Test It! Criteria

The criteria for the fund and the scoring system for the fund are here to support you as part of your application - please take time to read them before applying!

Test It! Criteria

Policies and Procedures

We may request copies of the policies and procedures you have indicated that you have in place as part of the grant award process.

We may also request a copy of your most recent accounts to confirm that your income is within the boundaries for the fund you have applied for.

 

Application Criteria

1. The Test It! programme is open to North Ayrshire-based community or voluntary organisations with an income at their last set of audited accounts to be between £30,000 - £300,000. Where the organisation has been established for less than one year and does not have a set of audited accounts yet, a letter of good standing will be accepted in their place.

2. Your organisation must be either a constituted community organisation or a SCIO and have its own bank account. We cannot accept applications from organisations using a host account for this fund.

3. You must have any legal or other permissions and relevant insurance required to carry out your proposal.
4. You must have no more than 2 related (spouse, long-term partner, parent/child or siblings) members of your board or committee.
5. We will not fund any political or religious activities or groups from this fund.
6. We will only accept one application per organisation. If your organisation has sub-groups or sub-committees, the application should come from the over-arching organisation; applications from sub-groups will not be accepted.
7. You must be able to spend the funds by 30th November 2026 and consent to providing quarterly updates against this spend. This will be supported through a series of workshops (see below) but the applicant is responsible for ensuring the spend is appropriate and as outlined in their application.
8. If your application is successful, you must attend a series of three 2-hour workshops to develop your idea before the funding is awarded, in addition to 4 further check-in sessions throughout the grant spend period. Dates and times will be confirmed once the successful applications have been chosen, with the initial three workshops taking place in late April and May 2026.
9. Your application must be for a project that will generate an income for your organisation to reinvest in its aims. The profit generated from any events or activities as part of the project cannot be used for the private benefit of any individuals. Additional weight will be given to ideas that demonstrate repeatability or scalability over time, as well as applications that have clear, achievable goals for the duration of the programme.
10. The grant award cannot be used to cover any maintenance, repairs or routine running costs, such as recurring staff salaries, bills, rent or insurance. One of the three £10,000 grant awards may be awarded to support specific staff costs related to the proposal, but this must be for additionality and the application must clearly evidence clear deliverables related to the proposal over and above their existing role. The funding panel reserve the right to not award the funds for staff costs in this round.
11. The grants may be used to cover a range of costs associated with your project idea, including the cost of one-off events; specialist advice and skills; and materials. Your application must clearly show how these costs will enable you to generate an income from your idea, and costs that do not clearly contribute to your proposal will not be considered.
12. Applications must be submitted by midnight on Saturday 28th February. Any applications received after this date will not be considered for the Test It! programme.

 

Scoring Guidance

This is the scoring framework the review panel will use to make the decision on which applications are offered a place on the programme. We have provided it to help you to check your application before submitting it, and to give you an understanding of we are looking for from the successful applications.

Quality Score

A score between 1 (weakest) and 5 (strongest) based on how clear, testable and commercially credible the idea being proposed is.

This should be mainly based on Summary of your idea (Q2 in the Application Questions section of the application form), which acts as an ‘elevator pitch’ for the proposal. You may also draw from the information in the next question to help you make your decision.

Scoring:

1. Not ready
   • Pitch is unclear or missing basic information (what it is, who it’s for, how it will help to generate an income)
   • No real plan for the test – more of a ‘hope’ than a solid plan
   • Income generation element is either absent or unrealistic
2. Early
   • You can tell roughly what it is, but key information is vague or lacking in detail
   • Income generating ideas exist but are weak – who will be paying? Why would they pay? What are they paying for?
   • Testing approach is minimal and lacks specifics (‘we’ll try’ rather than ‘we will do’)
3. Solid
   • Clear offer, audience, customer base and demonstration of a plan
   • A practical pilot period is described (what they hope to achieve by late November 2026)
   • Assumptions are identified, even if not proven at this stage
4. Strong
   • Very clear, compelling pitch identifying the problem, solution and customer
   • Credible income model with clear pricing and a logical route to market
   • Good design of the idea they are testing: what they want to try, who they’ll try it with and what they want to measure and learn
5. Excellent
   • Crystal clear proposition that is unique and has a clear niche
   • Strong commercial logic with a realistic delivery plan for the organisation’s capacity
   • High learning value: clear milestones, measures and decision points (if we achieve X, then we can scale, and if not then we pivot/stop)

Impact Score

A score between 1 (weakest) and 5 (strongest) based on how much the idea will build the group’s social enterprise and internal capacity.

This should be mainly based on Project Description (Q3 in the Applications Questions section of the application form). The key areas we are looking for here are the ability of the programme to build confidence, skills, systems and the ability to scale and repeat the idea in the future.

Scoring:

1. Little capacity gain
   • Feels like a one-off activity with no real learning or next steps
   • Unclear how it strengthens the organisation to trade again in the future
2. Small capacity gain
   • Some enterprise exposure but a limited plan to embed learning
   • Might raise a bit of money, but doesn’t build repeatable or scalable capability
3. Solid capacity gain
   • Builds at least one key social enterprise ‘muscle’: pricing, selling, delivery process, customer feedback
   • Creates evidence the group can use to take a next step
4. Strong capacity gain
   • Builds multiple elements of the organisation’s capacity (offer to customers, income generation, delivery of project, tracking of goals)
   • Sets up something repeatable (monthly sessions, ongoing service, product line, or regular bookings)
5. Step-change for project
   • Leaves the group demonstrably ‘enterprise-ready’: repeatable offer, simple process, clear learning and a next step plan
   • Likely to become a genuine income stream (even if modest) within a realistic timeframe