SHV Project Fund

Get money and support to make a difference for nature and climate
around Harberton and Harbertonford

What's the SHV project fund?

Sustainable Harbourne Valley (SHV) is a network of people in Harberton parish who want to support nature, and to respond to the challenges of declining biodiversity and climate change with positive, practical action at local level. At the hub of SHV is a charity, run by volunteer trustees, which supports and connects projects led by our members. Anyone is welcome to join us.

The SHV has a small project fund to help anyone locally who wants to take action for nature and climate by providing

  • some initial funding

  • support from our network of trustees and other members to make your initiative a success, including by looking for further funding.

What kind of initiatives can get support?

Anything that could effectively support nature and climate! All ideas are welcome, however small or large, obvious or unusual.

To make sure your idea can work well as a SHV-supported initiative, we'll work with you to make sure that it supports SHV's aims and has a good chance of success. In particular, this will mean that it:

  • Has objectives that involve action for nature and climate around Harberton/ford. These could be very simple.

  • Has in place a plan, a timescale and some way of judging and recording whether the objectives have been met. Again, these could all be very simple and provisional - this is just a way of helping everyone involved think through how to make the idea work well.

  • Have adequate funding and other resources (eg potential volunteers) lined up to make it a success. This could be just SHV project fund money that we provide, or if necessary might involve some intentions for fundraising that we may be able to help with.

  • Have a clear project lead (or team of co-leaders) who have agreed to take responsibility for it, including:

    • organising publicity material for SHV (website, newsletter, Facebook etc) whenever appropriate;

    • organising any volunteering needed;

    • organising a handover to another project lead, or closing the project down, if they are no longer actively leading it;

    • reporting to the SHV trustees on request, and accounting for any money that is channelled via SHV - this could be as simple as a phonecall or email with a trustee to let us know how it's been going.

  • Is primarily for public benefit and the benefit of nature, not for personal gain

  • Doesn't involve significant unmanaged risks to organisation, its trustees or anyone SHV might have a responsibility towards, including the general public? (Eg health & safety, reputational risk, financial risk, etc.) - This is unlikely, but we do need to check!

What kind of support is available?

Initiatives that get project fund support will receive, as necessary:

  • Funding of up to £500.

  • Use of SHV branding - to help get further funding, and to help get recognition and involvement from others locally

  • Use of SHV publicity channels, especially our members' newsletter, and help with doing your own publicity more widely.

  • Access to SHV's public liability insurance for holding public events.

  • Advice and support. Some of the SHV trustees will make themselves available to talk and/or meet with you, or be in touch by email, to help you develop and deliver your idea as far as they can. They can't, in this role, take responsibility for the project. But they can offer some help, for example, with

    • fundraising options and applications

    • publicity and involving local people

    • getting support from other people and organisations locally and more widely.

What do I do next?

If you're interested in starting or being involved with an initiative, get in touch! All ideas are welcome, however small or unclear or unrealistic they might seem. Contact us on hello@sustainableharbournevalley.org.uk