Application
Workshop
Recognising Community Engagement in London
Workshop overview
• Hopes and expectations of the morning
• About the Dragon Awards
− The Award categories
− What qualifies for an Award
− What makes it worth applying for an Award
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Making the most of the application
The judging process and judges
What happens next
Final thoughts and questions
Optional session
The Dragon Awards
Putting the Awards in context
The Award categories
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Education
Enterprise and Employment
Strengthening the Third Sector
Community Partners
Heart of the City Award for Best
New Community Programme
• Lord Mayor’s Award for
Longstanding Achievement
What qualifies for an award?
• Work that demonstrates good practice and innovation in working with
businesses and facilitating their involvement in the community
• Work that demonstrates building / maintaining effective partnerships
• Partnership working that has a clear community benefit
NB: Social Enterprises can apply in the Community Partners category if they
act as a community partner or in one of the business categories if the
programme is above and beyond their core activities
Notes on the awards
• Social Enterprises can apply in the Community Partners category if they
act as a community partner or in one of the business categories if the
programme is above and beyond their core activities
• The project / partnership may involve more than one partner – but it is
better to focus on one to “tell the story”
What makes it worth applying
• External recognition
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Profile with clients/customers and the wider community
Media coverage for the winner (in the past 3 years Dragon Awards publicity
has been estimated to be worth over £760,000)
Profile within CCI and CSR networks
Profile with corporates and community partners
Profile with funders
• Recognition of corporate partners
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Helps them to engage senior management
Recognition of staff and volunteers involved in the programme
…some more reasons to apply
• Internal recognition within the organisation
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Recognition of staff and volunteers working in the community partner to “make
it happen”
• Other reasons
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Invitation to the dinner – a networking opportunity!
The statuette
It’s free
Community Partners Award
• Recognising the contribution of community partners and how they:
- Engage and manage corporate interest and enable the corporate to be
involved in the community
- Build and maintain relationships
- Engage, manage and support employee volunteers
- Evaluate the value of the partnership and ways in which
it can be strengthened
- Look to the future
An example from 2013
Pilotlight
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A charity that brings together business leaders with small charities
Working with RBS, graduates were offered the challenge of creating practical
solutions to real issues faced by a number of small charities. Their tasks included:
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Developing a new numeracy app for children struggling with maths
Marketing support for a campaign to attract funders
Scoping out the creation of a social enterprise
Pilotlight supported the relationship between RBS, their graduate volunteers and
the different charities
The benefits to community, community organisation and the business were
considerable!
An example from 2012
Guy Fox History Project
- An educational charity that delivers arts and heritage projects which empower and
inspire children to learn about the world around them.
- Guy Fox is a cartoon fox who believes you can learn anything you want to!
- Guy Fox and UBS have been working together to create educational activities for
children.
- UBS has supported Guy Fox with funding, volunteering and business support to
deliver a wealth of educational workshops in which children create illustrate books
for other children.
- In return Guy Fox provides creative input into UBS’s Community Affairs strategy,
recruitment and learning programmes, creating unique, skills enhancing activities.
Give a clear description …..
Judges can only base their decisions on the information that is on the
application form, so…
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Describe the community organisation, what it does and its objectives
Give a clear description of the partnership and how it works
Focus on what makes it work and how
Highlight how the business is involved as well as who is involved
Talk about the challenges you faced and how were these overcome
Be positive and talk about the future potential for the programme
Talk about input, output and impact
Input
• What?
• Why?
• How?
• Who?
• Where?
Output
• Community
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What
Who?
How many?
• Business
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What?
Who?
Value to the
business
• Leverage
Impact
• Community
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Beneficiaries
Organisation
The wider
community
• Business
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Changes within
the business
Focusing on impact
• Be explicit about what the business does for the community organisation
and what the community organisation does for the business
• Explain the impact the partnership has had on both partners and on the
community
− Give case studies
• Give examples of how the partnership has benefitted the business
• Highlight things that are innovative or different
Telling the story
• Include as much of the suggested information as possible
• Use statistics
• Include feedback from staff and volunteers
• Include case studies
• Talk about the things other say about the work; include external
recognition
Tell us why you should win
• Showcase the best of your partnership
• Talk about why it is special or possibly even unique
• Talk about what makes it a success and the challenges you have
overcome
What the judges say
It is a great community
programme but it was hard to
see how the partnership
worked
What impact did it have on the local
community?
This was a great application. It
was very clear how it worked and
what each partner gained from the
partnership. It showed an equal
relationship!
It assumed I knew all about the
project. It really would have
benefited from a short
explanation!
Judging the Awards
• The finalists are selected by the Preliminary Judging Panel
• The winners are selected by the Final Judging Panel - chaired by the Lord
Mayor
• Judges work in pairs and focus on specific categories – assigned a
primary and secondary category to judge
• Conflicts of interest are declared at the start
• A mix of experience and expertise
The preliminary judging panel
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Heather Barker – CSR Consultant
Linda Barnard – Community Affairs
Manager, Bank of England
Michelle Dawson – Director,
Community Operations ELBA
Jenny Field – Deputy Chief Grants
Officer, City Bridge Trust
Patsy Francis – Director of
Community Affairs, UBS
Bob Fry – Managing Director, Aukett
Swanke
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Carolyn Housman – Director, Heart of
the City
Sophie Hulm – CR Manager, City of
London
Jon Lloyd – Director, Corporate
Citizenship
Poorvi Patel – London Operations
Director, Business in the Community
Helen Sanson – Director, Tower Hamlets
Education Business Partnership
Vicky Clark – Employment and Skills
Consultant, LB Haringey
The final judging panel
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Alderman Fiona Woolf CBE – The
Lord Mayor of the City of London
Matthew Bowcock – Chair,
Community Network Foundation
Lady Diana Brittan DBE – Chair, The
Connection at St Martin’s in the Fields
Martyn Lewis CBE – Chair, Youthnet
Harvey McGrath – Co-Chair, London
Enterprise Panel
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Amanda Jordan – Co-Chair, Corporate
Citizenship
Ken Olisa – Chair, Restoration Partners
Richard Sumray MBE – Chair, London
2012 Forum
Cyrus Todiwala MBE – Proprietor &
Executive Chef, Café Spice Namaste
Group
Catherine Usher – Regional Managing
Partner - London, DLA Piper
Ruwan Weerasekera - Managing
Director, UBS
What happens next
Application Deadline – 23 May
Preliminary Judging – 23 June
Finalists announced
Final Judging – 14 July
Annual Dinner – 1 October
The annual dinner
• 1 October
• Hosted by the Lord Mayor at
Mansion House
• Black tie
• All Community Partner
applicants receive two
complimentary invitations,
one for staff plus one for a
beneficiary
• Finalists receive a third
invitation
Contact Details
Telephone:
020 7332 3608
Email:
dragonawards@cityoflondon.gov.uk