New London Ticket Bank initiative will help people access cultural events – & other funding news
Melanie May | 16 December 2022 | News
The London Ticket Bank will provide people who would not ordinarily be able to afford to engage with culture with tickets to theatre, comedy, live music and dance performances. Meanwhile the Benefact Trust has announced a £500,000 support package for charities, and a £2.5 million Electricals Recycling Fund has launched to help tackle e-waste.
Benefact Trust announces £500,000 support package for charities
Benefact Trust, the charitable owner of Benefact Group (and previously Allchurches Trust) has announced a £500,000 funding package to support charities working to keep people safe and warm this winter.
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The Benefact Trust has released £275,000 with immediate effect to charity partners who are working directly with people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis to address the urgent needs of individuals, families and children affected. A further £225,000 will be released later this winter.
The board of trustees has already allocated funding to the following charity partners:
- The Trussell Trust has received a grant of £100,000 to provide emergency food parcels to thousands of people across the UK, as well as providing wider support through initiatives such as the Helpline
- Depaul UK and Depaul Ireland has been given £150,000 to provide vital support to keep young people secure, safe, and warm this winter – paying for heating, clothing and food as well as offering coaching and support services
- Warm Welcome Campaign has received a £25,000 kickstarter grant to fund its campaign to provide a warm space for people in need this winter
These grants are possible because of the Trust’s ownership of the Benefact Group, a family of financial services businesses, including Ecclesiastical Insurance and EdenTree, which gives all its available profits to charities and good causes. It offers a range of grants with information on what’s available and how to apply here.
The London Ticket Bank launches in January to help people access cultural events
Launching on Monday 9 January as a one-year programme, The London Ticket Bank will make an estimated 1,000 tickets a week available to those who would otherwise not be able to afford to engage with culture during the cost-of-living crisis.
The London Ticket Bank is a new initiative from the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation and Cardboard Citizens, in partnership with some of London’s leading cultural organisations: The Almeida Theatre, Barbican, Bush Theatre, Gate Theatre, The National Theatre, Roundhouse and Tara Theatre.
To date, seven leading cultural organisations have committed to the charitable initiative with more to be announced in the new year. Each cultural organisation has pledged tickets for theatre, comedy, live music and dance performances at a donate-what-you-can rate via The London Ticket Bank page on the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation website. A donation can be of any amount and even the most modest of gifts will be celebrated.
The London Ticket Bank will be working with the following partners to ensure that tickets reach the people and communities historically under-served by cultural organisations:
- Centrepoint
- The House of St Barnabas
- The Longford Trust
- Positive Action in Housing
- A Network of Food Banks across the capital providing emergency food and support to people locked in poverty
- Relevant Outreach programmes of cultural organisations as well as Cardboard Citizens, Union Chapel and The Big House.
These partners will provide access codes direct to their programme participants to enable them to book tickets via The London Ticket Bank.
IG Group awards grant to Reeds Weybridge Rugby Club’s girls section
IG Group has announced that it has awarded a community grant to Hersham-based Reeds Weybridge Rugby Club’s girls section, the Reeds Rebels, to help facilitate diversity and inclusion in rugby. The grant includes a new playing kit for all girl members and the development of programs to help attract new girls to the club from the wider community and to build links with local schools.
In December 2021, IG Group announced that for each year from 2022 to 2025, pledged the equivalent of 1% of the prior financial year’s post-tax profits to charitable causes which will be allocated via the Company’s Brighter Future Fund. Social responsibility and sustainability are cornerstones of IG Group’s ESG strategy, with focus on programs related to education, climate change, diversity, and inclusion.
There is no current deadline for funding applications but IG is most focused on charities geared around education, diversity & inclusion and climate change.
Leeds Building Society shares £250K between 3 local charities
Three charities based in Leeds and Huddersfield have received a share of £250,000 from Leeds Building Society as part of its increased investment in community and charity partnerships. SmartWorks Leeds, who support unemployed women, social inequality charity Zest Leeds and the Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust were nominated by building society colleagues who worked with charity partners to pitch for a share of the funding.
For this initiative, Leeds Building Society colleagues were invited to nominate charities for a share of the pot. The charities then worked with these colleagues to pitch for funding. All charities that pitched received a minimum £1,000 donation and then five were selected for the larger donations.
The initiative was the first of its kind for Leeds Building Society, and details are not yet available as to when it will run again.
£2.5 million Electricals Recycling Fund launches to help tackle e-waste
Material Focus, which leads the UK’s Recycle Your Electricals campaign, is launching a new £2.5 million funding opportunity to make it easier for UK householders to recycle their electricals. Material Focus’s Electricals Recycling Fund will fund two types of projects – those seeking to add household electricals collection services using existing infrastructure, and those seeking to innovate new methods for collecting small household electricals for recycling.
The Electricals Recycling Fund provides an opportunity to offer collections of electricals to millions more households and to test creative, practical and scalable new methods for collecting electricals that could produce significant environmental benefits in the future.
Expressions of interest need to be in by 31 January with a view to projects being ready to implement during 2023.
More than £100mn of lottery funding distributed in 3 months
Over £100 million of National Lottery funding has gone to charities and community groups in England over the last three months, supporting local grassroots projects as they continue to offer support this winter to those in their communities.
The funding, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, has been awarded to nearly 2,500 community groups and projects across the country.
Grants awarded range from £350 up to £500,000 and have been made in direct response to community needs, including for mental health support, improving employability skills, tackling issues of social isolation and loneliness, and offering vital support and advocacy for those at risk of experiencing homelessness through the cold winter months.
Projects funded include a group that provide young people with new hands-on skills through upcycling in Scarborough, supporting mothers’ mental health in Greater Manchester after traumatic births, a homeless outreach service in Exeter, and a London-based children’s charity that aims to spread laughter and joy through professional performers.
This funding is made up of Awards for All and Reaching Communities grants, which you can find out more about here:
- Awards for All – National Lottery Awards for All England | The National Lottery Community Fund
- Reaching Communities: Reaching Communities England | The National Lottery Community Fund
Both of these funding programmes are ongoing all year round, meaning there is no deadline.
- Lloyds Bank Foundation offers £5.5 million to small charities, and other funding opportunities (1 December 2022)
- Co-op and Crowdfunder tie-up offers community groups an opportunity for more funding (10 November 2022)
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.