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Funding opportunities and developments for charities in June 2026
Howard Lake | 12 June 2026 | News
This month we feature funding from the Lounge Foundation, Access – the Foundation for Social Investment, B&Q Foundation, The Bentley Foundation, ISPO Impact Foundation (offering global support), Bethnal Green Ventures, and the National Grid and its Community Matters Fund.
Lounge Foundation makes £500,000 founding gift for Birmingham Women’s Hospital MRI
The Lounge Foundation has made a landmark £500,000 donation to Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital Charity, becoming the founding donor in a £1.5 million appeal to bring a dedicated MRI scanner to Birmingham Women’s Hospital for the first time in its history.
The appeal responds to a pressing clinical need. According to Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, 60% of women and babies requiring MRI scans currently wait more than six weeks for an appointment, often travelling to other sites, adding delays, stress and longer journeys to diagnosis. The new MRI suite is expected to benefit more than 1,300 women and babies every year, with building work scheduled to begin in autumn 2026 and completion anticipated in 2027.
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As one of only two dedicated women’s hospitals in the UK, Birmingham Women’s Hospital provides specialist care to patients across the region and beyond. The Lounge Foundation has been a long-standing partner of the charity, supporting projects designed to enhance patient experiences and healthcare environments.
Melanie Marsden, Trustee of The Lounge Foundation, said the donation represented “far more than an investment in equipment — it’s an investment in the health and future of thousands of women, babies and families.”
Helen Miles, Head of Partnerships and Major Donors at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital Charity, said the gift had “given this appeal incredible momentum and brought us significantly closer to making an on-site MRI scanner a reality for our patients.”
Access backs equity initiatives with £1 million for fairer social investment
Access – The Foundation for Social Investment has announced funding of over £1 million to two initiatives working to make social investment more equitable and better able to reach underserved communities.
The Diversity Forum will receive £530,000 and the Equality Impact Investing Project (EIIP) will receive £510,000. The two initiatives play distinct and complementary roles: the Diversity Forum focuses on embedding equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across the social investment sector through accountability, transparency and collective action; the EIIP targets wider ecosystem change and capital mobilisation towards equality impact through policy, training and standard-setting.
Both projects were originally funded through the Connect Fund, a £6 million partnership between Access and the Barrow Cadbury Trust that ran from 2017 to 2024. The new commitment forms part of Access’s 2025–29 funding strategy, which focuses on a small number of key infrastructure and ecosystem development initiatives.
Seb Elsworth, CEO of Access, said the organisation’s vision of an investment ecosystem that works for all charities and social enterprises “cannot be realised without diversity being embedded throughout the social investment sector and more capital flowing to equality impact.”
Ceri Goddard, Founder and Project Director at EIIP, described the funding as “an important milestone,” enabling the organisation to scale its work and “harness more capital to play a proactive role in tackling inequality.”
Bentley Foundation names Royal Academy of Music as flagship partner
The Bentley Foundation has announced the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) as its third flagship partner, marking a new chapter in the automotive company’s philanthropic strategy “focused on long-term impact in arts, culture and global education”.
The partnership will support three related strands:
- the Glover-Edwards Conducting Programme
- postgraduate conducting scholarships for women
- and flagship performances by the Academy Symphony Orchestra.
The Glover-Edwards Programme, founded in 2018, was designed to address long-standing under-representation on the conductor’s podium and has become internationally recognised for its work in developing conducting talent and driving structural change within the classical music profession.
The partnership will include a major public performance, Ryan Bancroft conducting the Academy Symphony Orchestra, bringing the Foundation’s investment to life for live and global audiences.
Wayne Bruce, Head of the Bentley Foundation, said the partnership “reflects our commitment to cultivating leadership, creativity and access in disciplines that shape culture for generations,” and that the Foundation is “investing in talent that has historically been overlooked.”
The announcement follows previous Bentley Foundation partnerships with the National Portrait Gallery and The Queen’s Reading Room. Since its creation in 2023, the Foundation has funded 21 projects across 15 countries, reaching more than 636,000 people worldwide.
For arts fundraisers, the partnership illustrates the growing appetite among luxury brand foundations for enduring, high-profile cultural relationships, and the strategic value of positioning a programme around visible inclusion and diversity outcomes.
ISPO Impact Foundation: €1 million grant fund open until 30 June
Nonprofit organisations working at the intersection of outdoor recreation, environmental regeneration and active communities have until 30 June 2026 to apply for grants from the ISPO Impact Foundation’s annual €1 million fund.
Backed by ISPO, the sports and outdoor trade fair, the newly established foundation channels funding directly to non-profits delivering impact on the ground. Grants are structured across four levels, ranging from €2,000 for grassroots groups up to €100,000 for large-scale initiatives.
Funding focuses on two areas:
- Regeneration (protecting and restoring natural environments) and
- Participation (increasing physical activity and building more inclusive communities).
Applications are open to charities worldwide. The foundation’s stated aim is to catalyse systemic change by protecting natural environments and widening participation across generations.
An online information session took place on Wednesday 10 June — a recording may be available via the ISPO Impact Foundation website for organisations that missed it. The session was designed to help applicants understand what the foundation is looking for and to allow Q&A on specific project ideas.
The application deadline to ISPO Impact Foundation is 30 June 2026.
Bethnal Green Ventures: Autumn 2026 Tech for Good programme
Early-stage tech for good ventures have until 11:59pm BST on 21 June 2026 to apply for a place on Bethnal Green Ventures’ (BGV) Autumn 2026 Tech for Good Programme, making this the most time-sensitive opportunity in this round-up.
Selected ventures receive £60,000 investment in exchange for 7% equity, alongside six weeks of intensive hybrid learning, expert mentorship, peer network access and six further weeks of coaching.
BGV, which has pioneered tech for good investment in the UK since 2012, looks for early-stage teams using technology to address pressing social and environmental challenges across three broad themes: a sustainable planet, healthy lives and inclusive society.
To be eligible, ventures must be incorporated (or planning to incorporate) in the UK as a company limited by shares and able to commit approximately 8–10 hours per week to the programme, which runs partly online and partly from BGV’s London offices. Interviews for shortlisted applicants will take place between 8 and 15 July.
B&Q Foundation BB&Q fundraising weekend
The B&Q Foundation is hosting its first-ever BB&Q fundraising weekend from 12–14 June, with in-store events at selected B&Q stores and fundraising activities across the UK network.
Research commissioned for the campaign found that 60% of people would be more likely to attend a local event if it supported a charitable cause. Customers can still host their own BB&Q fundraising events at home using materials available at diy.com, with £15 from every barbecue sold in store or online between 5 and 18 June going to the B&Q Foundation.
The Foundation has raised over £10 million for local charities since its launch six years ago.
Green spaces fund opens for community applications
National Grid Electricity Distribution, in partnership with Localgiving, has opened applications for the latest phase of its Community Matters Fund. The fund offers £250,000 to support organisations that protect, enhance, and improve access to green spaces for local communities.
Funding amounts and eligibility
The funding is available to groups operating within the Midlands, South West England, and South Wales. Registered charities and nonprofit companies can apply for grants of up to £5,000, whilst unregistered grassroots organisations are eligible for funding of up to £2,000.
The initiative aims to support projects that deliver environmental and social benefits. Eligible projects include the development of green spaces to encourage community use, such as creating living walls or pocket parks. Funding can also be used to improve accessibility through the installation of ramps and pathways, or to boost local biodiversity by planting wildflowers and installing bird boxes.
Application timeline
The fund is provided by shareholders of National Grid and is managed by Localgiving as part of an annual programme of themed funding phases. Successful applicants will be notified of the outcome by the end of July, with the distribution of funds scheduled for the start of August 2026.
Applications must be received before the deadline at 5pm on Friday 26 June. For further details and to complete an application, visit Localgiving.
Friends of the Earth receives £5 million from The National Lottery Community Fund
The National Lottery Community Fund has awarded environmental justice organisation Friends of the Earth almost £5 million to help tackle inequality and drive lasting environmental and social change
The grant comes from The National Lottery Community Fund’s Solidarity Fund and will cover a period of five years. It will support Friends of the Earth’s new project, Resilient Communities, Thriving Places, which works in 15 areas on the frontlines of the climate and nature crises across England.
Grassroots organisers will work with communities and Friends of the Earth’s existing network of local action groups to strengthen resilience, develop campaigning skills and build lasting connections.
The NLCF Solidarity Fund is still open for applications. It is for organisations in England who prioritise community agency and do work that tackles the root causes of poverty, disadvantage and discrimination”. It is designed to support organisations who are working to connect different communities around issues affecting them, “so people can act together in solidarity and build long-term solution”s”.
Asad Rehman, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, said:
“We’re delighted to receive this support from The National Lottery Community Fund. This funding will enable us to work with communities most at risk from the climate and nature crises across England to create long-lasting change. Frontline environmental justice campaigners will bring people together to push for fair, green solutions to help tackle pollution, poor housing conditions, high energy costs, lack of access to green spaces and to protect people from extreme weather.
“Thanks to National Lottery players, we’ll create thriving places and communities with the resilience to respond to some of the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time.”
Steve Morgan Foundation pledges £100m through to 2030 as it marks 25 years
The Steve Morgan Foundation has celebrated its 25th anniversary by committing £100 million in funding for the five-year period through to 2030, building on more than half a billion pounds of investment and impact since its founding in 2001.
The Cheshire-based foundation (charity no. 1087056), established by Liverpool-born entrepreneur and former Redrow chairman Steve Morgan CBE, held a major anniversary conference and awards event at Carden Park Hotel on 18 May 2026, bringing together 200 figures from philanthropy, the voluntary sector, health, sport, and business.
Over 25 years, the Foundation has awarded more than 2,500 grants, supporting over 10 million individuals through programmes focused on education, employment, access to essential services, and medical research. Key milestones include a £25.7 million emergency COVID-19 response fund in 2020, and the 2019 launch of the Cradle to Career model in North Birkenhead — now an award-winning template for place-based change across the Liverpool City Region.
A significant strand of the new £100 million commitment will accelerate the Foundation’s Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge, launched in 2021 as a £50 million partnership with Breakthrough T1D and Diabetes UK — the largest single investment into type 1 diabetes research in UK history. A further £50 million is now being developed to advance the research, which is currently driving 19 major studies across an international network. The cause is personal to Morgan: his son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of seven.
The Foundation is also continuing its place-based philanthropy work and its support for grassroots youth development through OnSide Youth Zones across Warrington, the Wirral, and Crewe, and through partnerships with Everton FC and Liverpool FC delivering health, education, and employment initiatives across Merseyside
CEO Liam Eaglestone said: “25 years of place-based work teaches you what actually works, and our new strategy is built on that learning.”
Steve Morgan added: “I am already looking ahead to the hope we can give and the difference that we can make over the next five years.”
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.