Evidence of need 

Providing evidence of the need you’re seeking to address is a crucial part of any funding application. In a recent training session, Get Grants said this section can be double or even triple scored compared to rest of a funding application. 

Once you have compelling and robust evidence – how you use it is key. Here’s a few points to bear in mind: 

• Explain the facts and stats you’re using:
  • Is this a big number, is it higher than it should be, has it changed recently or over time, etc.
  • What’s not obvious about the problem
• A blend of stats and stories are important to create a compelling and impactful application. Funders need to understand the facts, but you also need to make them care – real stories make this happen.
• Where possible use comparative data – for example, what’s the situation in your community like compared to the rest of the UK? 
• Need & evidence should support your impact, for example: don’t talk about food poverty in the ‘need’ section of a funding application if it doesn’t feature in your ‘solution’ or ‘impact’ sections.  
• It’s crucial to make sure the data you use is correct and up to date – double check before submitting a funding application! 

Before we get to the examples, we’d like to say a huge thanks to the baby bank community who helped to put this list together. If you have any additional sources of evidence, please contact us: [email protected]. 

Examples of useful evidence

Internal data 

What information do you have? We have a few guides on how to track you impact: https://babybankalliance.org/for-baby-banks/resources-for-members/resource-library/?category=impact-monitoring  

• Anecdotal evidence 
  • Case Studies from service users, professional referrers, volunteers, etc. 
  • Quotes from local People – especially people of ‘influence’ e.g. community leaders, politicians, etc. 
  • Quotes from referral partners, partner community organisations, local authority agencies, etc 
  • Consultations or local surveys, surveys of service users 
  • Focus Groups 
• Empirical evidence 
  • Referral numbers – has this changed over years? 
  • Number of items given away 
  • Have you taken part in any research? 

External evidence 

• See what evidence you local authority teams collect: 
  • Children & Families or Public Health Dept  
  • Best Start team  
  • Family Hubs team  
  • Local safeguarding boards  
  • Joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs) re child poverty, children and women’s health etc. 
  • Example from Nottingham of ‘Local insight website’ – your own local authority may have similar 
• One baby bank told us: “We’ve worked with our local community foundation who have created a poverty/ needs report for our area which has enabled us to use this alongside our data we hold.”  
• Real-time Analysis of Poverty Indicators Dashboard by Policy in Practice and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. This dashboard shows absolute income poverty, relative income poverty, the Social Metrics Commission’s definition of poverty, and the Minimum Income Standard. 
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report: UK Poverty 2024: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK   
• Children’s Commissioner for England Report: Child poverty: the crisis we can’t keep ignoring  
• Constituency data: Child poverty (parliament.uk)  
• Action for children dataset  
• ONS: Exploring local income deprivation  
• Income deprivation affecting children index  
• These tables are based on the DWP/HMRC statistics “Children in low income families: local area statistics” (March 2023). The DWP/HMRC data provide the number and percentage of children aged 0-15 years who are living in households with below 60% median income before housing costs.    
• End Child Poverty – Every year the End Child Poverty Coalition, together with the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, publishes data on the number of children living in poverty, in each Westminster Constituency and Local Authority across the UK.  This year (June 2023) the report not only looks at where the highest levels of child poverty are occurring, but also which families are most likely to experience child poverty. 
• Barnardo’s report: Empty Plates and Cold Homes – What it’s like to grow up in poverty in 2024 
• Buttle UK report: The Stark Reality of Growing Up in Poverty – In June 2024, Buttle UK concluded an extensive project to explore the lived experiences of children, young people, and families grappling with extreme financial hardship.
• The CofE has some brilliant poverty stats by parish 
• Lullaby Trust – research into sudden and unexpected death of babies and young children 
• Fingertips public health info – child health profiles  
• Community Practitioner – research on public health
• Institute of Health Visiting  – research on public health

Further reading 

Inspiring Impact was a project aimed of increasing the impact of charities and social enterprises. You may find some of their learnings useful: 

• https://www.thinknpc.org/resource-hub/the-inspiring-impact-programme/ 
• https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/grants/sharing-our-learning/inspiring-impact/