Published Thursday 27 June 2019 at 15:12
This insight outlines a range of funding opportunities open to the public sector, businesses, community groups etc. Regular funding opportunities are also available via the websites below:
National Lottery Grant for Heritage
Community groups can now access potential grant funding opportunities through the free Blackburn with Darwen Open4Community online search tool.
For all Blackburn with Darwen Council funding bids
Please check whether match funding is required, if it is please contact and inform your Finance colleague.
Funding opportunities greater than £100,000
New £5 million fund launched to develop support for unpaid carers
The Government has launched a new fund to support innovative projects supporting unpaid carers. The £5 million Carers Innovation Fund will invest in innovative ways of supporting unpaid carers, outside of mainstream health and care services.
This funding will be used to improve support across the country and help build more carer-friendly communities.
Examples of the kind of projects the fund would invest in include:
- technology platforms – for example, to help carers to take a break from their caring responsibilities
- support groups – like carers’ cafes and Men’s Sheds, which develop peer support groups and offer short courses to help reduce isolation
Projects will be expected to show a positive effect on:
- carers’ health and wellbeing
- carers’ ability to manage work alongside caring responsibilities
- carers’ ability to take a break from their caring role
- reducing loneliness and social isolation
Applicants will need to demonstrate their idea is a fresh approach that is better than existing provision, will benefit the local community and can be expanded and replicated.
The voluntary sector, charities, SMEs and commercial organisations can all bid for funding to prove their concept, with the aim of securing longer term funding from other sources.
Carers and other experts will sit on the evaluation panel to make sure proposals are feasible.
The fund was first announced last year as part of the Carers Action Plan, a cross-government programme of targeted work to support unpaid carers over the next 2 years.
Funding for digital technology for adult social care
Organisations can apply for a share of up to £1.25 million from Innovate UK to develop technology that creates more efficient and effective adult social care systems. Proposals are invited for technology that can track data in real-time and use it to inform how resources are deployed and prioritised to the best effect. This could include:
- Using technology to improve the point of entry into adult social care.
- Creating more dynamic and flexible care systems that respond to changing needs.
- Making better use of evidence to inform commissioning both now and in the future.
A total of £250,000 is allocated to phase 1 for up to 5 feasibility study R&D contracts worth lasting up to 3 months and costing £50,000.
This Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition with funding provided by the GovTech Catalyst for Torfaen County borough council aims to develop data and digital technology to deliver better adult social care.
This is a 2 phase programme; only successful applicants from phase 1 will be able to apply to take part in phase 2. Phase 1 concerns technical feasibility, research and development contracts will be awarded to demonstrate technical feasibility of the proposed solution. It is recognised that this is a highly complex challenge and it is not anticipated that proposals to fully address the whole scope will be forthcoming. The funder therefore expects to fund a portfolio of projects that address significant aspects of this ‘Grand Challenge’.
Organisations of any size may apply.
The deadline to register for Phase 1 is at midday on 17th July 2019; the deadline to submit a proposal for Stage 1 is 24th July 2019.
A briefing event will be held in Cwmbran on 19th June 2019.
Funding available to research the social and economic value of health
The Health Foundation’s £1.5m Social and Economic Value of Health in a Place Research Programme 2019 invites researchers to submit ideas for research that will generate new knowledge on the ways in which the physical and mental health of a population shapes their social and economic outcomes.
The Health Foundation wants to support five projects with funding between £200,000 and £300,000 for a maximum duration of two years.
These projects will develop the concepts and metrics needed to help understand how the health status of a population may influence the social and economic outcomes of that population.
The priority areas for this call are:
- understanding the relationship between a given population’s health and the health of individuals within that population
- establishing the definitions and metrics needed to examine the relationship between the health of a population in a place and the social and economic outcomes of that place.
There is a two-stage application process for this programme. Applicants must initially submit an outline proposal application form; these applications will be reviewed and successful applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal.
The closing date for submitting outline proposals is 12.00 on the 25th July 2019. Following a review of the outline proposals, shortlisted projects will be invited to make a full application.
Smart, affordable global energy systems: apply for funding
A competition that offers UK based businesses the opportunity to apply for a share of up to £22 million to help provide clean, affordable and secure energy in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia opens on 17th June 2019. This is an investment in innovative, market-focused energy technologies aimed at reducing energy prices; generating cleaner energy and ensuring security of supply. Early stage projects costing £50,000 – £300,000; mid stage projects costing £50,000 – £1.5 million; and late stage projects costing £50,000 to £5 million will be eligible for grants representing 25-70% of the total costs depending on the type of business and the stage of the project.
The UK has committed to helping 3.2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa access household electricity for the first time by 2021. Round 7 of Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst will encourage the development of products and services that help poorer households and enterprises in the regions to access secure, low cost and low carbon energy. The Fund is part of the Global Challenges Research Fund and Transforming Energy Access programme. Successful projects will address the World Energy Council’s ‘Energy Trilemma’ in three ways:
- Cost – reducing prices to make energy accessible to everyone
- Emissions – generating cleaner energy with lower emissions to protect the environment
- Security of supply – putting reliable infrastructure in place to keep energy flowing without disruption or shortage
The competition offers 3 strands for projects in different stages of development:
early stage – for feasibility studies exploring an idea’s technical potential
mid-stage – funds research and development
late stage – supports projects undertaking prototyping and pilot testing
Any UK business can apply, grants will represent 25-70% of total project costs depending on the stage applied for and the type of business applying. To apply for mid-stage or late-stage funding some of the research, testing or demonstration must be carried out in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia by either a UK or international partner.
The funding is being made through the Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst funding programme.
The competition closes on the 18th September 2019. Projects must start by 1st April 2020 and end by 31st March 2023.
Fund opens to reduce waste from plastic packaging and textiles
The government is inviting organisations to apply for funding under a £4.7 million grant scheme to help boost the recycling of plastic packaging and textiles. Organisations in England can apply for government funding of between £200,000 and £1 million for innovative solutions to drive up the recycling of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging such as plastic trays, pots and tubs, plastic films and pouches, as well as funding for innovative projects that boost the recycling of textiles when they have reached the end of their life.
This scheme will provide funding support for new capital infrastructure projects that will help to recycle difficult plastic packaging and textile materials. This grant will support economic / commercial activity.
For plastics this could include innovative sorting or segregation equipment, and smarter systems to enable sorting of different polymers. For textiles this could include machinery for recycling textiles, technology for disassembling or sorting textiles, automated processes for removing items from textiles such as zips, and technology to sort textiles by fibre type and colour.
The closing date for applications is the 2nd August 2019.
To access supporting documents (Guidance Document, FAQ’s, Outline Proposal Forms, etc) for this call for proposals please click here.
Funding opportunities between £25,000 and £100,000
Funding to enhance the cultural impact of arts organisations
Arts, cultural and creative organisations in England can apply for small-scale repayable finance from the Cultural Impact Development Fund to enhance their social impact and help them to become more resilient. The aim of this £3.7 million Fund is to enable risk-taking, ambitious organisations in the arts and cultural sector to take on small-scale repayable finance in order to achieve social outcomes and increase their capability to articulate, achieve, monitor and evaluate their intended social impact. Loans of £25,000 to £150,000 are available at repayment terms of one to five years and interest rates ranging between 5.5% and 8.5%.
The Cultural Impact Development Fund is pioneering the use of financial incentives to drive the achievement of social impact targets in its investment portfolio, making it one of the few impact investment funds with a clear trade-off of financial return for the attainment of social outcomes. The financial incentive takes the form of a reduction to the headline interest on a given loan in cases where the total loan term is 36 months or more. Managed by Nesta and funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, the finance is provided by its partners Big Lottery Fund and Big Society Capital.
Unsecured loans (and revenue participation agreements, where appropriate) of between £25,000 and £150,000 with repayment term of one to five years and interest rates ranging between 5.5% and 8.5% are offered to socially-driven arts and cultural organisations operating in England – these include:
- Arts and cultural venues
- Museums, libraries and archives
- Non-venue based organisations (e.g. touring organisations, production companies, festivals, etc.)
- Sector support organisations (e.g. development agencies, workspace providers, cultural education organisations).
Applications to the fund can be made at any time. For fund-specific enquiries, please contact Trishna Nath.
Funding opportunities under £25,000
Grants of up to £5,000 available for projects that help the homeless
Help the Homeless makes grants of up to £5,000 to small and medium sized charitable organisations (with a turnover of less than £1 million) whose aim is to help homeless people return to the community and enabling them to resume a normal life. The grants are available for capital costs and examples of previously supported projects include:
- The Booth Centre, an advice and activity centre for homeless people in Manchester, where people undertake education and training courses as well as receiving advice and food, received a grant of £1,500 to transform the centre with new lighting, a new water heater and new decoration.
- A grant of £3,000 to the Amber Foundation to enable the Foundation to buy new bedroom furniture for their residential centre in Devon, where every year over 60 unemployed, homeless young people are able to rebuild their lives and gain the motivation, confidence, self-esteem and skills for independent living.
The closing date for the next round of funding is the 15th June 2019.
Funding for housing projects that cater for people with special needs
The Quaker Housing Trust has announced that the next deadline for applications is the 16th August 2019. The Quaker Housing Trust provides grants and interest free loans to housing projects that cater for people with a wide range of needs, including:
- mental & physical health problems
- learning difficulties
- would otherwise be homeless
- escaping domestic violence
- single parents
- young families
- moving out of institutional care
- addiction problems
- refugees, asylum seekers, migrants
- survivors of trafficking.
To be eligible for funding, applicants need to have legal charitable status and be a small organisation (with an annual turnover of not more than £1 million and without access to sufficient income, reserves, nor other fundraising, to pay for the work).
The Quaker Housing Trust give grants and interest-free loans as one-off funding for capital cost items of expenditure across a wide range of practical elements such as:
- buying property or land
- building new housing
- converting, renovating or refurbishing property.
- expanding an existing housing project.
- making a housing project ‘greener’.
- and smaller practical things which turn a house into a home.
Previous projects supported include:
- Hope into Action, Bilston which received support for turning a property into a home for three people who are, or are at risk of being, homeless, and are in need of some support.
- The Bridgnorth Housing Trust, Bridgnorth, which received support towards building 22 new almshouses, to increase the number of homes they have to offer.
Funding for schools to purchase musical equipment
Schools, teachers and individuals in full time education in the UK, that wish to purchase musical instruments and equipment or to fund music courses and training can apply for funding of up to £1,500 through the Universal Music UK Sound Foundation’s Instrument and/or Equipment Awards.
To date the Foundations (formerly known as the EMI Music Sound Foundation) has made awards to over two thousand schools, individual students and teachers improve their access to music through the purchase or upgrade of musical instruments and equipment. The funding has to be made for music education that is beyond statutory national curriculum music teaching. The Foundation cannot fund retrospectively and schools are not eligible for financial assistance under this scheme if they have already purchased their instruments or if they do so before their application has been approved. The Foundation also fund courses and training opportunities for music teachers who work within schools.
The closing date for applications is the 11th September 2019.
Grants for musicians and bands
Artists or bands are able to apply for a grant of £5,000-£15,000 to significantly develop their careers over the next two years. Applications can be submitted by the artists themselves or those who are working on their behalf, for example, a manager, an independent label or publisher. Priority will be given to those that have not been funded by PRS for Music Foundation in the previous 12 months.
The PRS Momentum Music Fund is open to Artists/Bands that are at a crucial tipping point in their careers, showing current progression and growth as an artist with the potential to significantly develop their careers over the next two years.
Grants of £5,000 -£15,000 are available with the average in the region of £10,000.
Grants can cover:
- Recording – i.e. a new album, EP, single, producer, engineer, mixer fees, studio hire, session musician fees, etc.
- Touring (in the UK only) – i.e. travel, accommodation, musician fees, set/production design, tour management, equipment hire, etc.
- Marketing and promotions – i.e. PR, radio plugger, digital marketing, music videos, merchandise production, etc.
Priority will be given to contributing to expenditure which helps the artist to develop professionally and creatively.
Applications can be made by UK based artists/bands directly or representatives of the artist who may be a Manager; Label; Publisher; Booking agent; PR/Plugger; Lawyer or Trusted advisor to the artist.
The next deadline to apply to the Momentum Fund is the 13th August 2019.
Collaborative research and development grants for emerging artists
Help Musicians UK is looking for exciting collaborations that create work across art forms, creative sectors and other disciplines. Applications to the Fusion Fund must be music-focused and projects should include contributions from at least one non-music discipline for example storytellers, lighting designers, choreographers, technologists, scientists, gaming designers, theatre directors, visual artists etc. Applications that consider unusual and extraordinary spaces to show work to new audiences are also of interest.
There should be tangible results of the collaboration, such as a body of work created for an upcoming recording or a new performance. Overall, the project should push the boundaries of what the artist does as a music creator or performer, exploring or testing something that they are not currently able to achieve without support.
Grants of £2,000 to £5,000 can cover reasonable costs associated with the project including:
- Venue and rehearsal space costs
- Recording costs (live or documentation)
- Travel costs
- Access costs
- Accommodation costs
- Subsistence
- Fees for musicians, artists or collaborators time to allow for the project to happen
The fund is open to professional and emerging professional musicians of all genres and disciplines with an active career including: Solo instrumentalists, conductors, composers, vocalists, singer songwriters or multidisciplinary artists. Bands or ensembles with six members or less can also apply.
Applicants must be:
- Aged over 18 (no upper age limit)
- Based primarily in the UK and be eligible to work here
- Have been resident in the UK for at least three consecutive years
- In financial need and without significant backing
The closing date for this round is 9am on the 2nd September 2019.
Applicants that have an idea that they think fits with the scheme, they can find out more by booking a Skype or phone advice session with Creative Programme Officer Bex. Please read through the guidelines before the session.
To secure a place for a 15-minute discussion of an idea please email creative@helpmusicians.org.uk or call 0207 239 9119.
Finnis Scott foundation
Established under the Will of Lady Montagu Douglas Scott (Valerie Finnis) in 2006, the Finnis Scott Foundation makes grants for any charitable purpose, but their present policy is to focus grant-making in the areas of horticulture and plant sciences, as well as fine art and art history. The funding is open to charities and charitable organisations, including school Parent Teacher Associations.
Grants of between £500 and £10,000 are available. Exceptionally, larger grants may be considered at the Trustees’ discretion. Preference is given to making grants to smaller charities where the grant would have a significant impact. The Foundation funds both capital and revenue projects.
Previous organisations supported include;
- Flower Pod – a horticulturally based Social Enterprise in Southwell, Nottinghamshire.
- Rhyl Primary School PTA
- The Horticultural Therapy Trust
- Hestercombe Gardens Trust
The Trustees meet on a quarterly basis; the next meeting is on the 16th October 2019. Apply by the 20th September 2019 for this meeting.
For more information about The Finnis Scott Foundation, please email: administrator@finnis-scott-foundation.org.uk or telephone +44 (0)1604 233233
Revitalising UK aerospace – funding available for research and investment projects
To ensure that the UK’s aerospace sector maintains its global engagement and influence, UK based businesses, research and technology groups and academic organisations are invited to express an interest in a £150 million annual competition. This competition is inviting expressions of interest in funding for industrial research or capital investment projects in aerospace.
Projects must have potential application within the civil aerospace sector, and priority areas are stated in the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy.
These include:
- bolstering UK whole-aircraft design and system integration
- future-proofing advanced systems technologies in the UK – specifically, smart, connected and more electric aircrafts
- securing the UK’s world-leading position in large, complex aviation structures, particularly wings
- developing more efficient propulsion technologies, including large turbofans
Competition information
- the competition will open on 1st July 2019, and will close on 24th July 2019
- UK-based businesses, research and technology groups and academic organisations can be the project lead, depending on the project type
- businesses can attract a maximum of 50% grant funding. Within that, individual businesses can attract up to 70% depending on funding requests from other partners
- organisations must sign up to the ATI framework agreement
- an online briefing event will be held on 8th July 2019 where organisations can find out more about the competition and applying.
Mandarin excellence programme – funding available for schools
Applications are now invited from state schools in England to join the Mandarin Excellence Programme for the 2020-2021 academic year. The Programme aims to deliver a minimum of 5,000 speakers of Mandarin on their way to a high level of fluency by 2020. Grants of a minimum of £20,000 per year are available to state-funded secondary schools in England.
In order to take part in the programme, it is highly desirable that schools should:
- have an Ofsted rating in your most recent inspection of 1 (outstanding) or 2 (good)
- already be committed to a strong presence of two or more languages on curriculum
- be committed to teaching Mandarin Chinese to MEP pupils for whom that is not their first language
Schools on the programme should also be able to do the following:
- provide a programme of at least eight hours a week, made up of a combination of class-time teaching, extra-curricular teaching, self-study and intensive language courses in China and the UK. This should include four hours of teacher-taught classroom lessons, ensuring a rigorous programme of study for all pupils in the programme.
- act as or work with a hub school, growing the number of schools and pupils in the local area on the programme, to contribute towards meeting the national minimum target of 5,000 Mandarin pupils on track to a high level of fluency by 2020. This includes retaining pupils on the programme so that they reach a high level of fluency, through the delivery of the rigorous programme of study and other activities.
- work to ensure that pupils will be on course to complete HSK IV and V exams within 6 years of starting the programme. Pupils should also be on course to complete Chinese GCSE and A Level, IB or Pre-U qualifications during and beyond the programme lifespan.
Some pupils will have the chance to visit China.
The next intake of Mandarin Excellence Programme schools will need to start delivering the programme in September 2019.
Schools interested in taking part in the programme should download and complete an Expression of Interest form. This document outlines the key programme requirements, funding arrangements, and allows schools to explain how the programme could work at their school.
Once complete, please email the completed Expression of Interest to mandarinexcellence@ucl.ac.uk .
The FA and football foundation launch £300,000 futsal fund
The Football Association and Football Foundation have launched a new £300,000 fund aimed at developing the sport of Futsal in England. Futsal is a five-a-side game, normally played on a flat indoor pitch with hockey-sized goals and a size-four ball that has a reduced bounce. The sport is played across the world and is officially recognised by both UEFA and FIFA.
The scheme offers grants of either £1,500 or £3,000 to develop new youth futsal leagues across the country to increase the opportunity for players to play futsal on a regular basis in a structured games programme.
The grant can be spent on the following items:
- Facility hire
- Equipment
- Referees/co-ordinator fees
- Marketing & promotion
- Affiliation & insurance fees
- FA safeguarding & welfare courses for on-site league co-ordinators
- FA DBS for on-site league co-ordinators
- FA First Aid courses for on-site league co-ordinators
The funding is available to County Football Associations who are running or plan to run leagues; youth football or futsal leagues; adult leagues setting up youth futsal provisions; affiliated clubs wishing to develop youth futsal leagues; PL & EFL Community Trusts; and FA University Community Football Hubs.
Priority will be given to applications in the following categories:
- Youth futsal leagues – u18s and below
- Youth football leagues – u18s and below
- County FA’s
Applications are now open and close at 5pm on the 2nd August 2019.
Project development funding for churches
The Gateway Programme supports congregations and local communities to look after and build a sustainable future for their church buildings.
Preference is given to projects from Churches that can demonstrate strong community engagement and sound plans for economic viability. Priority is given to projects that demonstrate support beyond the congregation, and into the future.
Gateway Grant Programme grants can be used for project development and investigative work up to RIBA planning stage 1, to support churches preparing for a major project, and in developing their project to the point at which they can approach a major grant funder.
Grants of between £3,000 and £10,000 for up to 50% of the project costs are available.
Applications are excepted from listed and unlisted Christian places of worship, of any denomination, across the UK. The Trust particularly encourages applications from priority areas i.e. North East England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The first deadline to apply for a Gateway Grant is the 12th September 2019.
Funding for projects that tackle the root causes of social inequity
The next closing date for grant application to the Scurrah Wainright Charity is the 14th September 2019.
The Charity supports a wide range of charitable projects with an emphasis on social reform and tackling the root causes of social inequity. The charity favours causes that are outside the mainstream, and unlikely to be funded by other charities. Typically, grants are between £1,000 and £5,000.
The charity runs three funding programmes:
- Yorkshire. Trustees give priority to applicants working in the Yorkshire region. Your organisation need not be based in the region but the project itself must directly benefit the Yorkshire community. We fund national charitable organisations ONLY if the project is specifically working in the Yorkshire region, with clear evidence of local control and access to the grant.
- Southern Africa, particularly Zimbabwe.
- Projects that have applied to the Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust because they meet the AWRT’s broad objectives to work for a just and democratic society and to redress political and social injustices, but have not been able to proceed with an application to that Trust because they are eligible for charitable funding.
Previous organisations supported include:
- The Boaz Trust a Christian organisation serving destitute asylum seekers in Greater Manchester which received a grant of £2,000.
- The Grandparents Association in Leeds which received a grant of £4,800.
Organisations applying do not have to be a charity, but its work must satisfy the Charity Commission’s definition of charitable purposes and public benefit.
Funding to support youth organisations
Not for profit youth organisations that support young people (aged 14 – 25) facing disadvantage can apply for grants of between £10,000 and £60,000 through the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Youth Fund.
The Youth Fund supports organisations whose main purpose is about helping young people in the most precarious positions, where making the transition to adult independence is most challenging.
The funding is available for up to two years and will support the core operating costs of the applicant organisation. Organisations may be planning to:
- Replicating a programme or service
- Widening the reach of an idea or innovation
- Spreading a technology or skill
- Advancing policy or enhancing its implementation
- Influencing attitudes
Applications can be submitted at any time.
Previous projects supported through the Youth Fund include:
The British Youth Council (BYC) which received a grant of £60,000 over 24 months. BYC is the national youth council for the UK. Each year it supports up to 2,000 young people to participate in local youth councils or national networks, such as the UK Youth Parliament and Make Your Mark referendum campaign. The funding was used to develop its income generation capability and enable BYC to offer participation training to frontline staff.
The London Youth Support Trust (LYST) received a grant of £60,000 over 24 months. LYST is a youth enterprise charity that aims to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to start their own businesses. Through this grant LYST plans to expand its business incubation and support programme nationally, opening two enterprise centres out of London, in locations where youth unemployment is an issue. Funding would enable the team to focus on fundraising, build relationships with potential partners, and research and formalise an appropriate structure moving forward.
Grants for chemistry-based public and schools engagement activities
Grants of up to £2,000 are available from the Chemistry Society through the Small Grants Outreach Fund.
The Fund provides financial support to members, individuals and organisations to enable them to run chemistry-based public and school engagement activities.
Grants can support anything from one off events to large programmes of activity and should aim to offer teachers a range of effective curriculum-enriching activities and opportunities to further engage their students with outreach; provide hard-to-reach student audiences with inspiring chemistry engagement opportunities, and assist members in maximising their outreach and engagement contribution.
Applications for schools engagement activities should demonstrate how the proposed activities will:
- enrich student’s chemistry education and not solely deliver the curriculum
- provide students with opportunities to explore chemistry through local contexts, AND/OR
- demonstrate career opportunities and develop employability skills, AND/OR
- provide opportunities which would not normally be accessible to the students taking part, e.g. for hard-to-reach student audiences.
The scheme is open to individuals and organisations, including, but not limited to, members of the Royal Society of Chemistry, member-led groups, schools, researchers in academia or industry, museums, community groups, not-for-profit organisations, arts groups and libraries.
It is a rolling application process and the next deadline is 12 noon on the 9th September 2019.
The Society also runs a large grants programme for grants of between £2,000 and £10,000. This is currently closed to applications.
Grants of up to £5,000 available to support the performing arts and the conservation of historic objects
The Leche Trust has announced that the next closing date for applications is the 16th August 2019.
The Leche Trust is a grant making charity that provides funding of up to £5,000 to UK registered charities, public authorities or institutions in the areas of the Performing Arts and Conservation.
Through the Performing Arts funding strand, the Trust supports projects that promote excellence in professional performance in music, dance and theatre, with particular emphasis on new work and on the development of young professionals aged 18 or over. Trustees are sympathetic to projects that widen geographical access to the performing arts, for example through festivals and touring.
Through the Conservation funding stream, the Trust will support projects to conserve historic objects, collections and features of buildings and landscapes which date from the Georgian period or earlier, i.e. pre-1830s. Projects may include acquisition costs (for objects) and conservation surveys as well as remedial work.
Trustees are inclined to give grants to smaller projects, or specific elements of projects, where their contribution can make a greater impact. In the case of churches, Trustees will consider supporting the conservation of such features as monuments, wall paintings, stained glass, and historic furniture and fittings.
Funding for projects that support disadvantaged young people
Grants of over £10,000 per project are available through the BBC Children in Need Main Grants programme to not for profit organisations and schools that work with young people who are experiencing disadvantage through illness, distress, abuse or neglect; any kind of disability; behavioural or psychological difficulties; and / or living in poverty or situations of deprivation.
Applications should demonstrate how your project will change the lives of children for the better.
Grants of over £10,000 are available with no upper limit stated, however BBC Children in Need make very few grants over £120,000.
Organisations eligible to apply will be not for profit i.e. schools; registered charities; voluntary organisations; churches; and community groups, etc. In the case of schools this must not be for work that they have a duty to fund.
The Fund is open to applications all year round, but there are a number of deadline and award dates throughout the year. The next deadline is 11:59pm on the 13th September 2019.
Examples of projects funded include:
- Castle Wood School, Coventry: £89,779 to provide a fortnightly Saturday Club for disabled children and young people. A diverse range of activities will help develop life skills, provide social opportunities and improve confidence and self-esteem through making new friends.
- Rowan Gate Primary School, Northamptonshire: £24,715 to provide weekly film making sessions for disabled children. The project will develop communication and media skills and increase independence.
- St Joseph’s School and Community Steering Group, Allerdale: £61,480 for a project that will provide an after school and holiday clubs to engage disadvantaged young people living in Workington in physical and healthy living activity.
Grants of up to £10,000 available for church building projects
The National Churches Trust has announced that its Gateway Grants programme has re-opened for applications until the 12th September 2019. The National Churches Trust is the national charity dedicated to supporting and promoting places of worship of historic, architectural and community value used by Christian denominations throughout the UK through advice, support and funding.
The Gateway Grant programme offers grants of between £3,000 and £10,000 towards project development and investigative work up to RIBA planning stage 1, providing support to churches preparing for a major project, and in developing the project to the point at which major grant funders can be approached. Grants will never exceed 50% of the project costs for this phase.
Priority will be given to projects in North East England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Grants of up to £10,000 are also available to local church trusts to fund projects that support organisational development, increase their capacity to churches in their area or that deliver new ways of supporting churches in their area.
New £500,000 public engagement funding programme for UK libraries
The Carnegie UK Trust has announced that public libraries can apply for a share of funding through the second phase of Engaging Libraries Programme to deliver projects that involve and share with the public research in health, society and culture, and to foster partnerships between public libraries and researchers. A total of £500,000 is available.
- Engaging Libraries Phase 2 has three core aims. The programme aims to:
- Energise and empower people through engagement with research about health, society and culture in one of the following ways:
- Enable people to access, use and respond to research
- Enable people to value and think critically about research
- Enable people to play a role in formulating research
- Enable public libraries to build upon and explore their civic role as safe spaces for participation and engagement with research.
- Facilitate partnerships between public libraries and universities or Independent Research Organisations (IROs).
Public libraries are encouraged to bring their own ideas and definitions of these areas and to identify issues which resonate for their library service and the community they serve. Around twenty projects will be funded.
Public libraries can apply on their own or in partnership with other libraries.
The level of funding available is:
- £12,000 – £25,000 for applications from a single library service
- £12,000 – £50,000 for a joint application
The Trust is also encouraging partnerships with different organisations and individuals, including schools, artists or musicians. The closing date for applications is at 5pm on the 25th September 2019.
Potential applicants that have any queries can email engaginglibraries@carnegieuk.org
This document is produced by Corporate Policy, Research and Partnerships, Blackburn with Darwen Council.
Tel: 01254 585825