FAQs
| Q1 | Can private companies registered under the Company Ordinance submit applications? |
| Ans | Yes, but the projects implemented by private companies should be able to develop social capital effectively and must be for non-profit-making purpose. All revenue/profits accrued from the projects must be reinvested into the project. |
| Q2 | Are religious or political groups eligible to apply for this Fund? |
| Ans | Any legally registered body in Hong Kong may apply for the Fund but the proposed project should be able to effectively develop social capital. However, the Fund would not support pure evangelism or electioneering activities. |
| Q3 | Can statutory organisations monitored by the Government, such as the Hospital Authority (HA), apply for the Fund? |
| Ans | Individuals and government departments are not eligible to apply for the Fund. As the HA is an organisation independent of the Government, it is therefore eligible to apply for the Fund. |
| Q4 | The Fund requires that applicants must be registered organisations. Does it mean that the Fund will only accept applications from large and experienced organisations? |
| Ans | The objective of the Fund is to encourage the development of support networks amongst different sectors and different social strata in the community. Therefore, all kinds of agencies/ organisations are welcome to apply for the Fund. Applications from newly set up agencies /organisations without adequate resources are welcome and will be considered given that they can provide information to prove their successful experience in implementing community works or expertise and creativity to implement their projects. |
| Q5 | If the project is rejected by the CIIF Committee for the first time, can we re-submit the proposal? Can we request an interview with the Committee to explain the project? |
| Ans | Applicants can re-submit proposals after appropriate modifications or revisions are made. Where necessary, an interview with the Committee can be considered and arranged for a better understanding of the project. However, not all applicants will be interviewed. |
| Q6 | Can an organisation submit more than one application? |
| Ans | Yes, provided that the organisation can demonstrate its capability to manage and implement multiple projects at the same time. |
| Q1 | Can we organise projects targeted at all the people in Hong Kong or should we design projects on community basis? |
| Ans | The Fund will consider supporting both types of projects provided that the design of the project can effectively develop social capital. |
| Q2 | Would the CIIF Committee consider projects that will take place outside of Hong Kong, such as projects that will be carried out on the Mainland or in collaboration with organisations on the Mainland? |
| Ans | Subject to compliance with applicable laws and procedures, the project may be carried out in collaboration with or through seeking information/resources from other stakeholders outside of Hong Kong, but the project must be carried out in Hong Kong, and the beneficiary of the project must be the Hong Kong community. |
| Q3 | Will the Fund support an existing service run by the applicant organisation? |
| Ans | The Fund is not intended for providing supplementary or gap funding for existing services. |
| Q4 | Will the Fund subsidise the projects that have already been financed by other Funds? |
| Ans | The Fund will not duplicate, replace or supplement other Government Funds. To avoid duplication of resources, the CIIF Secretariat will consult relevant government departments during the assessment process. |
| Q5 | Would the Fund finance the conduct of research? |
| Ans | Research-based projects are not the primary focus of this Fund. The objective of the Fund is to develop and build up social capital in the community through implementation of community-initiated projects. Having said that, the Fund encourages participation of academics in summing up experience and evaluating the outcome. The funding ceiling for each research project is HK$200,000. |
| Q6 | Can the grant be used for building maintenance works such as improving the water quality of buildings? |
| Ans | No. These are regular property maintenance or enhancement measures for the private benefits of individual residents. The Fund primarily supports projects that help build up social capital and encourage mutual help among people from various sectors, which will help achieve the outcome of benefiting the whole community/society. |
| Q1 | Does the Fund require that applicants must fill in the information about their key collaborators? |
| Ans | The Fund has been advocating cross-sectoral collaboration to achieve the benefits of sharing community resources and building up social capital. The Fund therefore attaches great importance to whether the projects can engage stakeholders of different sectors or districts into key collaborators. This is also one of the important criteria that the CIIF Committee applies in assessing the proposals. |
| Q2 | What kinds of collaborative relationship or co-operative nature can be regarded as a "key collaborator"? |
| Ans | It means that the partner has to play an active role in implementing the project, which can mobilise resources and networks, with a view to enhancing the strategy development and effectiveness of the project. For example,
(i) a school takes part in promoting students' understanding of social capital and encouraging them to form community caring teams; or (ii) members of an enterprise's volunteer team act as "family ambassadors" who will regularly visit and care about families or impart professional knowledge and experience; or (iii) a government department builds up networks with residents in its designated service area to jointly improve the local environment and public order, etc. On the contrary, one-off collaboration or collaboration in supplementary nature such as providing support to the project through provision of venue or assistance in promotion will not be considered within the scope of “key collaborator”. |
| Q3 | Is it necessary to fill in any key collaborator under deliberation in the application form? |
| Ans | If an applicant considers that the collaborative relationship under deliberation falls within the scope of "key collaborator" mentioned in Q2 above, the details can be provided and marked "under deliberation" in the application form for the CIIF Committee's information. |
| Q4 | What are performance indicators? |
| Ans | Performance indicators are used to measure and reflect the achievement of objectives or the degree of anticipated improvement. The major measurement areas for building up social capital include mutual trust, mutual help, cross-sectoral collaboration and a sense of belonging to the community. In setting performance indicators, the SMART principle should be applied:
S - Specific M - Measurable A - Achievable R - Realistic T - Time specific |
| Q5 | How to define “volunteer” and “direct participant”? |
| Ans | In CIIF-funded projects, “volunteer” is defined as anyone who is willing to offer one’s time and effort not for material returns, but for benefiting and improving the community, without restriction on service hours. “Direct participant” is a person who has directly participated in the programmes of project, e.g. children received after-school care service, elderly or families visited, etc. If the same participant takes part in several programmes of the Project, please count only once when he/she first participates in the programme and prevent multiple counting. For example, anyone initially participates in the project with the main function of providing voluntary services (such as corporate volunteers), they should be counted as "volunteers". However, anyone has experienced the intervention of project programmes (such as house captain /volunteer training) and thus becomes a volunteer, he/she should be counted as a "direct participant". |
| Q6 | How should Item 2.3 be completed if participants turn to be volunteers during the course of project implementation? |
| Ans | An applicant should complete the item in accordance with the identities of various targets when they first take part in the project. If a group of youngsters is originally participants, please count them as participants. If their identities/roles are expected to be changed in the course of participation, the number of people undergoing role transformation should be recorded in Annex 3 - Other Statistics of Outputs – (ii) Role Transformation. |
| Q7 | Should the "attendance" or "number" of participants of a project be counted as a unit when completing Item 2.3 of the application form? |
| Ans | The "number" of participants should be counted as a unit because the Fund focuses on the transformation of various stakeholders, including individuals, bodies and organisations, and the formation of mutual trust networks rather than the attendance during the course of participation in the project. If participants take part in more than one event of a project, the applicant should deduct the duplicated numbers of volunteers and attendances of participants when filling in data for individual events of a project. |
| Q8 | For Item 2.5 "Method of Evaluating Effectiveness", is it necessary for the applicant to provide a very detailed proposal and conduct the assessment in collaboration with an academic institute? |
| Ans |
It is necessary to devise a mechanism, including assessment methods, tools and schedule, for evaluating the effectiveness of a project before implementation. The assessment method may be in the form of quantitative or qualitative study, questionnaire survey, focus groups, data statistics, pre and post test, etc. The assessment tools may vary with different scopes of review. Applicants are not required to submit the details of each assessment tool at this stage. For example, if the applicants will use a scale that has been verified by other scholars, they only need to submit the name of the scale; if the applicants will design questionnaire on its own, they only need to state it clearly in Item 2.5 of the application form. The Fund also encourages the applicant organisations/bodies to co-operate with an academic institute in devising suitable assessment tools. However, it is not a necessary requirement. |
| Q9 | What does a Development and Sustainability Plan mean? If my project proves to be very successful, will the Fund consider financing the project after completion? |
| Ans | CIIF will provide fund for a project for no more than three years (except the “Community Support Programme for New Public Rental Housing Estates”) with a view to financing organizations to develop social capital in different communities in Hong Kong. A sustainable project can generally foster participants' sense of belonging to the community and enable them to be master of their own life. The mutual help network formed by the project can be further reinforced and sustained, which can then operate on a self-programming and self-financing basis in the long run. If the project can promote long-term cross-sectoral collaboration, these collaborative efforts should be able to help enhance the effectiveness of the project continuously. The Fund, rather than a long-term subsidy, will finance a project for no more than three years. If the organisation can put forward a project to be implemented in the subsequent stage with rationale and sound ideas, the CIIF Committee will take this into consideration. |
| Q10 | Are there any restrictions on the number of staff involved and requirement of relevant qualification in the project? |
| Ans | The number of staff employed and their qualification requirement will depend on the prescribed nature and complexity of the project. In general, staff cost should not exceed 75% of the overall budget expenditure, or the applicant has to provide substantial justifications. The employment terms and conditions shall not be better than those for comparable jobs in the civil service. |
| Q1 | We are a small organisation and we may not have sufficient fund to carry out the project at the initial stage. Can we apply for an advance payment? |
| Ans | CIIF releases the grant by instalments and in different percentages of the total approved grant in accordance with different project periods. This could relieve the cash flow and financial burden of small organisations. |
| Q2 | What types of expenses will not be subsidised? Is it allowed to apply for the purchase of equipment like vehicles? |
| Ans | Normally the Fund will not support the expenses of one-off activities, such as banquets, movie-watching, karaoke and giving out gifts, which will have no long lasting effect on social capital development. Funding will depend on whether the equipment to be purchased is crucial and reasonable to the achievement of the project objective. Expensive items such as vehicles and photocopiers will not normally be considered. |
| Q3 | Will the Fund support the lease of premises for use as an office or activity venue? |
| Ans | Before proceeding to lease new sites or premises, first consideration must be given to whether there are other possible shared facilities that can be better used. Shared facilities are a good start to save resources, more cost-effective in the long run, as well as providing the starting point to bring different groups together. We encourage applicant organisations/bodies to note that often most communities do have existing premises that can be more opened up to facilitate community use, such as church premises during the evening of weekdays, and school premises that are available during evenings or weekends. Reasonable cost for the lease of such premises can be included in the project budget. As for the lease of office accommodation and venues, the CIIF Committee will only take this into consideration if the applicant can provide substantial justifications. |
| Q4 | Can a project receive any donation or sponsorship from sources other than the Fund? |
| Ans | If any donation or sponsorship for the project is anticipated, it should be reflected in the budget with details of the donation or sponsorship as well as the special requests (such as acknowledgements), if any, of the donor or sponsor. Meanwhile, the donation or sponsorship from the tobacco industry or individuals/bodies having any direct or indirect conflict of interest with the project and government should be avoided. |
| Q5 | Can travelling expenses of the volunteers, rent for vehicles, etc. be included in the budget? |
| Ans | Yes, volunteers' subsidies can cover subsistence and travelling expenses. The rent for vehicles can be included in the programme expenses. |
| Q6 | Will the CIIF Committee only go for partial funding of a project? Can there be any "negotiation" over the level of funding to be granted? |
| Ans | It is important for applicants to put forward, and for the CIIF Committee to approve, a reasonable, complete, realistic and cost-effective project budget. It may be counter-productive for applicants to inflate a budget as this will affect the reasonableness or viability of the entire project that is otherwise worth supporting. The CIIF Committee's decision is final. |
| Q7 | There is a cost for operating a bank account with a small turnover. Is it realistic to require a small organisation to open and operate a separate bank account for the project? |
| Ans | Yes, the requirement for opening a separate bank account for the project is to ensure easier and clearer project management, reporting and auditing of accounts for the funded project. It minimises the risk of the project fund being absorbed into the overall funding pool of the "host" organisation. Realistic costs for the operation of the account can be built into the project budget. |
| Q8 | How can a separate bank account be opened for a project co-organised by different groups? |
| Ans | One of the co-organisers should be identified as the lead applicant for opening the separate account in a registered bank. |
| Q9 | What is the purpose of requiring the applicant organisation to submit its audited statement of accounts? |
| Ans | The applicant organisation should submit a set of the latest audited reports or certified management accounts; for management accounts, should include (1) Income and Expenditure Accounts/Income Statement, (2) Balance Sheet/Statement of Financial Positions, for the purpose of enabling the Fund to make reference to and understand the financial position and the management and governing capability of the applicant organisation |
| Q10 | Can the Grantee seek increase in funding when implementing the project? |
| Ans | The Fund will normally not consider supplementary funding. It is important for the project output, cost and budget to be estimated as accurately as possible right from the start. |
| Q11 | Would the Grantee be allowed to make minor adjustments across the funded items to fix minor problems or gaps? |
| Ans | Yes, a certain level will be allowed. The level of virement that is allowed to be made without requiring further prior approval from the Secretariat will be specified in the Conditions of Grant. Prior approval from the Secretariat must be obtained before other variations to the deployment of funds are to be made. |
| Q12 | Will funds be released in phases taking into consideration the performance of the project? |
| Ans | The Grantee must submit to the Fund in a timely manner all necessary documents, including the Progress Evaluation Report, Project Completion Evaluation Report and Annual Audited Report, etc. After confirming that the performance of the project is satisfactory and all the information of the reports is correct, the Fund will release funds by instalments and in different percentages of the total approved grant in accordance with different project periods. |
| Q13 | Can the grant cover other expenses involved in the project, such as the insurance premiums for staff? |
| Ans | Yes. Since the Grantee must provide adequate insurance coverage for staff, the insurance premiums can be covered by the grant. |
| Q1 | What types of projects will the Fund support? What are the assessment criteria? |
| Ans | The Fund will support projects that can effectively build up social capital, including those promoting neighbourhood mutual help relationship, enhancing the social networks of individuals and families, as well as creating opportunities for developing cross-sectoral collaboration platforms. The assessment criteria mainly cover three parts with twelve criteria as follows: (a) Understanding and Application of Social Capital Concept (40%) - Clear objectives with potential for social capital development. - Accurate assessment that can address community needs. - An effective and innovative intervention model and networking strategies. (b) Project Effectiveness (40%) - A strategic programme plan that can effectively achieve the project objectives. - Engagement of different stakeholders with effective synergy effects. - Specific and measurable performance indicators with effective evaluation tools and methods. - Ways of promoting social capital. - Sustainability and contributions to social capital building. - A resonable and cost-effective budget. (c) Institutional Capability (20%) - Track record, effective leadership and strategic advantages of the applicant institution/organisation. - Ability to identify and address risks/difficulties. - Financial management capability and stability of the institution/organisation. |
| Q2 | Is there any targeted number of approved applications for each batch? |
| Ans | There is no targeted number of approved applications or any pre-determined approved sum for each batch. |
| Q3 | Does the Fund have assessment mechanism and procedures for approving projects? |
| Ans |
The Fund adopts this 3-tier assessment structure and procedures for approving projects: 1. CIIF Secretariat:
2. The Assessment and Evaluation Sub-Committee:
3. CIIF Committee:
|
| Q4 | Will the Fund interview all applicants on an individual basis? |
| Ans | Where appropriate during assessment process, the Fund will interview an applicant whose application has the potential of social capital development for a better understanding of the project and an exchange of views over the development of social capital. |
| Q5 | Is it true that the Fund will not finance similar projects in the same district where a previous one has been approved? |
| Ans | Our main consideration is whether the project can meet the specific needs of the district concerned. If adequate projects and services of the same kind have already been running in one district, it will not be necessary to duplicate the efforts in the same district in order to avoid duplication of resources. |
| Q6 | Will a project put forward by a registered social worker (RSW) or by a subvented NGO has a greater chance of success? |
| Ans | The Fund is not exclusively set up for supporting subvented services with the involvement of RSWs. A project will not automatically gain an advantage just because it is put forward by a RSW or by a subvented NGO. The Fund mainly considers the project’s contribution to social capital building and the applicant’s ability and leadership in implementing the project. |
| Q7 | What will be done if the performance of an approved project is found unsatisfactory after a period of time or if the nature of the project is found to have deviated from the original intention? |
| Ans | If the performance of an approved project is found unsatisfactory after a period of time or if the nature of the project is found to have deviated from the original intention, the Fund Secretariat will first understand the reasons of the unsatisfactory performance from the project team and request the project team to submit an “improvement plan”. If the performance of the approved project continues to be found unsatisfactory, the Fund Secretariat will invite committee members to conduct a review meeting with the project team. The Fund may early terminate the project upon a mutual agreement when necessary. |
| Q8 | If an approved project proposal fails to achieve its planned objectives and is terminated mid-way, should all the equipment/properties invested be returned to the Fund? |
| Ans | Yes. All capital of the project must be returned to the Fund if the project is terminated mid-way. |
| Q1 | Is it a must for the project to have cross-sectoral collaboration for it to be considered by the Fund? |
| Ans | Yes. One of the main objectives of the Fund is to encourage cross-sectoral collaboration. |
| Q2 | What is the Fund's bottom line for business sector’s involvement in the community projects? E.g. to what extent does the Fund accept companies in getting promotional effect in the process of supporting the projects? |
| Ans | The projects must focus on social capital building for the common good of the community, and thus the collaboration with business sectors should focus on generating common good for the community, but not for companies to gain pecuniary or non-pecuniary advantages for themselves. |
| Q3 | What role does the Fund/the CIIF Secretariat play in promoting cross-sectoral collaboration? |
| Ans | The “SC.Net” was established in 2008, which is a platform for engaging a group of enthusiastic and experienced persons in different sectors to contribute to social capital building. “SC.Net Buddy for You” is a matching scheme for CIIF project teams to obtain support from SC.Net Members. The Fund also organises the biennially “Social Capital Builder Awards Scheme” to recognise the contributions by organisations and individuals in social capital building in Hong Kong. This is to encourage all sectors in the community to develop the spirit of mutual help and mutual trust, so as to explore more collaboration models in response to the needs of the community and to inject new energy into social capital projects. In addition, the Fund organises “Cross-sectoral Collaboration Meetings” periodically so that CIIF project teams can meet with potential partners in different sectors, with a view to having further exchanges and collaboration opportunities. |
| Q4 | How can the business sector be involved in social capital building? |
| Ans | There are representatives from the business sector sitting on the CIIF Committee, who actively contribute their professional expertise. Moreover, some business organisations have already developed very active corporate volunteering or corporate sponsorship schemes in fulfilling corporate social responsibilities. There are lots of potentials for the business sector to be involved in furthering their social responsibilities in a variety of ways. Business organisations which are interested in collaborating with CIIF project teams may contact the Secretariat. |
| Q1 | What is "sustainable development"? Does it mean "financial sustainability", that is, the funded project can continue to operate on a self-financing basis after the funding period? |
| Ans | "Sustainable development" means that the funded project can continue to extend and deepen the achievements of social capital after the funding period. Social capital consists of six core components, namely social networks, trust and solidarity, mutual help and reciprocity, social cohesion and inclusion, social participation as well as information and communication. CIIF therefore attaches importance to the sustainable development of the above constituents, such as value change and role transformation, as well as social capital outcomes like the sustainable development of cross-sectoral collaboration, complementarity, trust, cohesion, support networks and community capacity. Financial factors including whether the project can continue to obtain financial support or whether it can continue to operate on a self-financing basis is not the major criterion for the assessment of project sustainability. |
| Q2 | Why does CIIF require all Grantees to evaluate the achievement level of their objectives and the effectiveness of social capital building periodically when the projects are being implemented? What is a good and objective evaluation? |
| Ans | To ensure good progress and objective assessment of the effectiveness of projects, CIIF requires all Grantees to evaluate the achievement level of their objectives and the effectiveness of social capital building periodically when the projects are being implemented. For an effective and objective evaluation, Grantees may consider conducting different types of evaluation based on the needs and characteristics of individual projects. The most common types of evaluation include "effectiveness analysis" and "impact analysis". The purpose of "effectiveness analysis", in which research methods such as "person-as-own comparison", "pre-post change comparison" and "longitudinal status comparison" are commonly used, is to analyse whether the project itself can achieve the objectives set; while "impact analysis", in which a comparison between "experimental group" and "control group" is most commonly adopted, is to understand the impact of the project on service users. Besides, for an effective assessment of the social capital outcomes achieved by its projects, CIIF devised a local “Social Capital Scale” in 2012. After validation of the Scale, direct participants and volunteers of funded projects have been invited since 2013 to fill in the “Social Capital Scale” at least twice during the funding period. All data will be used by CIIF in consolidating the experience and effectiveness of social capital building. |
| Q3 | What kinds of project experience will CIIF focus on and consolidate? How will CIIF process the information submitted by project teams? |
| Ans | In addition to the service output and the effectiveness of social capital building, CIIF attaches great importance to the consolidation of practice wisdom, which include the intervention model and strategy of the project and their effectiveness, the contributions of key collaborators, promotion and publicity strategies, the key success factors, the difficulties/challenges that Grantees encountered with the contingency measures taken, the best practices of effective cross-sectoral networking in social capital building, and the status of sustainable development. Project teams are provided with "Progress Performance and Evaluation Report" and "Project Completion Performance and Evaluation Report", which serve as the clear frameworks for submission of information. After receiving the information from Grantees, the CIIF Secretariat will designate colleagues to analyse and consolidate the experience of individual project teams. These valuable data and information are very useful reference for the development of the Fund and social capital. From time to time, CIIF will consolidate project experience and share the results through various channels with a view to enriching the local experience of social capital building. |
| Q4 | Will the project outcomes be uploaded to the CIIF website? Will experience sharing sessions be held on a regular basis to help potential applicants gain experience? |
| Ans | CIIF strives to share project outcomes and practical experience through different channels with stakeholders and the public. CIIF also organises good practices sharing sessions for Grantees so that they can have experience exchange on the building up of social capital. For example, CIIF has commissioned several research teams from local universities twice to evaluate the overall effectiveness of funded projects in promoting social capital development. The findings were uploaded to CIIF website for public viewing and downloading. CIIF also holds regular sharing sessions and forums for experience exchange among prospective applicants, Grantees and stakeholders. |
| Q5 | Is it permissible for the project to keep a surplus to make it sustainable after the funding period? |
| Ans | The Grantee must return any unspent balance of the approved grant. However, the project can apply for retaining the extra income generated from the projects for the purpose of continuous development. |
| Q6 | What will happen to the assets/profits gained as a result of the project if the original applicant organisation is dissolved or a new organisation is formed to continue with the development of the project? |
| Ans | Under normal circumstances, the assets bought as a result of the grant must be returned to the Fund if the applicant organisation is dissolved. If a new entity evolves out of the original applicant organisation, then the normal legal procedures of winding up the original organisation and its accounts as well as handling the assets should apply. |