Selco relaunches Community Heroes competition, plus more funding news
Melanie May | 21 March 2024 | News
As well as Selco’s Community Heroes competition, funding is available on an ongoing basis from Foundation Scotland’s Social Investment Fund, and the Road Safety Trust’s Spring 2024 Small Grants Fund round is about to open. Read on for more details.
Applications sought for Foundation Scotland’s Social Investment Fund
Foundation Scotland’s Social Investment Fund is always open and offers blended grant and loan investment to social enterprises, community organisations and charities working across Scotland.
The Fund offers eligible organisations between £10,000 and £250,000 as a blend of grant and loan finance. Up to 25% of the funding is through a non-repayable grant, with the remainder through a loan. Over the past 11 years, over £14 million has been invested in 90 organisations around Scotland. The investment can be used for working capital, acquisition of assets, business growth and capital expenditure.
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The fund is designed to meet each organisation’s unique needs and loans are repayable over a 10-year period.
Selco relaunches £12k community giveaway
Community groups, clubs and charities across the UK have the chance to improve their facilities by winning a share of a prize pot worth more than £10,000.
Selco Builders Warehouse has announced the re-launch of its Community Heroes competition.
It is the fourth time Selco has supported good causes across the country through Community Heroes, with £36,000 in cash and building materials already won by groups from Northumberland to Cornwall.
Over the course of six months, 12 winners will receive £500 to spend at their nearest Selco.
A public vote will follow, with one overall winner getting £5,000 in cash and a runner-up awarded £1,000.
The scheme is open to any charity or group which is at the heart of its local community and entry can be made by explaining in no more than 100 words how the building materials or money would be used to benefit members.
Entries can be made here.
The previous three winners of the competition were Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice, Helping Homeless Veterans and North Bristol RFC.
Road Safety Trust’s Spring 2024 Small Grants round set to open
The Road Safety Trust’s Spring 2024 Small Grants round will open on 21 March – with a webinar to support potential applicants taking place on Monday 25 March.
The main aim of the Spring 2024 Small Grants round is to improve road safety at a local level by funding pilots or trials, expansions of successful trials across a new area, and/or the evaluation of road safety interventions.
Applications of between £10,000 and £50,000 are welcomed from local authorities, police forces, fire and rescue services, registered charities, not-for-profit social enterprises, and community interest companies. Universities can also apply in partnership with another organisation.
All projects should have other sources of funding. Projects must also include plans for monitoring and evaluation and an element of partnership and collaboration.
The maximum project length under this grant programme is 24 months.
Anyone thinking of applying is encouraged to attend a support webinar for applicants on Monday 25 March (2pm). Click here to register. One-to-one sessions will also be available to discuss potential projects, details of which will be announced during the webinar. Detailed guidance and support is also available via The Road Safety Trust website, including the newly-developed editable Application Workbook.
The round closes on 24 April.
Smiths Group Foundation awards first round of charitable donations
Smiths Group, an industrial technology company, has announced the first round of grants to be awarded to charities around the world through its newly launched charitable foundation.
The Smiths Group Foundation is awarding grants totalling around £1mn to charities in several countries. Each donation aligns with Smiths purpose of ‘improving our world through smarter engineering’, through committing to the advancement of STEM skills, sustainability, safety and connectedness in communities.
The Smiths Group Foundation aims primarily to award grants to organisations to whom Smiths people can offer their time as volunteers. The goal is to bring the two together to enhance outcomes for local communities.
One of the Foundation’s chosen charities is London-based Inspire, a charity that promotes social mobility and raises career aspirations among young people. The Smiths Group Foundation grant will support underrepresented groups of young people from London boroughs – including women, those from BAME backgrounds and those with additional needs – to access STEM careers through tailored work-related learning and aspiration raising interventions and workshops. There are opportunities for Smiths Group employees to be involved with skills-based volunteering as mentors and coaches for the young people receiving this support.
The Smiths Group Foundation has committed an initial £10mn of funding, which it intends to distribute through a series of donations over the coming years, giving the Foundation a sustainable and long-term focus. The Foundation is directed by a committee of Smiths employees, which reviews applications and decides funding allocation.
£4.3 million to be distributed to 22 organisations through Ofgem Energy Redress Scheme
The Ofgem Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme (Energy Redress Scheme) is distributing £4.3 million in grants to 22 organisations across Great Britain through one of three funding streams, in the sixth round of the scheme.
In this funding round, 19 awards worth a total of £3.6 million are being made from the Main and Small funds, aimed at projects supporting vulnerable households through essential energy advice and support.
One recipient of this funding is Northern Hull Community Development, which is receiving £296k for its HEAT (Hull Energy Action Team) project, providing a range of information, advice and support to vulnerable households within Hull who are experiencing fuel poverty.
Through funding from the Carbon Emissions Reduction Fund, aimed at supporting projects reducing carbon emissions from energy use, Marches Energy Agency will continue to build momentum in decarbonisation across the Midlands.
London based Housing Association Charitable Trust (HACT) has been awarded funding from the Innovation fund to develop their Retrofit Credits service, which unlocks investment in retrofitting homes by verifying the carbon emission reductions and social value of retrofit projects.
Also receiving funding is a Retrofit for All: People Centred Retrofit project, based in Manchester, that will develop solutions to the challenges housing providers face in centring householders’ needs and priorities in the delivery of public retrofit programmes.
Since the Redress Fund was established in 2018, more than 538 projects across Great Britain have been awarded over £102 million in funding to for projects helping households who might be struggling with energy bills. The funding is collected through Ofgem’s enforcement and compliance activity, where companies that have breached energy rules agree to make a voluntary payment into the Energy Redress Scheme.
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.