Funding update: grants awarded & available around the UK
Melanie May | 23 July 2024 | News
A round up of some of the current and recently made funding around the UK, including grants for physical exercise for people with Parkinson’s, for London communities, and for projects to tackle littering.
London physios and exercise coaches invited to apply for new grant funding opportunity
Parkinson’s UK has launched its Physical Activity Grants programme to help more people living with Parkinson’s get active in 2024.
Now into its fourth year, the charity’s Physical Activity Grants programme reopened on Monday 3 June for physical activity providers, leisure groups, sports clubs, national governing bodies, Parkinson’s groups and many more from across the Greater London area to apply.
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Since the grants scheme started in 2021, Parkinson’s UK has awarded more than £426,000 to 192 physical activity projects across the UK.
The 2024 grants are available for a limited time and will close as soon as the funding has been allocated. Applications can be made for amounts ranging from £500 up to £3,000.
More information here.
Julia Rausing Trust announces £30 million for health, welfare and education
The Julia Rausing Trust, founded in memory of the late British philanthropist Julia Rausing, has announced £30 million in grants to causes supporting health, welfare and education in the UK. This second wave of grants follows the £20 million announced as part of the launch of the Trust earlier in the month.
The Trust has now donated £50 million of its commitment to make £100 million in grants in 2024.
The new donations will see £10 million donated to The Prince’s Trust, £5 million to MediCinema and £2 million to Carers Trust, with a further 28 charities receiving grants with amounts ranging from £2 million to £30,000.
The £10 million grant to The Prince’s Trust will support young people facing adversity in London and the South West to transform their prospects, and accelerate the goals of the charity’s Women Supporting Women initiative to empower young women. This grant follows a special £10 million donation made in 2023, which was spearheaded by Julia Rausing, to scale The Prince’s Trust’s Endowment Fund.
The £5 million grant to MediCinema will enable more cinemas to be built across the country’s NHS hospitals. It follows the recent donation for a MediCinema to be built inside Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool that Julia Rausing had been working on in late 2023.
The £2 million grant to Carers Trust will be made towards the charity’s flagship Carers Fund Programme. The grants are currently worth up to £300 but the Julia Rausing Trust’s donation will allow those facing extreme financial hardship to apply for up to £1,000.
Other organisations which have been supported in this second wave include:
- The Big Give’s Women & Girls Match Fund
- The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award’s Probation and Young Offenders Pilot Programme
- Now Teach
- The Anna Freud Centre
- Hestia
Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund opens community grants scheme for final year
The Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, a five-year programme with a £10 million investment mandate across Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, and Waltham Forest, supported by Westfield Stratford City, has opened its community grants scheme for its concluding year.
Managed by the Stratford-based charity Foundation for Future London, the fund aims to provide support to individuals, schools, community groups, charities, and not-for-profit businesses in these boroughs, offering grants of up to £20,000.
Established in partnership with Westfield Stratford City in 2021, to date the Fund has invested £7.8 million in 148 projects, benefiting an estimated 51,190 people through employment, skills, training and entrepreneurial opportunities. In 2023/24, the fund supported 28 projects and awarded £577,000.
Year 5 Community Grant Scheme of the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund opened for Expressions of Interest on Monday 22 July. Details about the large strategic partnership commissions will be available in Autumn 2024.
Those thinking of applying for funding can access free online workshops designed to help with the application process.
More information here.
£12 million donated across more than 1,000 charities since 2021 by The Barratt Foundation
Since The Barratt Foundation launched in 2021, it has donated more than £12m of funding across more than 1,000 charities.
Over £6.8mn has been donated to national charity partners who positively impact the lives of children, young people and those most disadvantaged in the communities where Barratt operate. Through the Foundation’s national partnership programme the following charities have been supported: The Outward Bound Trust, Whizz Kidz, Place2Be, Bookmark, Magic Breakfast, Refuge, the Lighthouse Club Constriction Industry Charity and CleanUpUK.
At a local level, Barratt Developments and The Barratt Foundation support charities through Barratt’s 29 divisions with divisional teams raising money for charities in their areas, supporting the communities in which they are based. £1.9mn has been spent on matching fundraising done by employees to help charities closest to their hearts.
The Barratt and David Wilson Homes Community Fund also enables each division to donate £1,500 a month to a local charity or organisation working to improve the quality of life for those living in their area – £3.2mn has been donated via this.
Applications are currently closed and not expected to reopen before September 2024.
New funding for local councils working to combat littering
Funding is available for local councils as part of an initiative from environmental charity Hubbub.
Hubbub has launched Neatstreets.org.uk – a website to help local authorities and other organisations combat litter using a range of tried and tested ideas. Artwork for posters and bins, audience insights and ideas for litter interventions are among the free tools available on the site, which is designed to guide organisations on how to deliver a successful litter campaign in their local area.
In addition, McDonald’s is providing funding for five grants of £10,000 for local councils to help subsidise funding already in place to combat the issue. These grants are available for councils to apply for as long as they provide £5k of funding themselves, and applications are open until 13 September.
Along with ideas and tools, the website shares the successes and learnings from previous campaigns from Hubbub which include Neat Streets – delivered in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole to tackle litter on beaches using drone technology and AI, and Ballot Bin – a customisable voting ashtray, proven to cut cigarette litter by up to 73%.
McDonald’s has funded projects with Hubbub since 2017. McDonald’s funded the award-winning Neat Streets campaign in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, in partnership with Hubbub and Ellipsis Earth. The campaign used drone technology to identify problematic areas and target them with playful interventions, resulting in a 75% – 90% reduction of litter in these locations.
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.