4 funding opportunities available to UK charities & community groups
Melanie May | 5 July 2019 | News
Here is are four of the funding opportunities currently open to charities and community groups in the UK.
Funding still available from Community Shares Booster programme
The organisers of the Community Shares Booster programme, which offers a combination of development support and match funding to community businesses, are urging community groups not to miss out on their share of the £1.6m funding still available.
Since 2017, the programme has supported 19 community businesses including farms, bookshops, solar parks, a railway pier, community-led housing schemes and even a skatepark. Over 5,000 people across the country have invested £2.1 million in community shares so far, matched with £1.2 million of funding from Power to Change through the Community Shares Unit.
The programme is funded by Power to Change and run by the Community Shares Unit (delivered by Locality and Cooperatives UK). It awards successful applicants with a development grant of up to £10,000 to help them set up their community share offer. At a later stage, organisations that successfully launch their share offers can access up to £100,000 match funding, with every pound raised by the community matched by the programme.
London Marathon Charitable Trust awards new grants to get people active
The London Marathon Charitable Trust has announced new grants totalling £1,691,031 to get more people active.
More than £530,000 was awarded nationally across two new Strategic Partnership Grants and more than £1.1 million was awarded to Facilities Grant Programme projects in London and Surrey. This latest round of funding takes the total amount of money awarded in The Trust’s history to more than £80 million. Sporting Equals is one recipient, receiving a grant of £327,000 to help 1,500 BAME children and young people across ten faith groups in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Slough get more active and playing new sports.
Expressions of interest for the Facilities Grants Programme – Small Grants, which offers funding of £5,000-£20,000, may be submitted at any time. Those applicants who are eligible will then be invited to complete a simple, one-stage online application for a Small Grant.
Stage 1 applications for a Major Grant (£20,001-£150,000) under the Facilities Grant Programme may also be submitted at any time via the Trust’s online application portal. Stage 1 applications are considered quarterly, and the Trustees decide which applicants should be invited to submit more detailed information at Stage 2.
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Small grants for local community projects available from CAF Tourle Foundation Fund
The CAF Tourle Foundation Fund is now accepting applications from charitable organisations for small grants aimed at helping people at the heart of their local communities in all parts of the UK.
The grants of up to £5000 must be delivered locally and provide a service to the community.
Examples include a charitable organisation providing services to older people in isolation or a small community group on an estate providing drop in sessions for teenagers.
Organisations applying must also:
- be a community charitable organisation whose reach is within a localised catchment area
- be able to demonstrate the need of the project
- have an annual income below £50,000
- have charitable aims and objectives
- operate within the UK
- complete the funded project a year from the date of award
This 10-year programme is funded through the generosity of a £4.5m legacy left for CAF to distribute for this purpose.
More information, including an application guidance pack detailing which organisations are eligible to apply, is available for download. Applications close on 31 July, 2019.
New funding available to help maximise spaces and build connections
Community organisations across England are invited to apply for grants of up to £50,000 to identify, improve and protect spaces where people can connect and co-operate.
Space to Connect is a £1.6 million match-funding partnership between government and Co-op’s charity, the Co-op Foundation. Grants will help organisations expand activities in spaces to make them more sustainable, or explore ways to make better use of spaces to address challenges, like loneliness and access to community activities.
Funding is launched as Co-op partners with Locality on its Endangered Spaces campaign to protect, support and improve 2,000 at-risk community spaces by 2022. Endangered Spaces is part of Co-operate 2022, Co-op’s wider community vision for the next three years that will see it work on three key areas that make communities stronger – community spaces, wellbeing, and education and skills.
Organisations can apply for one of two strands of support:
- ‘Enhance’:grants of £30,000 to £50,000 are available for organisations that are already using community spaces in innovative and creative ways to help them expand their activities and embed sustainable ways of working. Applications close on 31 July 2019.
- ‘Explore’:grants of up to £10,000 are available to help communities start to explore ways that local challenges that could be addressed through better use of space, and/or identify potential spaces that could be opened up to community use. Applications close on 12 August 2019.
There is also the potential for organisations that secure ‘Explore’ grants to apply for further funding to continue this work at a later date.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.