Big Give Green Match Fund opens for applications, & more funding news
Melanie May | 16 November 2023 | News
Funding news update including the opening of the Green Match Fund for applications, the announcement of a new £4.5mn fund to support young changemakers, an update on Jerwood Foundation’s funding plans for 2024 and its merger with Jerwood Charity, and more.
Big Give Green Match Fund 2024 opens for applications
The 2024 Green Match Fund from Big Give has opened for applications.
It will run from 18-25 April, and supports charities tackling environmental challenges in the UK and abroad.
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The week-long campaign, timed to coincide with World Earth Day on 22 April, will see donations to over 200 participating charities taking part doubled by Big Give’s match funding ‘champions’, including companies, philanthropists and foundations.
Applications for the fund are open until 16 January, and Big Give aims to raise more than £10mn for the charities taking part – more than double the amount raised last year.
Big Give raised over £4.3 million in aid of the 178 charities who took part in the Green Match Fund in April 2023, receiving over 22,000 donations from across the UK. Participating charities included The Wildlife Trusts, which raised £ 243,346; Rewilding Britain, which raised £ 217,370; and Friends of the Earth Charitable Trust, which raised £200,215.
£4.5mn fund launches to support young changemakers
Co-op Foundation, Co-op, and #iwillFund have launched a £4.5mn fund to help individual young people to catalyse their ideas for turning their communities into safer, more sustainable and more inclusive places to live.
Grants from the fund will also support youth led groups and organisations working to improve their communities.
The Young Gamechangers Fund will offer grants of up to £20k directly to individual young people aged 10-25 – the first of its kind in the UK. It has been built by a youth steering group of 13 young people aged 18-25.
The initiative is funded by Co-op Foundation, the #iwillFund and Co-op. As a result of Co-op’s naming rights partnership with the new Co-op Live arena in Manchester, Co-op Live will also drive youth social action through the Young Gamechangers Fund with a donation of at least £1mn a year to the Co-op Foundation when it opens in 2024.
The fund will be delivered by Global Fund for Children and Restless Development, who will work with successful applicants to provide peer support networks, training and mentoring.
Applications are open and close on 14 December at noon. The steering group will prioritise support for young activists, co-operators and entrepreneurs committed to creating communities that are prosperous, safe, diverse, equitable and inclusive, healthy, and sustainable.
CAF Resilience Fund and Scope team up to support wellbeing of disabled people impacted by Covid
Between August 2022 and March 2023, Scope distributed £1.5mn in Connecting Communities grants on behalf of the CAF Resilience Fund to 77 organisations and grassroots groups working with disabled people in England and Wales.
The fund was created by the Charities Aid Foundation to support individuals and communities hardest hit by the Covid 19 pandemic.
Disabled people were disproportionately affected by the pandemic with millions facing loneliness and anxiety as they shielded from loved ones. Many still feel more excluded and isolated from society. Scope’s Connecting Communities grants have been supporting local initiatives that reduce isolation, promote wellbeing and encourage participation.
31,000 disabled people have directly benefitted from the grants so far, which have been given to groups to support activities that improved resilience, wellbeing and reduced isolation. A diverse range of community groups have received support, with an average grant of £19,480. They include Dial Leeds, which runs a Happiness Café for disabled people, and Simply Cycling, based in Manchester, which offers accessible cycling activities that enable everyone to participate.
Reach continues with Nimbus Disability being funded to develop an Accessibility Guide App that will aim to support 100,000 disabled people to navigate access at music events, festivals and theme parks.
Jerwood Foundation sets out funding plans & confirms merger with Jerwood Charity (Jerwood Arts)
Jerwood Foundation has completed the formalities of merging Jerwood Charity into the Foundation, and set out its funding plans.
The merger will take effect from 1 January 2024, and up to £2 million of grants will be awarded each year. Arts organisations of all kinds will be able to apply for funding, with the first round of grants being awarded in April 2024 (closing date 1 March 2024) The application process has been streamlined. In keeping with John Jerwood’s original philanthropic vision, the charity will support excellence and emerging talent in the arts and crafts in the UK.
Current projects funded by Jerwood include the Glyndebourne Jerwood Pit Perfect scheme, supporting recently graduated orchestral instrumentalists and the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 5 opening in 2025 at Somerset House, as well as the Jerwood Assistant Director Scheme at the Young Vic and Persona Arts for their production of The Flying Dutchman in Birmingham.
Jerwood also owns and manages the Jerwood Collection of modern and contemporary art, with works from the Collection now showing in Dream and Refuge at Arnolfini in Bristol in collaboration with UWE Bristol’s MA Curating Programme.
Rupert Tyler, Chairman of Jerwood Charity, has been appointed Chairman of the merged Jerwood boards. Lara Wardle, Executive Director, Jerwood Foundation, leads the organisation and management. Alan Grieve CBE, who has been Chairman of Jerwood Foundation during the last 30 years, remains a Trustee of Jerwood Foundation and Chairman Emeritus.
People’s Health Trust announces £1 million programme to address ill health caused by housing conditions
Health equity funder People’s Health Trust has launched Homes for Health – a programme supporting ten projects across England, Scotland, and Wales to improve ill health caused by unsuitable housing conditions.
Homes for Health aims to connect the issues of housing and health in communities, and will be supported through £1mn of People’s Health Trust resources. This includes almost £600,000 in grant funding which will be spread across the ten projects. The programme is a collaboration between the Trust and experts from housing, community, and racial justice charities delivering projects that respond to the growing problem of unfit rented homes and their effects on tenants’ physical and mental health.
The organisations receiving funding through Homes for Health are housing specialists ACORN and Living Rent; community organisers Citizens UK; local community charities Community Renewal Trust and Edberts House; and community organisations addressing racial justice Caribbean & African Health Network and Leeds Muslim Youth Forum.
Homes for Health projects are expected to last 21 months. Activities are co-produced with communities with the focus on housing conditions, and will include one or more of the following:
• Community organising or similar approaches
• Collective action to address poor private or social landlord practices
• Campaigning to raise awareness of particular issues
• Partnering with local agencies and service providers.
More on funding opportunities from People’s Health Trust here.
Harmony Energy Income Trust launches fund to support projects in Fife
Harmony Energy Income Trust has launched a £5,000-a-year fund to support local community groups within a 5-mile radius of its Little Raith Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Lochgelly, Fife.
HEIT is inviting groups to apply to the Little Raith Community Fund via BizGive, for grants starting from £1,000 per project, that positively impact the local area within a 5-mile radius of Lochgelly, near Fife. The closing date for applications is 30th April 2024, with decisions made on a bi-annual basis. Further details on the fund and how to apply here.
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.