POP is testing a new funding process that places collaboration at the centre. This means the process for POP Collectives funding is open, transparent and seeks involvement from POP members. What this means is that your submission will be put live on our website and shared with our members, your peers. We will ask members to advise you and help you to make your ideas even better.
POP Collectives Advice & Rating Form – 19/04
CLICK HERE to download the latest rating / advice form. POP members can complete the form and return it to info@plymouthoctopus.org.
Who can apply
- POP members – click here to check your member status or click here to become a member
- Under £500,000 turnover
- Only organisations who have attended a Tech Tuesday session – book here. If you cannot attend any of the sessions listed, please get in touch.
- Groups of 6 or more people AND/OR organisations. (VCSE organisations must be POP+ members)
What is funded
Up to £3,000 for anything that will socially or environmentally benefit Plymouth
What is not funded
- Work that is not showing direct social or environmental benefit
- Work that does not have a direct benefit in Plymouth
- The promotion of religion
What you can spend the money on
- Any legitimate costs since 16th March 2020
- Each collective will have to decide its own expense policy
Judgements & decision making
There are 2 points where submissions are filtered:
- You will decide whether this open, transparent and collaborative focus suits your needs
- Submissions will be approved if they receive an average score of 7.5 or higher, pending advice and decision from members
Support and benefits
All submissions will receive support and benefits from the process:
- POP ideas support will be offered to all
- Advice will be received from your peers in the sector
- You may forge new relationships through the advice process
- Your idea and purpose will be promoted to Plymouth and beyond for support
Tutorials
- Registering on Slack – you’ll be required to use this if you are funded
- Registering on Open Collective – if you want to fundraise you can use this
- Creating your collective
If it’s difficult or impossible for you to complete an application form
You can contact us if you have any communication support needs. We’re happy to talk about alternative ways for you to tell us about your idea.
Pre-register for POP+ Collectives below.
You will also need to register for a Tech Tuesday session – book here. If you cannot attend any of the sessions listed, please get in touch.
After your attendance is recorded, we will provide you with a link to submit your Collective. If you would like to prepare, the questions will be as follows:
- Describe your aims and ideas: What issue are you trying to tackle? What do you want to achieve? What will you do? Why is it important?
- Describe how will you work together to achieve this: What strengths and skills is each person bringing? Why are you working together? Have you worked together before?
- During the first round, POP+ members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be most helpful?
POP Collectives registration
Advising & rating
The POP+ membership is playing an active role in this process, by advising and rating the Collectives each week.
If you are a member of POP+ (check here), you will receive an email each Monday entitled “POP+ Members Monday Mailing” with details on how to contribute. If you are not a member, click here to register for free.
If you are not receiving your members update but are registered as a member of POP+, please get in touch.
Decision making
In order to ensure our budgets are not too extended, during the decision-making phase, POP+ trustees may need to consider the submissions currently being rated. If this happens, they will consider:
- Feedback from applicants on the advice given
- Advice given by members and any resultant change in submission
- Member rating & final advice
- Levels of collaboration apparent in submission (more will be favoured)
- Size of organisation involved in collaboration (smaller will be favoured)
The reasoning behind this funding is available on our decision-making page.
While designing the detailed process, we identified the advantage to have finance and communication platforms that operate on a transparent basis. We have therefore teamed up with the Social Change Agency to use their Accountable service.
And we are using Slack to achieve transparency in communications.
