Big Lottery Fund

What is solicitation and why do we use it?

Solicitation is the process of inviting a single organisation (or partnership) to apply for funding in order to deliver a specified project that helps deliver one or more of BIG's strategic objectives. The National Lottery Act of 1998 gave us (and all other Lottery distributors) the power to solicit applications.

Solicitations are used infrequently by BIG – only 14 awards were made in this way during 2010/11 compared with 14,000 through our programmes in the same period. In the past year solicited bids from throughout the UK have included The Big Lunch through the Eden Project, NCVO for their Sustainable Funding Project, Third Sector Research Centre with the University of Birmingham and HMP Parc in Wales.

Our competitive programmes aim to deliver the outcomes and meet the needs which our Board and Committees have determined should be our priorities. Those programmes are either broadly open such as Reaching Communities or strategically targeted such as Youth in Focus. On rare occasions, our analysis in the programme development stage determines that only one organisation would be best placed to deliver the outcome we have prioritised and hence a solicited application would be the most effective step.

Likewise, when BIG is approached by an organisation seeking funding for a proposal they are usually directed to our competitive programmes or, where that is not appropriate, it is common for us to advise that the proposal does not meet with any of our strategic objectives. Only where there is a very clear resonance between the proposal and the strategic objectives do we consider a solicitation route.

What does solicitation entail?

There are five main stages involved in a solicitation:

Stage one: Scoping

Making the link between one or more of BIG’s strategic objectives (as set by our Board or Committees) and the specific project that could deliver it. We must determine that this could not be achieved through a competitive programme and identify the specific outcomes that we will assess against. We may identify the need and seek an organisation to deliver it or, alternatively, test a proposal from an organisation that has approached us against our priorities.

Stage two: Business case

Preparing the formal case to the Board or relevant committee for solicitation. This includes setting out why a particular organisation (or partnership) is best placed to be able to deliver the specified outcomes most efficiently and effectively. The Board/Committee decides at this point whether to invite an application or not.

Stage three: Assessment

The solicited application has to be assessed in accordance with clear criteria agreed in advance relating to the outcomes we are looking for and the quality standards we expect the project to meet.

The officers involved in developing the case for the solicitation and communicating with the solicited organisation are not involved in assessing the application in order that the assessment is kept objective.

Stage four: Decision-making

The appropriate Board or Committee receive the assessment report and determine whether to fund or not on the strength of its recommendations.

Stage five: grant managing

If an award is made, this includes making payments and monitoring progress against the agreed outcomes, until the grant is closed.

Further thoughts

Solicitation is by no means a quick or easy route to funding and hence we use it sparingly. It has nevertheless enabled us to fund some extremely innovative and distinctive projects which would otherwise have been outside the scope of our programmes.

There are some challenging aspects of solicitation:

• The initial analysis to determine the fit with strategic objectives and the development of the business case is onerous.
• The assessment of the application is among the most rigorous we carry out and is more intensive from the applicant’s point of view than many of our competitive programmes.
• There have been instances where a proposal has not progressed beyond the business case stage or has failed at assessment stage, because we have determined it will not deliver the outcomes we had first envisaged.
• As a solicitation only involves one organisation (or partnership), we do not usually announce anything publicly until an award is made. This is to protect the applicant’s reputation in case we turn the application down at assessment stage. Unfortunately this also limits the extent to which we can discuss the solicitation openly while it is in train.

The approach also has some clear advantages:

• It can be used to fill gaps where a priority objective or outcome is not being achieved through our competitive programmes.
• It acknowledges that demand-led funding will not always be the answer, and it is necessary to have access to a wider range of delivery approaches in order to seek out innovative or unique solutions.
• We are able to have a more engaged relationship with the applicant in setting out the outcomes we are looking for
• We can learn lessons from both successful and unsuccessful solicitations to inform our future work (including future programmes)

Future intentions

BIG is constantly seeking to improve the way in which we fund. Our recent reflections on our solicitation approach have led us to consider the following:

• We will explore a “call for ideas” approach which makes it clearer what objectives and priorities we are focussing on at a particular time and which provides a greater opportunity to engage with us
• We will consider whether we can make it public at an earlier stage that we are soliciting an application from a particular organisation
• We will say when announcing an award if it has resulted from a solicited application
• We will continue to fund through open and competitive routes for the majority of our programmes and only use solicitations in exceptional circumstances.

Single Awards – England only

From time to time we may make single awards that fall outside of our existing programmes. We will do this in exceptional circumstances only, and would not expect to fund more than a handful of projects via this method over the course of a year.

The vast majority of our funding will continue to be awarded through programmes that address outcomes that our Board and England committee have determined should be our priorities. Details of these can be found on our funding page

However, we recognise that on occasion there will be exceptional or innovative objectives or outcomes that fit our overall strategy and ambitions but that cannot be achieved through our existing set of programmes.

For us to consider offering an award the project must be one that cannot be funded through any of our existing programmes, and must fit with BIG’s overarching mission to bring real improvements to communities, and to the lives of people most in need. We will only be able to support a very limited number of projects that come through this route and decision makers will really focus on areas such as whether a project is unique and offers an opportunity to trial an innovative approach.

If you believe your project fits this bill, as well as the extra constraints listed in the eligibility section below, please email us at SGIdeas@biglotteryfund.org.uk with your name, your organisation’s name as it appears on your governing document and contact details. We will get in touch to discuss your project and consider whether or not it is suitable for us to consider sending you an Expression of Interest form.

Please note that any application will be subject to rigorous assessment and even if we are able to offer you an application form on the basis of your idea, there is no guarantee of funding.

Eligibility

• The project cannot have been rejected from one of our existing programmes within the last two years unless it was rejected solely for reasons of eligibility.
• The project’s beneficiaries must be based in England and submitted by an organisation based in England.
• You cannot apply with the same project if you have been turned down already through this route. Minor changes to existing projects are not permitted and the onus will be on the applicant to demonstrate the differences in their idea if one is resubmitted.
• The project must be outside of the funding remit of other BIG funding streams. If this is not the case, the application will be rejected.
• Your organisation must be one of the following: a voluntary and or community organisation, school, local authority, not for profit organisation or social enterprise.