Published Thursday 30 April 2020 at 16:09
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
£100 million Programme of Loans and Investment for Organisations Affected by the Coronavirus
Charities and, social enterprises in disadvantaged areas facing financial hardship and disruption to their trading due to the coronavirus will be able to apply for emergency funding from a £100 million programme of loans and investment.
The emergency package is made up of a £25 million Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund to provide emergency loans with no fees or interest for the first twelve months; £29 million for smaller, emergency loans to small businesses in more deprived areas; and up to a further £50 million over the coming months for existing and future investments as needed.
Applications to the Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund are expected to open in mid-April, with the first loans completed by the start of May.
Further details on the programme will be available shortly.
£8 Million Funding to Support Adoptive Families Affected by Coronavirus
The Department for Education has announced that up to £8 million will be available to provide emergency support for adoptive families affected by the coronavirus. This announcement comes as the Department for Education confirms it has spent more than £150 million on the Adoption Support Fund since it was launched in 2015, helping more than 45,000 adoptive and special guardianship order families across the country.
Through the COVID-19 Adoption Support Fund local authorities and regional adoption agencies will be able to pay for therapy for families whose adopted children may have already suffered trauma, and be made more anxious due to social distancing and the uncertainty of the effects of the virus.
This support could include virtual peer to peer support, access to helplines, couples therapy and online counselling. The therapies available through the COVID-19 Adoption Support Fund will be delivered alongside those already offered by the Fund, such as music activities, play therapy and family support sessions.
Funding of £8 million to Help Vulnerable People Apply to the EU Settlement Scheme
The Home Office has announced a further £8 million of funding to help vulnerable EU citizens apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, which allows them and their families to continue living and working in the UK after 30 June 2021.
Charities and local authorities can apply for further funding to provide face-to-face, online and telephone support which may include legal support, caseworker services or general advice as either individual or in group sessions across the UK. Home and telephone support from a tutor will also be available to those without internet access or those lacking in digital skills.
The bidding process will begin shortly with more details being announced in due course.
Charities Encouraged to apply to the £15 Million Tampon Tax Fund
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has announced that it is inviting large charities to apply for a share of £15 million from the Tampon Tax Fund. Applications should be for £1 million or more. The aim of the Tampon Tax Fund is to fund projects which directly benefit disadvantaged women and girls, tackle violence and support their mental health and wellbeing.
Charities that successfully bid for funding are expected to distribute these grants through their networks to support women and girls and to organisations that offer small and medium- sized onward grants.
Applications are welcomed from individual organisations, or groups with an identified lead organisation. The value of the grant requested must not represent more than 50% of the applicant’s or consortia’s collective annual income.
Please note that the £15million total fund is allocated between each administration using the Barnett Formula as a guide. Wales is allocated £905,000, Northern Ireland is allocated £530,000, Scotland is allocated £1,570,000 and England £11,995,000.
Grants may be for one or two-year projects, and all activities must be concluded, and funds spent by 30 June 2022.
The deadline for applications is the 31st May 2020.
Funding opportunities between £25,000 and £100,000
Funding Available to Redistribute Surplus Food
FareShare’s Surplus with Purpose is a £3 million Fund that provides funding of up to £50,000 to food businesses in the UK to offset the costs of sending good quality surplus food to good causes, helping the people most in need.
The fund is open to companies seeking to unlock new or hard to reach surplus (or ‘waste’) food, as well as those that haven’t previously worked with FareShare.
The type of foods eligible for support includes:
- Packaging / labelling errors
- Stock that’s become surplus due to forecasting errors
- Stock below MLOR (48 hours minimum life on receipt by FareShare)
- Fruit & veg past BBE
- Stock past BBE (subject to manufacturer’s extension letter)
- Quality rejections – ‘out of spec’
- Unfinished products
- Bulk ingredients for manufacturing
- Lines no longer being retailed
- Samples and NPD’s
- Foreign label stock
- Damages
- Seasonal stock
- Retailer branded food.
The funding can be used to cover the additional staff costs needed for packing and sorting edible surplus food, or in building, implementing and managing new processes. It could also cover packaging and transportation costs, or lost income from the sale of surplus to animal feed or anaerobic digestion.
Funding applications can be submitted at any time.
Building Resilient Local Economies
The programme aims to build a more resilient, fairer and sustainable economic system. Organisations working within the UK who want to help transform financial systems into ‘engines for social benefit’ can apply for grants through the Foundation. Grants in the past have been up to £200,000 to cover capital or revenue funding, core costs or project costs. Activities funded will fit closely with the aims of the Foundation and deliver one of two key outcomes.
These are:
- “Systems Change”
- “Local Economic Resilience”
Under ‘Systems Change’ the Foundation will be looking to support projects that develop and demonstrate methods that will effectively change policy and corporate behaviours in pursuit of wider social objectives.
Under ‘Local economic resilience’ the Foundation is looking to support projects that share learning about effective ways for communities to create more sustainable economic systems and retain more of the value generated. This might include creating community assets or new approaches to local finance.
Previous organisations supported include:
- SUSTAIN, which received a grant of £75,000 for a concerted three-year campaign, drawing on the support of many people and organisations to achieve changes in government policy and industry practice to create a million good jobs though better farming and land-use.
- ECHO, a trading network of over 500 organisations in East London that uses time as the currency, rather than money. This project received a grant of £140,000 and aims to develop and refine the infrastructure for local, sustainable Echo systems at national scale.
The next deadline for applications to the Friends Provident Foundation – Building Resilient Economies programme is 12 noon on the 5th October 2020.
£5 million Funding to Support VCS Mental Health Providers Affected by Coronavirus
The Department of Health and Social Care has made £5 million available to support voluntary and community sector (VCS) mental health providers which are experiencing an increase in demand for their services due to coronavirus.
Through the Coronavirus Mental Health Response Fund, small and large grants of between £5,000 and £50,000 are available to help increase mental support for people with and at risk of developing mental health problems.
This might include:
- befriending support,
- support or advice workers,
- peer support, and
- practical help including support whilst in self-isolation.
Funding can cover costs such as core and capital costs, and direct project costs such as staff and volunteer training.
Applications can be made at any time and will be assessed every two weeks for an anticipated eight to ten weeks.
Funding for Music Making Projects for Young People in Challenging Circumstances
Schools as well as other not-for-profit organisations can apply for grants to fund developmental music-making projects for children and young people in challenging circumstances as well as for projects that support the development of the workforce, organisations and the wider music making sector. The funding is being made available through Youth Music, England’s largest children’s music charity, which provides funding for music-making projects.
Youth Making’s funding programme is made up of three separate funds. These are:
- Fund A which offers small grants (£2,000 to £30,000) for high quality music-making projects;
- Fund B offers medium-sized grants (30,001 – £150,000 per year for up to two years) for larger programmes of work.
- Music Education Hub Development Fund
In applying for funding schools will have to justify how the activities to be funded do not duplicate Department of Education funding.
The closing dates for applications to Fund A is the 31st July 2020. Fund B and the Education Hub Development Fund are currently closed and expected to re-open for applications in autumn 2020.
Youth Music has also launched an Emergency Fund for music-making organisations affected by the Coronavirus. Grants of up to £10,000 are available. Through this fund Youth Music aim to prioritise the people and organisations in the most immediate need, and to make quick decisions and payments.
Funding to Create a Better Future
Grants of up to £100,000 are available to charities and community groups in the North West, East of England, North London and West Midlands to support projects that make a difference to their local community.
The funding will be available to support small and large projects that help vulnerable and disadvantaged people, protect and preserve the environment, provide a nicer community to live in, or research and development projects that create sustainable energy.
The funding is being made available through the Cadent Foundation and there are two levels of grants available:
- £100 to £5,000 for local community groups and UK registered charities which must have a Cadent employee’s sponsorship;
- Partnership grants of £5,000 to £100,000 for UK registered charities, CICs and not-for-profit organisations that are working to advance sustainable energy and create innovative ways to tackle the climate crisis.
Applying organisations must have been operating for more than two years. The deadline for applications is the 31st May 2020.
Grants of up to £30,000 Available to Support Disadvantaged Children
Not for profit organisations such as special schools; registered charities; voluntary organisations; churches; and community interest groups; etc. can apply for grants of up to £10,000 per year for up to 3 years for projects that help children and young people overcome the effects of illness, distress, abuse or neglect; disability; behavioural or psychological difficulties; and poverty and deprivation.
Projects funded through BBC Children in Need aim to make a differences in children’s lives that help prevent or overcome the effects of the disadvantages they face. Projects achieve these differences by either working directly with children or seeking to improve their social and physical environments.
The closing date for applications is 11.59 pm on the 17th June 2020.
Funding opportunities under £25,000
Funding to Support Charities and Communities Affected by Coronavirus
The Yorkshire Building Society’s Charitable Foundation has launched a Coronavirus Response Fund to support registered charities that ate helping local communities affected by the coronavirus. Funding will support groups and activities that
- Help vulnerable people who are self-isolating.
- Ensure supplies for foodbanks and organisations, in particular to alleviate the impact of children no longer receiving free school meals due to school closures.
- Help community response coordination, including volunteer costs.
- Cover additional costs of working remotely and adapting services delivered in the wider community
- Cover the loss of income for charities providing support for vulnerable groups
The £100,000 fund will make donations of between £250 and £2,000 to help with costs such as running costs, staff and travel costs, and volunteer expenses.
Priority will be given to:
- Charities that have an income of £100,000 or less.
- Charities that support the ongoing needs of vulnerable people to ensure that their health and wellbeing is maintained.
- Charities that support the ongoing needs of people suffering from poverty or those who have suffered a loss of income
Applications can be made at any time and will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis.
Funding to Promote Public Engagement and Teaching of Microbiology
The Microbiology Society has announced that grants of up to £1000 are available for a variety of educational outreach activities to promote public engagement with microbiology. Funding is available to support relevant science teaching or promotion initiatives, or to support developments likely to lead to an improvement in the teaching of any aspect of microbiology.
Full, Full Concessionary or Postgraduate Student Members of the Microbiology Society who reside in the UK or Republic of Ireland can apply under the Microbiology Society Education and Outreach Grants Programme.
Funding is available for talks, workshops, demonstrations, posters, leaflets, broadcasts, activities at science festivals and audio-visual or computer-based packages. Applications relevant to the teaching of any aspect of microbiology in primary, secondary or tertiary (including postgraduate) education will be considered.
There are two funding rounds each year, the next closing date for applications is the 1st October 2020.
Overseas Development Grants for UK-based Charities
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 school’s water and sanitation project in Kenya.
Applications are considered once a year. The next closing date for applications is the 10th September 2020.
Nominations for Community Grants to Provide Support for Charities Affected by Coronavirus
The OneFamily Foundation is inviting its customers to nominate a local charity, group or cause for a Community Grant of up to £2,500.
Customers can nominate an established group or charity who are either:
- Providing support to those who have been affected by coronavirus.
- Struggling to maintain their usual services due to coronavirus.
Examples for nominations might include foodbanks, support groups or homeless charities.
The Foundation has already helped more than two hundred good causes deliver projects such as helping disability charities invest in their resources, and community groups tackle isolation amongst the older generation.
Nominations for this round close on the 12th May 2020.
Funding to Support Music Creators Experiencing Hardship Due to the Coronavirus
Self-employed, freelance or unemployed music creators experiencing a significant impact on their work, income and ability to complete planned musical activities due to the coronavirus can apply for grants of £750.
The PRS Foundation’s Sustaining Creativity Fund offers funding to help emerging music creators adapt and sustain their music in response to the current changing conditions. Funding can be spent on anything that enables them to continue writing, recording and making creative plans during this period of isolation. This includes support to cover lost income and costs such as recording costs, training, equipment and marketing/PR costs.
The closing date for applications is the 11th May 2020.
Grants for Churches for the Conservation of Decorative Features and Monuments
The Fund accepts applications from churches, chapels and other places of worship built before 1896 for grants of between £500 and £3,000 to carry out small programmes of conservation work to decorative features and monuments. All work funded must be directed by a professional architect or established conservator and completed according to the principles of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).
Eligible work could include (but is not limited to):
- Stained glass windows
- Sculpture
- Furniture
- Internal monuments
- Tombs
- Wall paintings.
Previous awards have been made to:
- St Mary’s Church, Cerne Abbas for the conservation of wall paintings (£1,000).
- Holy Trinity Church, St Austell to restore a monument to Joseph Sawle (£750).
- The Lye and Wollescote Chapels, Dudley for the repair of a weathervane (£1,600).
The next closing date for applications to the William and Jane Morris Fund is the 31st August 2020.
Funding to Support the Creative Development of Established Composers
Grants of up to £10,000 are available to established composers in the UK who are at pivotal stages in their career. Support is available through the PRS Foundation’s Composers’ Fund to help the creative development of up to fifteen talented composers per year who can demonstrate how this kind of funding would support the long-term development of their career and their music in both in the UK and overseas.
Previous projects have included recordings, the promotion and performance of existing works, international co-commissions and development, performer collaboration, residencies, sabbaticals or childcare costs and project or promotional support.
The funding can also be used to enable composers adapt to lockdown conditions due to Covid-19.
The deadline for this round is the 28th May 2020.
National Churches Foundation Grant Reopens for Applications
Churches across the UK can apply for grants of between £500 and £5,000 towards the cost of urgent maintenance works and small repairs through the National Churches Trust Foundation Grant Programme.
The Foundation Grant Programme can award grants of up to £10,000 towards urgent maintenance works and small investigative works costing up to £10,000 and will cover no more than 50% of costs.
Applications are accepted from listed and unlisted Christian places of worship, of any denomination, but particularly from those in priority areas i.e. North East England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Applications will be considered on a rolling basis starting in January 2020 until the 30th October 2020.
Grants for Small Museums for Conservation and Management
The Collections Care Grant Scheme (formally known as the Preventive Conservation Scheme) is managed by the Association of Independent Museums (AIM), supported by funding from the Pilgrim Trust and run in association with the AIM Remedial Conservation Grant Scheme and the AIM ICON Pilgrim Trust Collections Care Audit Scheme. AIM is looking for projects that enable a step-change in the quality of collections care that a museum can provide in the knowledge that better collections care supports museums long-term sustainability.
Grants awarded may be used for:
- Environmental surveys
- Obtaining professional advice to compile conservation and implementation strategies
- Environmental monitoring and control equipment
- Ultraviolet filters
- Integrated pest management
- Display cases and picture framing (where this is required for conservation reasons)
- Storage containers and packing materials
- Development of emergency plans
- Improvements to museum stores, especially to increase their capacity
- Equipment or other support for digitalisation projects where this aids conservation
- Training for volunteers or staff
- Collections audits and collection management plans
The maximum grant is £10,000 with the average grant expected to be around £5,000. Grants of less than £1,500 are paid in full on award; others receive 50% on award, 50% on completion and receipt of the conservator’s report.
Applications should show how the proposed project fits with the Collections Care priorities of the museum as assessed through a collection care audit, collections management plan or other similar document. If the museum does not already have such an assessment, they are advised to consider applying for an AIM Collections Care Audit as a first stage.
Eligible applicants will be AIM members; registered or accredited museum, or be confident of achieving accreditation within two years; a registered Charity, an associated charity can receive the grant on the museum’s behalf, if the museum itself is not a charity; have fewer than 50,000 visitors p.a. or a turnover of less than £300,000 p.a.
The next closing date for applications is the 30th September 2020.
Lord’s Taverners Accessible Minibuses Grant Programme
The Lord’s Taverners, the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity, is accepting applications through its Accessible Minibuses grants programme. SEN Schools and organisations catering for young disabled people in the UK can apply to the Lords Taverners for specially-adapted, wheelchair-accessible minibuses.
Last year the Lords Taverners delivered 40 specially-adapted, wheelchair-accessible minibuses. Examples of schools that received a specially-adapted minibus are:
- Lakeside School in Hertfordshire;
- The Garth School and the Priory School in Spalding (Lincolnshire); and
- Perseid School in Morden, Surrey.
These vehicles give young people with disabilities access to new places and experiences. Lord’s Taverners minibuses are based on the current Ford Transit model, with a diesel engine. Please note that the Lord’s Taverners are unable to support schools that cater for socially disadvantaged children, or mainstream schools for children with behavioural problems.
Applications to the programme can be submitted at any time.
For further information please contact foundation@lordstaverners.org
Music for All Extends Application Deadline to 1st November 2020
Grants are available to UK based community groups and schools who would benefit from a “helping hand” to bring music to their community and fulfil their potential in becoming truly sustainable music programmes.
The funding which is being made available by the charity Music for All, can be put towards musical instrument costs, workshops/training, using music to break down barriers, providing a variety of educational opportunities as well as helping to find ways to integrate many diverse and minority groups positively into society. Grants of up to £2,500 are available, but due to increased demand most awards will be for less than this amount.
UK based community music groups and educational organisations are eligible to apply. Applicants are encouraged to look for other sources of funding to add to the amount needed to deliver the project.
Examples of projects funded:
- Belham Primary School: Used a grant from Music for All to purchase instruments and resulted in 137 out of the 180 children learning violin, guitar, ukulele or recorder. This compares to 6 months earlier when only a handful were learning just the recorder.
Funding of up to £500 is also available to individuals who do not have the means to access musical instruments and lessons.
Due to the Coronavirus crisis, the deadline for applications has been extended for this bidding round from the 1st July 2020 to the 1st November 2020.
PRS Music Foundation Composers’ Fund Opens for Applications
The Performing Rights Society (PRS) for Music Foundation, the UK’s leading funder of new music across all genres, has announced that a new round of applications to its Composers’ Fund is now open for applications.
The Composers’ Fund recognises the need for composers to have direct access to funding at pivotal stages in their career. It invites composers to make the case for support of any activity that would enable them to make a significant step change in their career.
Grants can be for up to £10,000 and it is anticipated that the Foundations will make 10 – 15 awards a year. The fund is open to composers with a strong track record in their field who are at a point in their career where access to funding could help move forward their career. To be eligible for support, composers must be based in the UK and must be members of PRS for Music or in a position to join. To be eligible for support, composers must be based in the UK and must be members of PRS for Music or in a position to join.
The next deadline for applications is 6pm on the 28th May 2020.
COVID-19 Emergency Surplus Food Grant – Phase 2
The UK Government in collaboration with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has launched phase 2 of its Emergency Surplus Food Grant.
The aim of the £1 million grant scheme is to provide support to small and micro-sized not-for-profit food redistributors who can redistribute surplus food from retailers, wholesalers and food manufacturers to vulnerable people and those in need who are affected by the coronavirus.
Grants of between £5,000 and £10,000 are available to help with capital and revenue costs such as costs for transporting the surplus food or any increased demand and capacity issues.
The deadline for applications is 1pm on the 4th June 2020 but may close early if the budget is fully allocated.
New Package to Support Online Learning for Young People
The UK Government has announced a new package to support online learning for pupils staying at home during the coronavirus crisis. Laptops and tablets will be provided to support remote education for vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the most vital stages of their education, those who receive support from a social worker, and care leavers.
4G routers will also be provided to families who do not already have mobile or broadband internet at home. Selected educational resources will also be temporarily exempt from data charges.
To further support schools, the Oak National Academy has been launched and will provide 180 video lessons each week across a broad range of subjects from reception through to Year 10.
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.
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 June 2020.