In any community, local needs, aspirations and opportunities are constantly changing. And, as the community benefit income is disbursed and funded projects delivered, the community’s experience, skills and ambitions will also evolve. The community benefit fund and the strategy that guides its delivery need to be responsive to these changes if the Fund is to deliver the greatest possible impact and help achieve the community’s vision.

It is important therefore that provision is made for the Fund Strategy to be reviewed at regular intervals and updated as necessary. For funds with a lot of disbursement activity, or during periods of rapid change in the local area, reviews may be appropriate every two or three years. For others, less frequently.

Related, it may be a good idea to refresh the community action plan at similar intervals and prior to reviewing the Fund Strategy. Indeed, if there are significant changes in the locality, for example in demographics or employment opportunities, it will almost certainly be appropriate to revisit the action plan. This may result in changes to the themes/outcome and priorities in the plan, which should then feed into the refreshed Fund strategy.

The review process can provide an opportunity to:

  • Evaluate the impact achieved through the Fund to-date against the stated purposes and priorities of the Fund
  • Respond to specific issues such as underspending in general or against specific purposes or priorities or, where there is high demand, how to ensure only the most impactful proposals are supported. It may be that further, targeted promotion of the Fund is required or a service can be commissioned to help increase the capacity of certain groups to plan and deliver their projects well
  • Explore the rate of and reasons behind the rejection or withdrawal of funding proposals and ask whether there is any pattern here that needs responded too.
  • If there are several communities involved in the Fund, assess the spread of funding distributed between these and whether any remedial action is warranted in an attempt to ensure a fair spread
  • Take into account other income that might have become available and/or other strategic developments in the community or wider area likely to impact on the Fund.

The Fund Strategy and distribution arrangements may need to be adjusted in response to issues such as spending too little (overall, or in relation to specific Fund purposes/priorities only) or high demand for funds (where this is beyond the amount available). Some options for either scenario are set out in the following pages.