’t start making decisions until then. We’ll aim to let everyone know whether they’ve been successful by 20 December. Successful applicants will then have to complete an acceptance letter, so we won’t be able to turn things around quickly enough to ensure funding is in place in time for things happening this year.  

All of your fundraising must comply with Girlguiding’s fundraising policy. You can apply for funding to top up what you’ve raised already, or you could continue to fundraise and make an application for something else.  

Yes. If you don’t yet have a bank account set up for your unit (or district, division or county), we can arrange for the funds to be paid to your county (with their permission).  

As we have a limited pot of funding, it may not be possible to say yes to everyone. We’ll give priority to those who haven’t received funding previously but even then, you may not receive all or any of the funding you request. We’ll be considering similar applications in batches to help ensure our decision-making is consistent.

Following feedback from the first round of the Good Guiding fund, we’re asking for a bank statement to support new applications. Bank statements enable us to see the current financial position of units while accounts often show an out-of-date position.  You’ll be able to upload those when you fill in our online form so please make sure you have this to hand when you begin.  

No. It is important that we can show due diligence in our assessment process. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer funding when accounts are overdue.   

We recognise that good financial management can lead to some level of reserves being accumulated. We also recognise that reserves can mean successful fundraising. Therefore, we will not penalise units who have reserves. If they are particularly high, we may ask for further information.   

We’ll ask you to tell us when you think you’ll be able to spend the funding by when you submit your application. If you’re successful, the evaluation deadline will be based on the timeline you provide.  

Yes, it’s important that we gather evidence to show how this funding is being used and the difference that it is making to local guiding. The evaluation will be a short online form. We’ll ask you to set the deadline for completing the form when you accept your funding to ensure it is due to be completed after all funding has been spent. If you don’t complete the evaluation form, you may be unable to access other Girlguiding Scotland funds in future.  

If you’ve been advised to seek support from another route, it’s likely that your application to Good Guiding Fund will be refused. This is to ensure the Good Guiding Fund reaches as many members as possible.  

County commissioners will be asked to review all applications made to the fund once they have been submitted. This will include asking them to confirm that the unit, district, division or county has submitted their latest set of accounts.   

If the unit is showing as active on GO and you are confident the unit will open in the next 3 months, then you can apply. If you don’t yet have a bank account open, we can arrange for any funding to be paid to the county with their permission. As you won’t have a bank statement to upload, you should upload any records you have showing planned income and expenditure or a written statement explaining that the unit is not yet open.

Contact funding@girlguiding-scot.org.uk and a member of the team will be in touch. Our development workers will be available for 121 phone or zoom calls.  

We expect to very busy as the deadline for applications approaches so please get in touch as early as possible as we won’t be able to accept any applications after 31 October.