Overview

The Trust aims to advance education the arts, heritage, culture and community development by encouraging young people in Scotland to take up and play the chanter, pipes and drums; and by supporting the development of school pipe bands. In doing so, the Trust supports young people to broaden their education, in particular their musical and social skills.

What we will fund

• Tuition of pipes, drums and chanters for state school pupils from P5 and above.
• Tuition for a combination of schools.
• Instruments: bagpipes and drums up to a value of £5,000. Generally instruments are loaned by SSPDT for a period of three years, but this is renewable by negotiation.
• Approved workshops promoting the objectives of the Trust.
• Contribution to band or instructor travel costs in remote locations.

 

Notes

1. We fund tuition and band activities that take place within and after school hours, and on or off school premises.
2. Grant recipients take responsibility for the safety and well-being of all involved in their project and must have relevant policies in place.
3. Pipe bands funded by SSPDT are expected to attend the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships

 

What we will not fund

• Chanters & drum pads
• Uniform
• Instruments for adult bands

 

How much can I ask for?

We are prepared to consider funding from £250 to £5,000. We generally require organisations to have additional project funding in place that matches, or exceeds the value of your SSPDT grant, i.e. we will fund up to 50% of your total project cost.

 

Deadline for applications

There are no closing dates. You can apply any time but we need to receive your application at least 3 months before you’d like to start your project to give us time to assess it, tell you our decision and start your grant if you are successful.

 

Who can apply?

You can apply if your organisation is a:

• State school
• Local authority
• Pipe band, voluntary or charitable organisation.
• Independent school. We encourage collaboration between independent and state schools. Your SSPDT grant must benefit state school pupils, for example, by creating additional places at a workshop, by providing tuition, or by sharing resources.

 

How we will assess your application

When we assess your application we’ll consider:

• whether there is clear demand for your project
• socio-economic factors
• provision for piping and drumming in your area
• funding from other sources
• an active committee of local supporters
• the difference that a grant will make
• value for money
• plans to continue the project after the SSPDT grant ends
• geographic spread of SSPDT investment

 

 

What happens when?

You make your application any time.

When we receive your application, we may contact you to discuss it.

We’ll let you know our decision within 12 weeks of receiving a complete application.

If we offer you funding we’ll send your legally responsible contact a conditional grant offer in the post which has to be signed and returned to us within 28 days of the date of the letter.

We’ll also require details of the bank account into which you want funding to be paid. Voluntary and community organisations and schools which have their own bank account also need to provide a copy of a bank statement.

When we’ve got everything back from you and checked it’s all OK, we’ll let you know when you’ll receive our funding.

(If you don’t return everything requested by our deadline, or if there is a problem with providing the information that we can’t resolve with you, we may withdraw our conditional grant offer.)

You must retain all receipts and evidence of expenditure. We will ask that you provide reports and the format for these will be detailed in your grant offer letter.

 

What if my application is unsuccessful?

You can apply again to SSPDT however we would ask that you change or strengthen your application.  You can discuss your ideas with one of our team.

 

Help with your application

If you have any questions please email SSPDT on the Contact page.