BGO Hardship Fund

To apply for financial assistance, to help pay yearly subscriptions, support externally given mandatory training or buy Girlguiding core resources which are not included in the BGO new unit grant please provide the following:

  • A copy of the most recent unit accounts. These should have been inspected within the last 12 months.
  • Should the inspected accounts be more than 6 months old, please provide an up to date statement of the funds available to the unit.
  • A statement from your commissioner agreeing that financial assistance is needed.
  • Should a unit have been in existence for less than 9 months and therefore not have accounts to submit or there are exceptional financial circumstances (for example caused by the Covid health crisis) these units should submit their projected financial situation.
  • Please state how much money you need in total in British pounds sterling. Please also provide a breakdown of costs, item by item, with evidence if possible. You can download an application form here.

A unit may not apply more than once a year to the hardship fund and the request should come from the unit leader.

All applications, using the hardship grant application form should be sent to finance@british-girlguiding-overseas.org.uk in the first instance.

A finance committee has been set up to consider requests twice a year and these dates will be published to the BGO membership via the website. Usually they will be around the end of January and the start of September each year.

It should be noted that, ideally, the BGO finance advisor will buy what has been requested in the hardship support application rather than money being sent to units to avoid paying international bank transfer fees from the sum.

Requests for subscription payment support: Should the amount of support not cover all the subscription levy, the BGO finance advisor will request that the unit send the invoice to her and pay the balance to BGO rather than HQ. She will then pay HQ. Should all subscription levy be covered by the fund, the BGO finance advisor will request the unit send the invoice to her and she will pay HQ.

After the finance committee has sat, the decision will be sent in an email to the local commissioner with the unit leader in copy so that the local commissioner can offer further support if necessary.