Aviva Community Fund 2020 makes £250,000 a quarter available for small charity projects
Melanie May | 21 January 2020 | News
Aviva has today (21 January) unveiled the latest development of the Aviva Community Fund, which will see £250,000 per quarter available for small charity and community interest group projects, with Aviva employees deciding how the money is distributed.
Applications for the new Aviva Community Fund 2020 are open from today until 23:59 on 11 February, and Aviva is calling on small charities and community interest groups with an annual turnover under £1 million to submit their community projects on Crowdfunder for the chance to gain up to £50,000 in funding.
The Aviva Community Fund programme is being rolled out nationwide following a successful trial, and is focused on building the capabilities and skills of good causes to drive long-term sustainable success and help charities make a life-changing impact in their communities.
Aviva is looking for projects in two key areas:
• Community resilience: Those tackling inequality and improving environments to build more connected, more resilient communities
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• Financial capability and inclusion: Those giving people the tools to become more financially independent
Under the programme, for which it has teamed up with online fundraising platform, Crowdfunder, eligible causes submit their projects through the site with their fundraising target where they can inspire support from Aviva employees and the public. Each of Aviva’s 16,000 UK employees will be allocated an ‘Employee Wallet’ with £60 in total, which will be split across each quarter of the programme. Employees can donate these funds directly to the participating causes that matter most to them and these will be added to the funds raised externally on the Crowdfunder platform.
Jude Brooks, UK Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Aviva, said;
“We believe the small charities that make the most impact are the ones given the opportunity to innovate and test new ideas. That is why with our Aviva Community Fund programme, we are focusing not only on facilitating funding for small charities with genuinely forward-thinking ideas, but also sharing knowledge from Aviva’s people and building the capabilities of causes through training and coaching. Our ambition is to enable causes to become self-sustaining over the long term.
“We are extremely proud of the impact the Aviva Community Fund has had on so many worthy causes in recent years, and are delighted to give our network of approximately 16,000 employees the chance to contribute directly the causes that matter to them most.”
Key dates
- 21 January – 12 February: Aviva Community Fund open for applications. Causes can visit avivacommunityfund.co.uk to read the eligibility criteria and the application
- 13 February – 3 March: Causes can prepare their crowdfunding project page
- 4 March – 20 April: avivacommunityfund.co.uk cause crowdfunding pages go live and fundraising begins
- 10 March: Employee giving goes live, and Aviva employees will have the opportunity to donate their allocation of funds to the participating causes
- 22 April: Projects who do not reach their target will have the opportunity to rollover for the next quarterly cycle. Successful projects will be able to withdraw their funds and bring their ideas to life
Harrogate School of English
Yorkshire-based charity Harrogate School of English are one of the groups to have benefitted in the past, having received funding for their ‘Tea and Talk’ initiative. The support from the Aviva Community Fund enabled them to hire space and resources to teach English to Syrian refugees, in a friendly and informal atmosphere over a cup of tea.
Other resources
In addition to the funding, Aviva is also offering a range of resources and skills via its Knowledge Library, including advice around risk management and networking, as well as templates and documents to build their capabilities in a range of areas. Causes can also connect with Aviva’s employees, who are given 21 hours volunteering leave each year, to offer a range of volunteering opportunities, as well as world-class coaching from a number of International Coaching Federation accredited mentors.
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.