# £450k grant to help revive rural communities

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/11/21/450k-grant-help-revive-rural-communities/
- Published: 2012-11-21T15:51:12+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has granted over £450,000 to The Plunkett Foundation
to help it support the revival of villages through community enterprise.**

The Plunkett Foundation will use the funding to to create a support service for 
rural communities which are thinking about setting up or diversifying community-
owned services such as shops and pubs.

It is estimated that community shops save around 10% of the estimated 400 village
shops that close annually. Once open they stay tend to remain open: 97% of shops
to have opened in the past 25 years have stayed open.

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The funding follows the Foundation’s hugely successful Village CORE programme, also
funded by Esmée Fairbairn, which helped nearly 100 rural communities in their efforts
to save their village shop.

The support is focused in particular on supporting a community at the early stages
of its ideas, helping them to progress. To be eligible, communities will need to
raise at last £10,000 themselves by offering shares to the whole community.

[⌊Plunkett Foundation⌉⌊Plunkett Foundation⌉[James Alcock, Head of Frontline at the
Plunkett Foundation, explained the focus on shares. He said: "This approach has 
been extremely successful for enterprises like shops and pubs, allowing them to 
raise a significant amount of money in often a short space of time whilst ensuring
the success of the enterprise is rooted in the whole community, empowering residents
to make a difference and ensuring long-term sustainability.”

This new service will open for applications on 3 December, and Plunkett encourages
rural communities who need support for their enterprises to contact them directly
for more information via 01993 810730 or by emailing in**@*********co.uk.

[www.plunkett.co.uk](http://www.plunkett.co.uk)

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