Experts in the design, delivery and evaluation of funding and grants
Rocket Science has been a trusted partner of several government agencies, charitable trusts and endowed funders for over 20 years, providing a unique blend of design, delivery, evaluation and capacity building expertise to ensure they maximise the impact of their funding.
Our experienced team of grantmaking, strategy and impact experts have worked across the grants and funding ecosystem bringing frontline skills and sector knowledge alongside innovative, relational and inclusive approaches to the design and delivery of funding.
With these skills we help funders turn their ideas into great grant investments with even greater social and lasting impact than they had thought possible.
We can support you with the design and development of your funding and investment strategies, help with the process of applying and assessment of applications and support your grantees to mobilise delivery, manage their payments and monitor their delivery.
We use equity-led, trauma-informed and participatory approaches and our work is underpinned by our commitment as a flexible funder.
As well as helping you design your theory of change and impact roadmap, we also bring our evaluation and learning expertise to develop frameworks and approaches to help you and your grantees learn from and understand how your investment has made a difference.
And with capacity building support we can help your grantees build their skills and expertise as they navigate the application process, deliver their services and plan for the future, to enable them and the communities they support to thrive.
Building capacity and adding value
Our commitment to you is making sure that your investment impact extends far beyond the grant award itself to have long lasting benefits for the communities you choose to support.
We can work with you to develop skills through peer research, communities of learning and training that enhance the skills of your existing team.
We also provide interim support to help you manage short term capacity needs or to cover staff absence.
Whether you need highly targeted support or a key partner for every stage of your funding cycle, our team will offer a bespoke solution that will get your investment to the people and places quickly and effectively.
Meet our expert team
Case Studies
L&Q
Our ability to provide a high-quality service, working with clients, adapting processes, and working with resident applicants was integral to L&Q’s decision to work with us for six years. The L&Q Place Makers fund operates on a monthly rolling application basis and in collaboration with local residents who are involved directly in the assessment of applications.
The success of this process owes much to our close relationship with L&Q colleagues and our role as a critical friend. Each year we produce an annual report that reflects on the fund’s operation through the year, built on insights generated from our Place Makers fund dashboard and the feedback we collect from applicants. In these reports we are able to identify areas for development and improvement that make our internal processes more efficient and enhance our applicant’s user journey.
Since 2018, this investment has reached hundreds of grassroots organisations, including in Greenwich, which share a commitment to changing lives and enhancing places where L&Q have a presence. Since its launch, over £3.4m has been distributed to 262 projects aligning to their strategic outcomes, including 25 community projects delivering directly in Greenwich who have received a combined £292,791 in grant funding. We were recognised for quickly adapting policy and criteria to reach additional community demand during Covid.
Our partnership with L&Q Foundation has built flexible strategic, local and development funding streams reaching a range of neighbourhoods. We:
- streamlined the application process, translating it to an online platform which clearly conveyed the fund’s eligibility requirements
- created intuitive application forms containing automated error-prevention functionality to help applicants’ journey through the process
- enabled decisions to be made quickly, including engaging local neighbourhood committee recommendations from residents
Between November 2018 and March 2023, we enabled: 262 grassroot projects to be supported with grants ranging from £1,070 to £50,000 with an average award of £13,100, 3,468 individuals improved their levels of personal wellbeing, 11,640 young people advanced their education and/or employment journeys, and 1,369 individuals actively engaged in their local communities.
“Rocket Science have been instrumental in helping us create positive, lasting change for our residents and communities. Their management of our Place Makers Fund has engaged more grassroots organisations than ever and allowed us to be flexible with our offer during the pandemic.” L&Q Fund Manager.
Youth Futures Foundation
Rocket Science, is the strategic grantmaking partner for Youth Futures Foundation, setup in 2019 with £90m endowment from the Reclaim Fund to improve employment outcomes for young people from marginalised backgrounds. We designed their first grant programme in 2020 and launched in the Covid pandemic. We have now co-designed, co-delivered and supported grant management functions for the following funding pillars:
- Development & Impact Grants an evaluation focussed programme identifying ‘what works’ to support young people from marginalised backgrounds into secure, good quality jobs;
- Infrastructure grants to organisations demonstrating how they help young people who face intersectional barriers move towards and into work, through equipping the organisations in their networks with the knowledge, skills, and connections to provide world-class employment support and training;
- and the Connected Futures Fund to support young people to get good jobs through pioneering local partnerships.
We have also supported the client as an extension of their existing team to support the review and assessment of applications for the Building Futures programme, and Evidence into Action programme.
Rocket Science and the Foundation ensured evaluation and learning was embedded throughout the grant giving process in several ways, including:
- Youth Futures Foundation working directly with grantees to ensure they are evaluation ready.
- Delivering a meaningful impact report, which can be found here.
- Shared learning, including more specificity with expectations and criteria.
- Supporting 4,081 organisations through 20 Infrastructure grants totalling £3.5m
- Supporting young people facing disadvantage to land good jobs through the £6m Connected Futures Fund by pioneering local partnerships, joining up services at a local level so that young people furthest from the job market receive consistent high-quality support.
"I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work, effort and commitment in supporting us to launch our first grant making programmes. A particular note of thank to Michael, who has delivered exceptional services to Youth Futures, it’s been a real joy working with him." Matthew Pool Interim Director of Programmes
"I just wanted to let you know that the support we have been receiving via Rocket Science for Blackbaud has been brilliant. Michael Theodorou always comes back to me promptly and always offers great assistance and in a timely manner. Great customer experience and always deals with any issues we encounter professionally whilst explaining everything clearly. Super happy to have them onboard." Michael Duncombe, Relationship Manager.
Published reports from some of our work with funders
Get in touch
For more information on our work or how we can help with your next project, get in touch info@rocketsciencelab.co.uk.