TargIT - small grants for new UK online centres

TargIT is now closed.

It was a DirectSupport initiative, funded by DfES, offering a supported programme of bidding advice, mentoring and capital funding. It distributed grants of up to £20,000, to create and equip almost 100 new UK online Centres within existing, small community-based organisations.

It ran as a limited and short-term extension to the UK online programme, drawing on the Capital Modernisation Fund (CMF).

As a result of TargIT, 97 organisations were able to open new UK online centres which can continue to access help from DirectSupport.

TargIT used the DirectSupport infrastructure was used to distribute £2million in capital grants. This was achieved in just under a year. Activity included promotion and distribution of application details, assisting applicants with the bidding process, assessing bids, and distributing grants. A high level of ICT was used by partners and mentors as well as beneficiaries themselves to make sure that this process ran smoothly and quickly; all bids were submitted by email, and were distributed and assessed in electronic format. Telephone help was provided to make sure applicants new to ICT had all the help they needed to apply.

Under the TargIT programme, the Helpline dealt with over 1000 calls, and provided over 100 Action Plans and mentoring visits.