City Bridge Trust grants reopen, & other funding news
Melanie May | 12 July 2023 | News
A round up of funding news and opportunities from around the UK, including City Bridge Trust grants, a new funding programme to support local collaborations to influence and achieve local or regional change, and the TWA Digitisation Grant.
City Bridge Trust grants re-open
Applications for grants from City Bridge Trust have reopened after a short pause.
The City of London Corporation’s charity funder temporarily paused taking applications in May as it switched over to new grant management software to make the application journey smoother for funding applicants.
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With that process now complete, City Bridge Trust is again accepting applications through its new online portal.
The funder’s Small Grants Programme however will remain on pause until an internal review is completed. The review’s aims are to make the programme more accessible and relevant to small organisations that serve Londoners and has been carried out in consultation with the sector. In addition to this, the Access Audits and Stepping Stones programmes remain paused.
Charities looking for funding can find more information and apply online at www.citybridgetrust.org.uk, as well as updates about the programmes that remain on pause.
£1.5mn collaboration funding programme launched by Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales
Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales has launched a funding programme to support local collaborations to influence and achieve local or regional change around improving three key issues: social security system, access to appropriate and affordable accommodation, and support for asylum seekers and refugees.
The Foundation will award flexible grants of £100,000 over two years to established and new collaborations, bringing partners together around a shared goal to influence change locally and regionally. Collaborations must be led by small charities with a clear vision for change and a plan to achieve greater impact through partnership. Collaborations will have the opportunity to extend by a further year and an additional £50,000.
The collaboration should be seeking to influence the policy and practice of others aligned with at least one of the following themes:
- Making the social security system work better for those facing the most significant challenges.
- Making sure people facing complex issues have access to suitable accommodation.
- Improving support and services for asylum seekers and refugees.
The Local Collaboration Programme has been developed through consultations and discussions with charities, and examination of existing partnership models, collaborations, and effective methods of support.
Charities interested in the Local Collaborations Funding Program can learn more and apply on the Lloyds Bank Foundation website. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 22 September.
TWA Digitisation Grant 2023 open for applications
After six years of supporting cultural heritage organisations the TWA Digitisation Grant is back once more with a deadline of 28 July.
Previous winning projects have illustrated the value digitisation brings to physical collections and the capacity digital archives have for engaging and impacting local communities, and over 110 organisations have been supported so far.
It offers:
– £3,000 x 3 grants
– £500 added to a Match Funding pot per application
– Accepted applicants eligible to claim up to £1000 towards their next project
Information on eligibility and how to access the online application form is available here.
£1 million investment to aid global communities understand and navigate risks.
Nearly £1 million (£918,070.00) has been pledged by global safety charity Lloyd’s Register Foundation to expand the Risk Know-How Project – a body of best practice tools and resources that help people and communities navigate risks in their own contexts and make effective decisions when faced with uncertainty.
Risk Know-How was launched in 2021 in partnership with Sense about Science and provided a means to be able to track and measure how a better understanding of risk can improve safety standards.
The next phase of the project, which will be delivered by Sense about Science in partnership with the LRF Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk, aims to scale up and expand Risk Know-How, building an interactive platform to provide on-demand resources and tailored guidance to help community practitioners employ evidence about risks effectively.
Investment in this new chapter for the initiative marks a renewed commitment from Lloyd’s Register Foundation and long-term partners Sense about Science and IPUR to increase the public’s understanding of risk and improve the quality of individual, business, and political decisions in the face of risk.
The Women in Safe Homes fund supports Sheffield Women’s Aid
Sheffield Women’s Aid and the Women in Safe Homes fund have formed a partnership that will enable SWA to expand its services.
Until now, Sheffield Women’s Aid (SWA) provided emergency refuge spaces only for women experiencing and escaping domestic abuse. With this partnership, SWA will be able to extend its services by helping women get dispersed supported accommodation.
Believed to be the world’s first gender-lens social impact property fund, the Women in Safe Homes fund was created to address the need for safe, affordable homes for women experiencing homelessness. It does this by working in partnership with expert women’s sector and charity housing partners. Using capital raised from twenty social impact investors, the fund purchases and refurbishes properties across the UK. These properties are subsequently leased to the fund’s expert housing partners, who in turn provide secure tenancies to women at risk of homelessness.
This partnership between the fund and SWA marks the start of the organisation’s move into owning ‘dispersed’ accommodation. In line with SWA’s property specifications, the fund aims to buy and refurbish 10 properties within the city, primarily consisting of family homes while potentially including one or two one-bedroom units. The fund has already acquired and commenced refurbishment on its initial property designated for SWA, and is actively sourcing additional properties to fulfil its commitment.
The Women in Safe Homes fund has successfully raised £29mn in total from 20 social impact investors, and is in the process of purchasing around 120 homes across the UK, including in Sheffield, to provide housing for over 300 women and their children over the fund’s lifetime. The fund has already acquired, renovated and handed over around 40 properties to its housing partners with over 70 women and 33 children already housed.
OVO Foundation to work with 12 charities on local projects
OVO Foundation will be working with twelve charities to deliver local projects in London, Glasgow and Bristol that will bring children and young people closer to nature, and equip them with the skills, knowledge and opportunities to take action on the climate crisis.
With the new grants programme, Community Impact, OVO Foundation is partnering with twelve charities local to its OVO Offices in Bristol, London, and Glasgow to support with up to £25,000, one-year grants. This sees the Foundation expanding its work in climate action and education to support community projects that create real change and progress towards its vision.
Together the projects aim to support nearly 8,000 young people, people, teachers and volunteers. In addition, the partnerships will benefit from year-round OVO volunteering, with OVO on people giving their time and skills to support the projects and the charities’ overall missions.
Most projects feature outdoor learning opportunities for children and young people, with five community gardens and three city farms being amongst our twelve partners.
In Glasgow the charity partners include Urban Roots: Funding is supporting a programme of outdoor activities aimed at increasing nature connections and access to local greenspace for children and young people in deprived urban areas. One of the Bristol charity partners is Heart of BS13: Supporting The Green Influencers, a youth-led, social action initiative designed to widen participation in climate and environmental action and focuses on addressing the problem of waste in the BS13 community. In London they include Cultivate London: Supporting a seed to plate programme that teaches children about food, following the journey from sowing seeds to harvesting and eating.
Nominet to donate £4.5mn to Good Thyngs Foundation to support the National Digital Inclusion Network
Nominet is donating £4.5mn over three years to Good Things Foundation to accelerate their strategy to fix the UK’s digital divide.
Nominet’s funding will allow Good Things Foundation to continue to support the National Digital Inclusion Network. Through the National Digital Inclusion Network, Good Things Foundation provides support and services including the National Databank, which has been dubbed ‘like a foodbank, but for mobile connectivity’. The funding will also support Good Things Foundation’s National Device Bank, which delivers new or refurbished devices to people experiencing digital exclusion. With Nominet’s support, the charity will continue to tackle accessibility through its digital skills platform, Learn My Way, which helps people with low or no digital skills to gain confidence and learn how to use the internet and digital technologies.
The original partnership between Nominet and Good Things Foundation started in early 2020, when they teamed up to respond to the critical shortage of digital access during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns with the ‘DevicesDotNow’ emergency appeal.
In 2021, Nominet supported Good Things Foundation to launch the Data Poverty Lab, set up to find sustainable solutions to data poverty. The project aims to make the internet affordable for people on low incomes and free for people on very low incomes. The Data Poverty Lab has supported the development of the National Databank. The project also launched a Fellowship scheme producing multiple reports exploring ideas, advocacy and action on data poverty to engage senior leaders in national, regional and local government.
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.