Frequently Asked Questions

1. Funding Support

1.1 Who do you fund?

The Travers Foundation supports young people aged 13-30-years-old residing in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, or Rutland.

1.2 What are your residence rules?

Residence means living full-time with a home postal address in Northamptonshire, Rutland, or Leicestershire, including Leicester City. The only exception is to permit support for young people whose parental home is in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, or Rutland and who are in full-time school or college education outside the area.

1.3 What are your age criteria?

All applicants must be 13 years of age or over on the date they apply to The Travers Foundation for support and under 30 years of age when the support period ends.

1.4 What costs do you cover?

Our support covers four areas.

Coaching Support - providing funding for the direct cost of coaching and professional support for groups or individuals, including sports, music, and the arts.
Studio Support - providing funding for recording studio time for aspiring singers and musicians, both groups and solo performers.
Competition Support - providing funding for competition costs, including travel expenses, accommodation expenses and competition entry fees for sporting teams or individuals.
Performance Support – providing funding for pre-production costs for groups planning a production or event. This can include Auditions, Rehearsals, and People charges.

We have a helpful document titled "Guide to Grant Funding", which details our funding. We recommend you read, this before you submit your application.

1.5 How do I apply for support?

Please visit our website at https://www.travers-foundation.org.uk/apply-for-support.html; this will lead you through the application process.

1.6 For how long can I apply for funding?

Our usual period for a grant is six months, but this isn’t fixed. If you have activities lasting longer or shorter, we are happy to consider your application. Please be clear in your application about what timescale you would like our support to cover.

1.7 How long will it take to approve my application?

It usually takes two months to approve your first application. During this time, we may have questions, and we may need some more information. Once we have all the details, we will invite you to meet our funding group, at which point we will decide. You will then receive a letter of offer which you’ll need to accept and sign within 30 days.

Occasionally we may have available limited funds and may have to delay applications.

1.8 Where do I go to meet the funding group?

Our funding group meet in Gretton on the second Tuesday of each month. We prefer to meet face-to-face and will give you a time slot to meet. If you cannot do this, we can arrange a Teams online meeting.

1.9 Can I bring someone with me to meet with the funding group?

If you are under 18, you must attend with a parent or guardian. Older applicants may bring a friend or family member but it's not necessary.

1.10 Is your funding a one-off, or can I apply again?

Once you have completed your first round of funding, you may apply again to continue your support. Subsequent applications are usually processed within a month. There is no limit to how many times you may apply for funding, providing you continue to meet our funding criteria.

1.11 How do you pay for funding?

We will agree on a level of funding to support you, and you may claim this based on the expenditure you incur. You are required to apply for reimbursement of expenses. This can be done at any time during the time frame of your funding and will need to include copies of receipts for relevant expenses.

1.12 What do you expect in return from successful applicants?

You must keep us informed of your progress, which is a condition of our funding. We want to know we are having a positive impact and are realistic that that doesn’t occasionally happen for various reasons. We like to use good news stories to promote the work of The Travers Foundation and, from time to time, will use these updates for this purpose.

1.13 Do you provide loans?

We do not provide loans. All our funding is in the form of a grant.

1.14 Do you give grants?

All our funding is in the form of a grant to a young person.

1.15 What if I live outside your area but attend school in it? Can I apply for funding?

We're sorry you must meet our residence criteria to qualify.

1.16 Can I apply for a grant to buy equipment?

Sorry, no. The cost of purchasing equipment is excluded from the scope of our funding. This includes sports equipment, musician's instruments, amplification, cameras, sets, costumes, or props.

1.17 Can you help with my university fees?

We receive several applications for support to cover school, college, or university fees. These are usually termed a Bursary, which is a grant awarded to someone to help pay their fees to study at university or college. Unfortunately, bursaries fall outside our terms of reference, and we cannot consider these applications.

1.18 Can a grant cover my marketing costs?

Sorry, no. Marketing in all forms is excluded from the scope of our funding. This includes Marketing an event, exhibition, recording or performance.

1.19 What happens if I don’t spend all the money allocated to me?

That isn’t a problem. We retain any unspent funding.

1.20 What happens if my costs are more than my application?

Once you have made claims up to your approved level of funding, you will need to make a new application for any further funding.

1.21 What do I do if my circumstances change?

This often happens, and be sure to contact us as soon as possible to inform us about your changes.

1.22 What do I do if I’m injured and can’t compete?

You’d be surprised how often athletes get injured; we’re used to dealing with this. You should contact us as soon as possible to let us know about the extent of your injury.

2. Travers Rising Stars

2.1 How do I qualify to join The Travers Rising Stars programme?

To join our Travers Rising Stars Programme you must meet the following.

You must meet our residence and age rules (see 1.2 & 1.3 above)
You must apply to The Travers Rising Stars programme at https://www.travers-foundation.org.uk/travers-rising-stars.html. This will lead you through the process.
You will need to provide an audition video (See 2.2 below)

2.2 What is required for a Travers Rising Stars audition video?

Your Audition Video should be live and unedited, consisting of 1 or 2 tracks and less than 10 minutes long. Try and get the sound and vision as good as you can. Don’t worry if the quality isn’t perfect. We’re judging your performance talent, not your video production skills. A mobile phone video is adequate.

Your Audition Video will form the basis for your selection for Travers Rising Stars.

2.3 Where do I send my Travers Rising Stars audition video?

You can send your Travers Rising Stars audition video by emailing a website link (YouTube, Vimeo, iCloud etc.) or attaching it to an email. Our email is [email protected]

You will receive an acknowledgement within three days after we receive your Travers Rising Stars Audition Video.

3. TraversTV

3.1 How do I qualify for a TraversTV Session?

You need to be accepted onto The Travers Rising Stars programme, and then we can prepare for a TraversTV session (see 2.1 above)

3.2 Where does a TraversTV session occur?

TraversTV recordings sessions take place in Gretton, Northamptonshire. The address and location details will be supplied when your session is confirmed.

3.3 How many tracks can I perform?

You should come with rehearsed material for at least two songs. If we progress well, we can usually fit in a third, but we cannot guarantee this. It’s very time-dependent.

3.4 Can I bring a band with me?

Currently, we do not have the space to accommodate a band. A duet is our limit.

3.5 Can I bring a friend with me?

If you are under 18, you must attend with a parent or a guardian. Older musicians may bring a friend or family member; it's optional.

3.6 Can I use backing tracks?

Yes, you can, but you will need a licence to use this in our recording, which we will add to www.TraversTv.live. We cannot proceed without seeing a copy of your licence before you attend your session. You must therefore email this to us a least seven days before to avoid cancellation.

Our use case for the backing track is described as “The Travers Foundation does not plan to distribute these recordings on Spotify, iTunes or other such platforms. Our sole aim is to add Our video recording to www.TraversTv.live. TraversTV links may subsequently be shared on our Facebook or other Social Media platforms.”

3.7 What must I do to prepare for my TraversTV session?

Please Rehearse the tracks you plan to perform so you are ready.

If you have a backing track, please send a copy of your licence seven days in advance, See above.
Check that your Instruments are prepared.
- Your guitar has been tuned, and you bring your turner.
- You have all the leads you need with you; you cannot assume we have these.
- Your backing track is loaded to your phone, and you have checked that it plays.
Do you have any preferred Mic (rather than our Shure PG58)? Please remember to bring this with all necessary leads.
Bring plenty of water to keep you and your voice hydrated.

3.8 Can I retake a performance if I make a mistake?

TraversTV aims to capture your performance in a live, unedited environment. That is different from saying it will be done in one take. You may need time to be comfortable with the technology and the environment so we can retake your performance.

We do not edit or mix the video or sound in post-production. So, we retake to achieve a performance we’re all happy with, and that’s what we publish. We aim to capture at least two songs live. If we progress well with these, we can usually fit in a third, but we cannot guarantee this. It’s very time-dependent.

3.9 What should I wear?

This is your showcase, so you pick the outfit for your TraversTV session. There are no rules.

3.10 How long is each session?

We set aside a minimum of an hour for your session and may overrun slightly to complete your live session.

3.11 How do I get access to my TraversTV tracks?

Each of your tracks will be added to our Vimeo account and presented on TraversTV. These can be found at www.traverstv.live or www.travers-foundation.org.uk/traverstv.html.

If you want to see one track on track outside TraversTV, you can view it in full-screen mode on Vimeo. To do this, click on your name and track title above the video within TraversTV, and this will open a dedicated Vimeo window to your track.

3.12 Can I share my recording on social media?

All your TraversTV tracks are uploaded to our Vimeo account. As well as viewing these tracks at www.TraversTV.live you can view each track individually in a dedicated Vimeo window, see 3.11 above.

The URL of each track may be shared on any Social Media platform.