When did you join the fund, and what was your role before joining the Fund? 

I joined The Fund over 14 years ago in 2008 as a Welsh speaking Funding Officer.   

Before this, I was employed by Ceredigion County Council for over 18 years,  in a variety of roles, initially as a Legal Clerk, then as a Business Information Officer. My last role in the Council as a Business Centre Manger involved manging the business centre, the business start-up support service that they held under a contract from Welsh Government, and working collaboratively across the Mid and West Regional with a number of organisations, businesses and stakeholders. I also administered the Council’s European-funded ‘business start-up grants’ scheme.  

What are your main duties?  

My role as a Funding Officer is really varied. I’m the Regional Funding Officer for Ceredigion which involves networking and forming links with third, public and private sector organisations and key stakeholders and promoting our funding programmes within the region. I also deliver Funding Presentations, hold  Funding Surgeries and deal with enquiries, making recommendations as to the most suitable stream of funding and advising on the application process. 

The work also involves assessing applications on a variety of funding programmes, from our rolling People and Places programme, to more strategic programmes such as Mind Our Future, Helping End Homelessness and Supporting Great Ideas, reviewing the application, writing reports and using my judgement to make recommendations for consideration by the Decision Committee. Following on from this, I also manage grant awards made under such programmes ensuring project delivery is in line with the terms and conditions of the grant, releasing payments, reviewing progress through the grantholders’ mid-term, annual and the end of project reporting, discussing any concerns or issues arising, alongside achievements, impact and learning and feeding any key learning through to the Knowledge and Learning Team. It also involves ensuring that grantholders are fully aware of the requirements to deliver their project bilingually, and of the branded and promotional materials available to them to help promote that their projects have been made possible through National Lottery funding. 

I provide backup to the Advice line to increase capacity when needed, dealing with queries and enquiries which are passed on to the relevant teams of officers, and also update the weekly staff huddle with a funding update on a 6-weekly basis. 

From time to time, I also work as part of programme development teams in the development of new funding programmes, engaging with stakeholders and community organisations to provide feedback and insight into the development work.  

Another interesting aspect is that I work with the Service Design team on the customer testing of Welsh language materials for both Wales or UK-wide programmes in development. It gives a great insight into the various stages from enquiry, through to application, assessment, decision and award, working alongside colleagues across the UK.  

What does you day usually looks like? 

No two days are the same.  

Generally, at the start of each day I take time to review the timescales and deadlines for various pieces of work, such as grant assessing, and prioritise my work for the day, before checking and responding to emails as well as Teams messages with colleagues across The Fund.  

Then, its on to a mixed day – either catching up with grantholders through phone calls, or maybe dealing with a new enquiry, and updating GMS with relevant information. I could then be attending an overview meeting for grant applications, ploughing through a new application and writing up a recommendation report, providing local knowledge from Ceredigion on various applications or enquiries, or contributing to questions and queries raised by colleagues through Teams.  

On other days, I could be out on visits within the community, networking with organisations and key stakeholders, or supporting a new team member through assessment or grant management processes.  

Do you get a chance to leave your office? (To visit a project or attend an event?)  

The Funding Officer role gives me plenty of opportunities to work outside the office, from funding enquiry and grant management visits, to networking and promotional events. The regional aspect of the work involves having a strong presence out in the community and raising the profile of National Lottery funding.  

What is your best project to have ever work with? 

That’s a hard one!  There’s been so many, but a couple do stick out in my mind.  

A favourite project of mine is one by Cardigan Youth Project, an organisation that I’ve seen grow and develop over recent years. Under their ‘Area43’ project, they provide information, support, training and mental health counselling to young people in a safe, informal, caring, non-discriminatory and non-judgemental environment, but a key area of their development with National Lottery funding is establishing ‘Team43’ (a management committee of 10-15 young people who consult with the wider cohort of young people and feed into decisions around service direction) and creating ‘The Depot’. The Depot is a youth-only drop-in centre and café in Cardigan, in West Wales that has been championed by the UK Youth Mental Health Ambassador as a model for young people’s early intervention mental health hubs. It’s fully community-led by the young people, for the young people – the young people have developed the idea, been involved in securing the building, planning the refurbishment and the type of activities and services they want to see being delivered, from personal development and confidence building, to communication and practical life skills. It’s been great to see the increasing confidence of the young people involved and the impact that The Depot is having on the community as a whole.    

Another is a project that was delivered by ‘Ten Green Bottles Powys CIC’ based in Radnor many years ago in my early years in the Fund. It’s a social enterprise that recycles glass and provides marginalised groups and people with mental health issues, learning disabilities or the long-term unemployed with work experience and volunteering opportunities. I had the opportunity to visit the project and talk to the people that were benefitting from it. Listening to them talk about the impact our funding has had on their lives was inspiring, whilst getting a chance to look at the items being made from recycled glass and having the production process explained.

Note a fun fact about yourself!

Hmm…. I guess that would be my love for cold water swimming. I went for my first cold water dip in the sea in Borth on the West Wales Coast on 1^st March 2020 as part of a St David’s Day dip, and was hooked. I’ve spent many an early morning at sunrise bracing the coldness of the sea in Aberystwyth with a fabulous group of friends before starting my working day.