Published Wednesday 25 September 2019 at 16:41
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
Grants Available to Tackle Social Challenges in Developing Countries (UK)
Organisations can apply for a share of up to £9.3 million to trial innovations that tackle global societal challenges in low-income and emerging economies. The fund aims to encourage UK businesses to work with overseas partners to develop innovations that could transform lives in countries that receive overseas development assistance.
The Global Challenges Research Fund is split into 2 phases:
- Phase 1 is for feasibility studies.
- Phase 2 is for demonstrators.
In phase 1, project teams will investigate the feasibility of a demonstration project in a country that receives development assistance and build partnerships in that country. Successful projects will be able to apply for phase 2 funding to work with at least one partner in the relevant country on research and development and trials.
The maximum grant for phase 1 feasibility studies will be £60,000.
The deadline for applications is 12 midday on the 13th November 2019.
BFI Audience Fund Opens for Applications (UK)
The British Film Institute has announced that organisations with direct experience of film distribution, exhibition and audience development can now apply for funding of between £20,000 and £200,000 for a range of audience-facing activities to boost diversity and inclusivity, and to build a broad film culture across the UK.
The British Film Institute Audience Fund provides two types of awards:
- Project Awards – these support clearly defined time-limited proposals to increase audience choice and engagement across the UK;
- Organisational awards – organisations will be expected to demonstrate significant impact on at least a regional, and ideally national, scale on a year-round basis.
For assistance with making an application or for any queries relating to the BFI Audience Fund, contact: audiencefund@bfi.org.uk
Applications for project awards are accepted year-round, the closing date for organisational awards is the 4th November 2019.
Trust Capacity Fund Opens for Applications (England)
The Department for Education has launched a new £17 million fund to support the growth and development of academy trusts across England.
The Trust Capacity Fund has four strands; each with its own eligibility criteria.
These are:
- Supporting strong multi-academy trusts (MATs) to grow and innovate in areas of long-standing need.
- Encouraging strong trusts to grow by converting and improving weaker maintained schools, or adding vulnerable academies to their trust and improving them.
- Accelerating the development of mid-sized trusts with the potential to be strong.
- Creating new strong trusts, either by single-academy trusts (SATs) joining larger trusts, or by supporting the growth of existing trusts via mergers, or priority projects identified by RSCs.
Funding of up to £310,000 is available depending on which strands schools apply under.
Applicants must also submit an application for growth to their RSC for discussion at Headteacher Board (HTB) as part of their bid.
The closing date for applications is the 31st December 2019.
Funding Support for Former Mining Communities (East & West Midlands, North East & North West of England and Yorkshire)
The Coalfields Community Investment Programme, which provides grants to community and voluntary groups to tackle key challenges that still affect the top 30% most deprived coalfield communities in England has re-opened for applications.
Grants totalling £125,000 are available in this funding round for projects that address the following themes:
- Skills – growing the skills of people in order to increase their opportunities;
- Employment – developing pathways to increase the number of people in work;
- Health – supporting projects that increase participation in activities/services that improve health and wellbeing.
The maximum grant per project will be £10,000 of which a maximum of £2,000 may be for capital expenditure.
Applicants are advised to consult the eligible wards list on the website before making an application.
Organisations eligible to apply include: Registered Charities; Companies Limited by Guarantee; Community Benefit Societies; Community Interest Companies; Charitable Incorporated Organisations; and Unregistered groups with formal rules.
To apply, organisations need to complete an eligibility survey to determine whether the applicant organisation/group meets the criteria to apply for funding from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT).
Projects previously supported include the Durham Christian Partnership, a County Durham based charity that provides foodbank and signposting services to members of the local community £10,000.
The closing date for completing the eligibility survey is 5pm on 29th November 2019. The deadline for applications is 13th December 2019 at 5pm.
Grants of up to £5 Million Available for Heritage Projects (UK)
The Heritage Fund provides grants to fund a broad range of projects that connect people and communities to the national, regional and local heritage of the UK. This can include a broad range projects relating to:
- Nature – anything that connects people to nature and the natural world
- Natural and designed landscapes – landscapes are areas of ground which could be urban or rural in nature, and might include parks, or industrial sites that have been left
- Oral histories – such as voice recordings of people’s stories of times gone by
- Cultural traditions – Exploring the history of different cultures through storytelling, or things that you do as part of your community. This could be anything from dance and theatre, to food or clothing.
- Community archaeology – digs that lots of people can take part in
- Historic buildings, monuments and environments – from houses and mills, to caves and gardens. Areas that are connected to history.
- Collections – collections of objects, books or documents in museums, libraries or archives
- Historic events – histories of people and communities or places and events
- Languages – the heritage of languages and dialects
- industrial, maritime and transport – this might be places and objects linked to our industrial, maritime and transport history
Projects can be in development for up to two years and delivered in up to five years
The funding is available to both not-for-profit organisation (such as charities, community groups and local authorities, and faith based or church organisations, etc) and partnerships led by not-for-profit organisations. To be eligible applicants must contribute at least 5% of their project costs for grants up to £1million and at least 10% for grants of £1million or more.
All applicants for a grant above £250,000 nee to complete a short Expression of Interest (EOI) form. The Heritage Fund will use the information to decide whether or not to invite the applicant to submit a development phase application.
To apply, applicants will need to use the Heritage Fund online portal.
The Heritage Fund has announced that the next closing date for its Funding Programme £250,000 – £5 Million is the 19th November 2019.
Nuffield Foundation Announces New £15 Million Strategic Fund (UK)
The Nuffield Foundation is calling for applications to its new £15m Strategic Fund for ambitious, interdisciplinary research projects that will address some of the most important challenges facing UK society and the public policy agenda in the next decade. This is an opportunity for researchers to develop original and challenging ideas, to work collaboratively across disciplines, and to influence social policy in a period of rapid change and uncertainty for our society.
Through the Strategic Fund, the Foundation will make awards in the range of £1-3 million. Applications are encouraged from universities, research institutes, think tanks and voluntary organisations.
The Foundation encourages applications relating to a number of broad themes, set out in the call for applications. These themes include:
- The impact of digital technologies and the fourth industrial revolution,
- The future of education in a digitally driven society,
- Interventions that might promote opportunity and reduce adversity at different life stages and between generations.
The listed themes are not exhaustive, and the Foundation welcome applications on other themes that align with their mission to advance social well-being.
Applications will open on the 1st October 2019 and the funding will be phased over two years.
The first closing date for applications will be the 9th December 2019.
Funding opportunities between £25,000 and £100,000
Cure Parkinson’s Trust Grant (UK)
Commercial organisations, appropriately qualified scientists or clinicians based in an accredited university or hospital in any country worldwide can now apply for funding for laboratory or clinical research projects. Projects should have the potential to advance knowledge that might lead to a cure for Parkinson’s disease or that represent a substantial advance in treatment.
The Cure Parkinson’s Trust has a particular interest in projects that show the potential to delay, slow, stop reverse or prevent the progression of Parkinson’s disease. There are no specific limits to the amount of funding available but previous awards have been between £50,000 and £250,000 with a duration of 1-3 years.
Applications are considered four times a year, the next deadline for applications is the 17th October 2019.
UK Aid Match Opens for Applications (UK)
UK Aid has announced that the UK Aid Match programme is now open for applications. UK Aid Match brings charities, the British public and the UK government together to change the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. For every £1 donated to a UK Aid Match charity appeal by an individual living in the UK, the UK government will also contribute £1 of UK aid up to £2million.
To be eligible to apply for UK Aid Match funding, the applicant must be a UK registered, non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation and the appeal must aim to raise at least £100,000 within a three-month period.
Proposed projects must be implemented in countries ranked in either the lowest 50 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI) or in certain countries the UK Department for International Development (DFID) considers to be of high or moderate fragility
There is a two-stage application process. The first step is to submit concept notes by the 12th November 2019. Organisations successful at this stage will be able to submit full applications in February 2020.
Grants of up to £100,000 Available to Build the Capacity of Small International Development Charities (UK)
The Department for International Development (DFID) is making grants of up to £100,000 available to organisations with the ability to build the capacity of small British charities working in international development.
The grants are available to UK-registered not-for-profit organisations or groups of UK-registered not-for-profit organisations with an annual income of less than £10million. Up to six Small Charities Challenge Fund Capacity Development Grants will be awarded to innovative, evidence based and ambitious proposals from organisations with a track record of supporting small, grassroots organisations to achieve their ambitions.
Projects can last for up to two years.
To be eligible the charities need to be operating in countries that are listed in the lowest 50 countries in the UN Human Development Index (HDI) and countries the UK Department for International Development (DFID) considers to be of high or moderate fragility.
The closing date for applications is Thursday 28th November 2019.
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust – Rights and Justice (UK except Northern Ireland)
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) is interested in funding work which is about removing problems through radical solutions, and not simply about making problems easier to live with; that has a clear sense of objectives, and of how to achieve them; and is innovative and imaginative and where the grant has a good chance of making a difference.
JCRT makes grants to a range of organisations including registered, excepted or exempt charities based in the UK for work that seeks to make positive change across the UK as a whole, or across one or more of its member countries – England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
The Funding priorities for the Rights and Justice theme are:
- Protection and promotion of human rights and their enforcement in the UK
- Promoting rights and justice for minorities who face the most severe forms of racism
- Promotion of rights and justice for refugees and other migrants by identifying and tackling structures and systems that may deny them their rights.
JRCT focuses on work at both a national and European level, although work at a European level is limited and must have direct relevance to communities living in the UK.
Whilst the focus is to support national advocacy and campaigning, JRCT is open to applications which aim to effect structural change at local and regional levels of policy-making, provided the applicant can demonstrate the wider significance of the work.
Across the policy, JRCT places an emphasis on supporting those who have direct experience of racism and oppression.
Applicants are encouraged to apply for a grant for unrestricted or core support, although support for specific programme or project funding is also available.
Recent grants awarded have ranged from £5,000 to £100,000+ including:
- £20,000 to the Barrow Cadbury Trust
- £59,365 to Citizens UK (Safe Passage)
- £16,400 to the Equality and Diversity Forum
The next round of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust’s Rights and Justice programme is now open and will close on the 2nd December 2019.
Funding to Develop the Sustainability of Organisations Supporting the Rehabilitation of Offenders and Ex-offenders (UK)
This Development Grant is aimed at strengthening an organisation as a whole rather than just one specific project by providing core funding to implement a step change in development and therefore build increased sustainability for the future. During this funding round, the Trust will provide grants to not for profit organisations working towards the rehabilitation of offenders or ex-offenders.
The Trust awards grants to help develop sustainable income sources, so that when the grant comes to end, the applicant organisation’s income will not be reduced. Applicants must be a registered charity, not-for-profit social enterprise or community interest company working within the UK with a UK office.
Grants are available from £10,000 up to £80,000 for a duration of 6 months to 3 years. The amount of funding requested must be proportional to the development that will be undertaken. A maximum of £30,000 per year or £2,500 per month for smaller developments can be requested.
Grants can cover any costs incurred by the applicant in undertaking a development to increase resilience. Previous projects supported include:
- Open Gates which received a grant of £80,000 over three years to develop its furniture restoration business and to provide opportunities for offenders to build their skills and confidence, to find future employment and reduce the risk of reoffending.
- The Oswin Project which supports inmates at HMP Northumberland to secure employment opportunities upon their release whilst providing an ongoing mentoring programme to help them integrate back into their communities and break the offending cycle.
The Triangle Trust has announced that the next closing date for applications to its Development Grants programme is noon on the 22nd October 2019.
Grants of up to £30,000 Available for Road Safety Projects (UK)
The Road Safety Trust has announced that Local Authorities, Police Forces, Fire and Rescue services or UK based registered charities can now apply for funding through the Small Grants Programme to improve road safety. Projects should either be pilots, trials or evaluation of a practical road safety intervention.
All projects should link to local priorities and show a proposed link to reducing casualties either directly or through clear interim measures and should have the potential to be scalable.
The Road Safety Trust has made a total of £120,000 available in this round of the Small Grants Programme. The minimum grant available is £10,000 and the maximum is £30,000 over two years; other sources of funding, either cash or in-kind will be required.
The closing date for applications is the 20th December 2019.
Grants of up to £100,000 Available for Community Facilities (England)
Registered Charities, churches, Parish Councils, Local Authorities and CASC registered sports clubs can apply for grants of between £2,000 and £100,000 for the provision, maintenance or improvement of community facilities.
This can include:
- Village Halls and Community Centres
- Public Play Areas;
- Publicly available Multi use games areas,
- Skate parks and BMX tracks;
- Sport and recreation grounds including pavilions and clubhouses with full public access;
- Churches – community spaces only;
- Nature Reserves;
- Public gardens, parks, country parks and woodlands with at least dawn to dusk access;
- Museums.
The funding is being made available through the FCC Community Action Fund and is available to projects located within 10 miles of an eligible FCC Environment site.
The next funding round opens on the 25th September and closes for applications at 5pm on the 11th December 2019.
Funding opportunities under £25,000
Funding to Engage People with Science and Technology (UK)
The Science and Technology Facilities Council has announced that its Spark Awards programme has re-opened for applications. Grants of up to £15,000 are available to fund public engagement activities that inspire and involve audiences with science and technology.
Activities must focus on astronomy, solar and planetary science, particle physics, particle astrophysics, cosmology, nuclear physics or accelerator science.
Almost anyone can apply for a Spark Award, including grant-funded researchers, STFC scientists and engineers, facility users, schools, museums, science communicators, and amateur astronomy groups.
Before submitting an application, applicants are encouraged to contact the Public Engagement Team to discuss their ideas.
The deadline is 4pm on 24th of October 2019.
Grants of up to £5,000 Available for Projects that Help the Homeless (UK)
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.
Typically, such organisations may operate small or medium-sized residential or training facilities to assist homeless people.
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 December 2019.
Funding to Projects that Promote Social Justice, Nonviolence and Environmental Sustainability (UK)
Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 per year are available to registered charities in the UK for projects that contribute to the development of a just society based on a commitment to non-violence and environmental sustainability. Grants can be for up to three years.
The Foundation’s priority is to address systemic threats by seeking to change policy and attitudes at a national or European level. The Foundation also supports organisations or projects that are not UK registered charities if they can indicate a UK registered charity that is able to receive funds on their behalf. Priority will be given to small, pioneering organisations with an income of between 10,000 and £500,000.
Previous projects supported include:
- Conflicts Forum which received a grant of £24,000 over three years to promote understanding between the Western and Muslim worlds by challenging attitudes, values and ideologies that promote conflict.
- Airport Watch which received a grant of £15,000 over two years to educate UK policy-makers about the dangerously unsustainable growth and levels of air freight to the environment and communities, and the influences and interests that lie behind them.
The next closing date for applications to the Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation is midnight on the 28th February 2020.
Funding for Projects that Tackle the Root Causes of Social Inequity (UK)
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 needs 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.
The next closing date for grant application to the Scurrah Wainright Charity is the 14th January 2020.
Overseas Development Grants for UK-based Charities (UK)
The Philip Henman Trust awards grants to major UK-based charities (with annual incomes of over £100,000) for long-term overseas development projects that require funding for between three and five years. The Trust awards a total of £25,000 as grants of between £3,000 and £5,000 per project per annum and expects this figure to represent 20 – 80% of the overall project costs.
Successful applicants will have demonstrated that the project will provide lasting benefit for the people and communities supported.
Previous awards have been made to:
- Cool Earth to provide safe sanitation for indigenous rainforest villages in Papua New Guinea;
- Point Foundation to support community-based living for the disabled in Rwanda; and
- Just a Drop, a schools water and sanitation project in Kenya.
Applications are considered once a year. The next closing date for applications is the 10th September 2020.
Grants of up to £15,000 Available for Projects that Support Women (UK / International)
The Feminist Review Trust has announced that grants of up to £15,000 are available for projects both in the UK and internationally that support women and girls.
For 2018/2019 applications will be particularly welcome from non-OECD countries that focus on campaigning and activism in the following areas:
- Lesbian and transgender rights
- Violence against women and girls
- Disabled women and girls
- Refugee women and girls
The closing date for applications for the current funding round is the 31st January 2020.
Funding for Cultural and Educational Links with Japan (UK)
Grants are available to schools cultural organisations and universities; etc that wish to teach the Japanese language and develop links with Japan and Japanese organisations. The Foundation’s grants average £1,500 to £2,000 and do not normally exceed £5,000 for larger-scale projects.
Grants are available to support the study of the Japanese language and culture, School, Education and Youth exchanges.
In the past, the Foundation has made grants towards visits between the UK and Japan by teachers and young people and the teaching and development of Japanese language and cultural studies in schools.
Organisations that have successfully applied to the Foundation include:
- Hessle High School and Sixth Form College which received a grant of £3,000 to visit to Japan to create curriculum on Japan in Key Stage 3 Geography lessons.
- Truro College which received a grant of £2,000 for a football exchange programme with Tokai Daigo High School in Japan.
- The Boston & Hakusan City Exchange Programme received a grant of £3,500 for an exchange programme between school children from Boston and Hakusan City.
- Campion School received a grant of £2,000 to support a school trip to Tokyo for students of Japanese.
- Escomb Primary School received a grant of £3,000 for an exchange visit with Ogawara Minami Elementary School.
The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation has announced that the next application deadline for its grants making programme is the 15th December 2019.
Project Development Funding for Churches (UK)
Grants of between £3,000 and £10,000 are available to listed and unlisted Christian places towards developing a church building project. This can include Churches, Chapels and Meeting Houses. The funding is being made available through the National Churches Trust’s Gateway Programme.
Applications are accepted 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 Gateway Grant Programme also offers grants of between £3,000 and £10,000 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.
The first deadline to apply for a Gateway Grant is the 9th January 2020.
Funding Available to Music Creators to Develop their Career (UK)
Help Musicians UK has announced that the Do it Differently Fund has re-opened for application. The Fund helps independent, entrepreneurial music creators to build their career. Grants are offered under the following two strands:
- Recording & Releasing
- Touring & Live Development
Grants of £500 – £3,000 can cover professional development opportunities and creative projects at a crucial point in the artists career. Successful applicants will also be able to access a suite of wellbeing and development services worth up to £2,000, including business development sessions, education around “healthy” touring practices, online CBT and wellbeing tools, specialist hearing assessment, bespoke hearing protection and short-term treatment of performance-related conditions.
Please note that PR & Marketing and Equipment costs can only account for up to 50% of the total grant request. For example, if you apply for the full grant amount of £3,000, a maximum of £1,500 can be allocated towards PR & Marketing and Equipment. Applications exceeding this limitation will be regarded as ineligible.
The fund is open to emerging and professional musicians of all genres and disciplines, with a focus on independent music creators who can evidence self-sufficiency in one or more aspects of their career (e.g. self-managing, self-releasing, self-producing). Applicants can be a solo artist, composer, group member, songwriter, producer or a multidisciplinary artist. Bands or ensembles of up to 6 members can also apply.
Applicants must be aged over 18, based primarily in the UK and be eligible to work here and been a resident in the UK for at least 3 consecutive years and also have an active career and track record.
The closing date for applications is the 7th October 2019.
Grants of up to £1,000 Available for Community Projects (England, Scotland and Wales)
Community groups, schools, health bodies and charities in England, Wales and Scotland can apply for funding of up to £1000 to support projects which benefit local communities. The types of projects funded can be very broad and will cover the direct costs needed to deliver the project.
This could include buying litter pickers and bags for a community clean-up days, plants, spades and forks to plant up a new community garden, the cost of a minibus for a day trip for a community group or the materials needed to paint a room at the local hospice.
Carriers for Causes funding is available to good causes within two miles of a One Stop Shop and is made available from the money raised from the 5p bag charge in One Stop stores.
Applications can be submitted at any time.
Comic Relief Community Fund Launched (England)
Comic Relief has launched its Community Fund. Grassroots community organisations with an income of less than £250,000 can apply for funding to help them develop their organisation through a Capacity Building Grant of up to £500 or to deliver projects through a Project Delivery Grant of up to £4,000.
The grants available to organisations whose work delivers on one of Comic Relief’s four strategic themes:
Children Survive & Thrive: projects that support children under the age of 5 to reach their potential and have the best start in life.
Fighting for Gender Justice: projects that improve equality for women and girls and initiatives that help people affected by domestic violence, abuse or exploitation due to their gender or sexuality.
A Safe Place to Be: projects that support people who are rebuilding their lives because of homelessness or forced migration.
Mental Health Matters: projects that support good mental health in communities, improve access to support and tackle stigma and discrimination.
This new funding programme aims deliver long lasting community driven change.
Administration of the local funding is being managed by community charity, Groundwork
Both funding programmes accept applications on a rolling basis and there are no application deadlines.
Professional Development Grants for Teachers (UK)
The Goldsmiths Company offers Teachers and Head Teachers with a minimum of 3 years’ practical school teaching experience the opportunity to apply for grants of up to £3,000 to enhance their personal and professional development. The offer includes and additional maximum payment of £2,000 to fund supply cover to the school. Grants offer teachers the opportunity to take time out from the classroom to undertake an original project in the UK or abroad.
Grants can cover the costs such as travel, accommodation and materials. Examples of projects that may be supported include:
- An original project that will enhance the applicant’s teaching career and benefit his / her students on completion
- A project that has a long-term aim of disseminating results / research back to the school and / or a wider audience
- A project that is planned and well thought out
- A project that presents an individual challenge to the applicant.
Applications are assessed on their potential to enhance a teacher’s professional life and benefit his/her students on completion.
This is the final year that the grant will be made available.
Applications must be submitted by 3rd October 2019.
Funding for Housing Projects that Cater for People with Special Needs (UK)
The Quaker Housing Trust has announced that the next deadline for applications is the 18th October 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.
Leeds Building Society Charitable Foundation Grant (UK)
UK registered charities, or those affiliated with a registered charity working to help those at disadvantage in society can apply to the Leeds Building Society Charitable Foundation for support. Grants of between £250 – £1,000 are available to cover the costs involved in directly supporting those in need including those with disabilities, affected by homelessness, or with serious health issues.
Previous grants have gone to organisations supporting young people in applying for jobs and towards the purchase of a portable multi-sensory environment, that will turn any room into a sensory room.
Donations usually fund items of “capital expenditure” i.e. items must directly help those in need, rather than contributing to the charity’s running costs.
The Foundation accepts applications from UK registered charities, or those affiliated with a registered charity.
Projects previously funded include:
- SASH, an organisation that provides guidance on creating CVs and applying for jobs to aid homeless 16 to 25-year olds, received £985.
- Byker Community Association received £500 to buy new books and build an interactive story hub designed by the children of Byker themselves.
Applications are reviewed every quarter. The deadline is the 7th October 2019.
Grants of up to £5,000 Available to Support the Performing Arts and the Conservation of Historic Objects (UK)
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.
The Leche Trust has announced that the next closing date for applications is the 6th December 2019.
ChurchCare – Grants for Fabric Repairs (UK)
ChurchCare supports all those in parishes, dioceses and cathedrals caring for their buildings. The Fabric Repairs programme helps PCCs with the eligible costs of essential fabric repairs in architecturally or historically significant Anglican churches in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Applications are considered on the grounds of the historic and architectural significance of the building and also on a parish’s engagement with the history and interpretation of the site/building.
The criteria for consideration include the following:
- The church must only be listed either Grade I or Grade II*
- The church should not have benefited from a Wolfson Foundation grant in the previous five years
50% of the required funding needs to have been secured as ‘cash in the bank’ or pledges at point of application
Works eligible for funding tend to be Category A or B recommendations in a quinquennial inspection report and include things such as:
- Roof repairs
- Masonry repairs
- Rainwater disposal and drainage.
For further information or advice, please click here to contact John Webster, Conservation Grants Administrator, T: 020 7898 1872. The address for correspondence sent by post is Cathedral & Church Buildings Division, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ.
The Church of England has announced that the next deadline for applications to its ChurchCare – Grants for Fabric Repairs is the 27th January 2020.