Creative Scotland to close key arts fund, plus more funding news & opportunities
Melanie May | 27 August 2024 | News
A round up of grants available, funding made, and programmes closing, including news of the closure of two funding programmes.
Community grants for Bristol and Glasgow
Marking the opening of new showrooms in Bristol and Glasgow, ethical lab-grown diamond jeweller Lily Arkwright is launching Lily Arkwright’s Social Champions, a community grants programme to support local initiatives.
Two grants of £1000 each will be awarded to organisations or individuals making a positive impact on their Bristol or Glasgow communities.
Applications for the Community Grants programme are now open and require a short form to be filled in explaining how the money would be used to benefit the local community.
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More information here.
Wimbledon Foundation Community Fund open for applications
The Wimbledon Foundation Community Fund exists to benefit the community & provide support for local organisations to meet needs in the boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth.
Organisations can apply for a grant of up to £10,000 for one year. There is no income threshold for the applicant organisation but the fund may give priority to smaller, locally-based organisations within the two boroughs.
All organisations applying for funding should be seeking to deliver work that tackles social needs and supports local people facing disadvantage and addresses one or more of the following themes:
- Projects which improve mental health and wellbeing
- Projects which provide access to learning, training and employment skills
- Projects which improve access to advocacy, specialist support and advice for vulnerable groups
- Projects which encourage participation in the community
The deadline for applications is 9 September.
More information here.
Applications for Lloyds Bank Foundation grants for Deaf & Disabled people’s organisations close tomorrow
Lloyds Bank Foundation’s grants for Deaf and Disabled people’s oirganisations closes to applications tomorrow (28 August).
The programme offers unrestricted grants of £75k over three years for small and local charities and CICs led by and working for Deaf and Disabled people.
Lloyds Bank Foundation is expecting to make a total of 42 grants this year.
Organisations will hear about their application in December with those successful receiving their first annual grant payment in January.
More information here.
York organisations encouraged to apply to VCSE Health Inequalities Small Grants Fund
York CVS’s VCSE Health Inequalities Small Grants Fund is now accepting applications to support projects across York that aim to reduce health inequalities, with a deadline of 2 September.
£55,000 is available to be distributed to VCSE organisations across the city, thanks to funding contributions from City of York Council Public Health, and Humber and North Yorkshire NHS Integrated Care Board. York CVS us also expecting a further £20,000 to be added, bringing the total funding available up to £75,000.
It is encouraging all community groups, clubs, charities, and other not-for-profit organisations, including small and newly established groups, to apply. They must be working with an identified priority group and the project must focus on one of the areas specified by the fund.
More information here.
North of England communities benefit from share of £50k grant boost
Twelve charities from across the North of England are sharing over £50,000 in grant funding from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund at the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.
Grants of up to £5,000 each have been provided to target support to charities throughout the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire tackling issues around food poverty, sustainability and the environment, work and opportunity, debt management and homelessness.
Organisations receiving grant funding include Citizens Advice Carlisle and Eden, Skills4Work in Gateshead, the YMCA Northumberland, Meadow Well Connected in North Tyneside and Hambleton Foodshare in North Yorkshire.
Many of the charities were nominated by members of the Society, who get to suggest grants as a benefit of their membership. Along with member nominations, the Community Fund seeks to provide support aligned to the Society’s strategic community focus. Priorities for funding are informed by Vital Signs North East 2024, the latest series of reports developed by the Community Foundation.
More information on the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund and member nominations here.
Creative Scotland to close key arts fund
Creative Scotland will close the Open Fund for Individuals to new applications at the end of this month due to the Scottish Government being unable to confirm the release of £6.6mn in Grant-in-Aid budget in the current financial year, 2024-25.
The Open Fund For Individuals supports a wide range of activity initiated by artists, writers, producers and other creative practitioners in Scotland. It is designed to support creative activity such as specific projects, productions or periods of research and development for up to 24 months.
It will close to new applications from 2pm on Friday 30 August.
Creative Scotland had planned to apply £3mn of the £6.6mn budget to support the Open Fund for Individuals in 2024-25, alongside £3mn of National Lottery income. However, without confirmation of release of this budget, it says it does not have enough funds available to support all the funding routes that it currently provides.
All currently submitted Open Fund for Individuals applications will be processed as per its published Guidance, and the National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations remains open.
Iain Munro, CEO of Creative Scotland said:
“The level of uncertainty regarding the provision of Grant-in-Aid budgets from the Scottish Government is creating critical problems for the ongoing support we can provide to Scotland’s culture sector. This decision to close the Open Fund for Individuals is not one we would have wanted to take but is unavoidable without the funding from the Scottish Government being available. Like everyone working in Scotland’s culture and creative sector, we understand the extreme pressures on public finances but want to see longer term budget certainty from the Scottish Government, including the additional £100mn announced in October 2023, details of which have yet to emerge.”
Boots Charitable Trust closes to applications while it reviews funding strategy
Boots Charitable Trust has this month announced that due to the unprecedented interest in the Fund and a significant volume of applications, it has taken the decision to close to applications from UK-wide projects while it reviews the trust’s funding strategy for FY25.
The fund’s August 2024 application window will only open to new applications from projects supporting the community of Nottinghamshire.
The Trust asks that organisations review its giving policy before to making an application as it made a change to this recently. This means that organisations with significant large reserves, specifically over £1mn, cation will not be considered with the Trustees looing to prioritise funding for organisations with fewer resources.
The Trust makes grants of up to £10,000. Earlier this year, the Boots Charitable Trust expanded to offer support to charities beyond the Nottinghamshire area, covering the whole of the UK.
More information here.
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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.