McCarthy Stone Foundation – Community Grants Programme

The foundation runs several grant programmes throughout the year for organisations supporting people over 65.
Core Cost Funding: The Foundation awards unrestricted core funding to grassroots charitable organisations with people over 65 at the heart of their work.
Unrestricted funding is only available to registered charities and community groups. We do not fund unrestricted Community Interest Companies.
Organisations demonstrating a strong alignment with our charitable aims are invited to apply for unrestricted funding, currently up to £7500.
We know that many small organisations don’t have the resources for complex or extensive grant applications and monitoring, so we will do our best to work with you to make the process simple, transparent, and fair. We will also work with you to help report on the impact the grant will have.
Project Funding
We also invite applications for Project Funding. This funding is open to registered charities, community groups, and community interest companies limited by guarantee. This funding is to support a new, or existing, programme dedicated to supporting people over 65 within an organisation.
Although this will typically be restricted, we encourage all organisations submitting an application for project funding to do so on a cost-recovery basis.

Berkshire Community Foundation’s – Vital for Berkshire fund now open for applications

Berkshire Community Foundation’s Vital for Berkshire fund aims to support charities, community groups and projects that work to tackle the most salient and pressing issues within Berkshire’s communities at any given time.

Applications are now open for the fund, and grants up to a maximum of £5000 will be considered, subject to funding availability.

Does your charity, community group or project support vital needs in Berkshire?

This can include but not limited to:
• physical and mental health
• supporting young and vulnerable people
• combating isolation
• tackling poverty and disadvantage
• offering equal opportunities for all
and more.

Applications are also invited to enable groups to fund their essential resources in order to secure services for their beneficiaries in the current cost of living crisis.

Application deadline: Thursday 22nd August (10am)

Music for All – Community Project Funding

Grants are available to UK-based community groups that aim to bring musical projects to their local communities.

Application deadline: 30th September 2024 (8am)

Greenham Trust Planting Project

Applications are now open for free trees and hedging plants for local councils, schools and charitable organisations. Since 2021 we have provided nearly 7000 plants to over
100 different organisations.

Plants will be indigenous to the United Kingdom and supplied as either small trees and hedging (60 to 80 cm), or large trees and hedging (over 90 cm).

They will be bare-rooted and delivered in the Autumn with spirals and canes ready for prompt planting.

Elise Pilkington Trust – Elderly Grants

About Us: We provide funding for UK-registered elderly charities.
Criteria: Our Trustees seek grant applications for projects which meet our funding criteria which should be for capital projects or time limited specific projects. For this round we will be focusing support to projects dedicated to addressing the needs of older people with advanced dementia and their carers in domestic, community and formal care settings.
Grant Size: Not stated Deadline for applications: 23 August 2024

Rewilding Innovation Fund

Applications close on Friday 30th August.
This exciting fund helps to foster the scale and ambition of rewilding projects, enabling largescale restoration of ecosystems. We want to remove barriers to rewilding across Britain. Whether your site or project is in the early planning stages or looking to try out a new approach, you can apply.
We choose the projects we consider will have the highest impact on people and nature, on land and sea, with opportunities for shared learning with the Rewilding Network. Funding of up £15,000 is available for projects engaging young people which are based in Britain covering cover at least 40 hectares of contiguous land.

National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) – UK Fund

About Us: The UK Fund offers larger amounts of funding for existing projects. We’ll fund projects that help bring diverse communities together. From July 2024 we’ll also fund projects that help children and young people use their voice to influence change.

Criteria:All projects must:
• benefit communities across the UK (by working in different places, or by sharing learning between countries)
• scale up their impact by expanding their work (by helping more people, or doing more for people they already work with)
• support people experiencing poverty, disadvantage and discrimination
• help make significant changes to services or systems that affect people’s everyday lives.

And meet one of these aims:
• improve relationships between people with different life experiences
• help people and communities who find it difficult to meet face-to-face to make meaningful connections online
• help people from all backgrounds to influence the future of their communities
• help children and young people facing specific challenges change the systems that affect them
• help more organisations to involve and listen to children and young people.
Grant Size: £500,000 to £5 million. Funding is available for 2 to 10 years. We expect to fund around 20 projects a year.
Deadline for applications: Ongoing

Barclays Community Football Fund

About Us: Barclays believe in creating opportunities for all through access to football. That’s why, in partnership with Sported, the Barclays Community Football Fund is providing grants, training, and exclusive ticketing offers to make football more accessible in communities across the UK.
Criteria: The Barclays Community Football Fund is helping to reduce inequalities in football by supporting community sports groups who need it most. The programme focuses on groups operating in areas of high deprivation and supporting young people from the following underrepresented groups: women and girls, racially diverse communities, young people with disabilities, from the LGBTQ+ community, and from lower socio-economic areas.
Grant Size: £1,000
Deadline for applications: 15 September 2024

Metal for Good

Metal For Good fund incredible community groups and projects that use music and the values of the rock and metal community to help create an equal society.

We are delighted to invite applications from community groups, charities and non-profit organisations to apply for up to £3000 to deliver community projects that use music as a tool for change.

Successful projects will be shortlisted in September, and the final amount they receive will be determined by Metal For Good’s loyal supporters.

Up to six projects will be awarded funding, broken down by:

1 x £3000
2 x £2000
3 X £1000
Deadline: Applications will close on the 22nd August 2024 at 5pm

B&Q Foundation

Providing grants for a wide range of charities who are looking for funding to improve or develop spaces that benefit their local communities.

We know that charities are pushed for time and that is why we work with the team at Neighbourly to make the application process as easy as possible. Applications are reviewed and awarded based on the strength of application. We look specifically at the below three areas:

• How much the charity and this project is reaching and helping those most in need
• How much the project is improving a space where people can feel at home – creating somewhere that is comfortable, safe, and welcoming
• The difference that the project will make – e.g. no. of people reached, longevity, impact

We award grants of up to £10,000 for building or indoor projects, and up to £5,000 for garden projects. We want to provide funding that covers the full cost for the completion of the project, so please include an estimated value of staff time required.

Deadline: The next application deadline to submit a complete application us: Friday 16 August 2024

Grants for historic church interiors and churchyard structures – Church of England

The Church of England give grants for the conservation of historic church interiors and churchyard structures in partnership with the Pilgrim Trust, the Radcliffe Trust, the Oswald Allen Bequest, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, and the Anglican Parish Churches Fund. Grant categories are as follows:

Bells and bell frames – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 31 March 2025.
Books and manuscripts – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 14 October 2024.
Church plate repairs – deadline for applications 14 October 2024.
Churchyard structures – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 14 October 2024.
Clocks – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 7 April 2025.
Monumental brasses and decorative metalwork – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 14 October 2024.
Monuments – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 14 October 2024.
Organs – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 7 October 2024.
Paintings and wall paintings – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 27 January 2025 TBC.
Stained glass – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 12 August 2024.
Textiles – grants up to £8,000, deadline for applications 14 October 2024.
Wooden objects – grants up to £10,000, deadline for applications 14 October 2024.

Community support small grants – Trusthouse Charitable Foundation

Single year grants between £2,000 and £10,000 are available to charities and not for profit organisations for core costs, salaries, running and project costs. Projects must have a focus on Community Support and address urban and rural deprivation in the UK.

if you are located in a rural area, you must be in the bottom 50% most deprived areas according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Your annual income must not exceed £250,000 and you can secure 50% of the total project costs.

This is a rolling programme with no deadlines.

Branching Out Fund – Tree Council

This Tree Council grant is for community groups, schools, small registered charities, and Tree Warden Networks seeking to establish trees, hedgerows, and orchards.

Branching Out supports applications ranging in value from £250 to £2,500, with specific criteria for those under £500, and those above £500.

The deadline for applications is 1 December 2024.

Memorial Grants Scheme – Department for Culture, Media & Sport

The Memorial Grant Scheme gives grants towards VAT on the construction, repair and maintenance of public memorial structures, for work which took place on or after 16 March 2005.

This is a UK-wide grant, available for memorials in any part of the UK (or overseas memorials in some circumstances). The grant scheme is managed by East Midlands Business Ltd on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

If you are a registered charity or a faith group ‘excepted’ from registering as a charity, this grant can help you with the cost of works like repairing and cleaning public memorials or installing a new memorial.

There are conditions on the types of memorial which are eligible, and what the funding can be used for. If your project meets these conditions, you can apply for funding towards the VAT cost of the works. The maximum grant available is the full rate of VAT (20% of project costs).

The deadline for applications is 30 September 2024.

Instrument funding – Music for All

Music for All is dedicated to changing lives across the UK by improving access to music making. They are “a passionate, focused and ambitious UK charity helping disadvantaged music makers experience the joys and far-reaching benefits of making music.”

In 2024 they are offering an instrument-only funding round to community projects and individuals, offering instruments such as drumkits with drumsticks, keyboards, ukulele bundle, pbuzz instruments, electric guitars as well as Arturia Analog Lab V controller software. Successful applicants will also receive access to The Maestro Online Masterclasses for these instruments.

Alongside this instrument-only funding round, they are also hosting their annual Harris Foundation Award which is open to schools looking to deepen their music provision and support/or continue to support groups of music makers within their school.

The deadline for applications is 30 September 2024.

Project Viability & Project Development Grants – the Architectural Heritage Fund

The Fund is offering grants of up to £15,000 to help assess the viability of historic building projects, and up to £20,000 towards development work to progress plans for historic buildings.

Project Viability Grants: These grants should help you to establish whether a project is viable. Work will probably focus on understanding the condition of the building, how it might be used, and whether that intended use is appropriate for the building and likely to be sustainable.
Project Development Grants: Project Development Grants can cover some of the costs of developing and co-ordinating your project and taking it towards the start of work on site. To qualify, an organisation must have established that the end use of the project is likely to be viable and have decided to take the project forward.
Applications are assessed at monthly grant decision meetings. This grant programme is supported by funding from Historic England.

Energy Resilience Fund – Power to Change

The Energy Resilience Fund is an initiative assisting community businesses in retrofitting their buildings with energy-saving measures. The programme is funded by Power to Change and delivered by Key Fund.

Investment amounts are available from £10,000 to £150,000. Up to 40% of the total is available as grant, where justifiable to support cost stabilisation or reduction. The minimum loan term for the remainder is 12 months, with a maximum of 7 years.

Energy Audit Grants are also available between £500 and £2,500 where these have not been completed.

Neighbourhood Planning Grant Funding – Locality

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) have extended support for Neighbourhood Planning for a seventh year (2024/2025). The Neighbourhood Planning Support Programme will continue to offer grants and Technical Support packages and is currently open for applications. As follows:

If you’re working on a neighbourhood plan or neighbourhood development order, you can apply for grant funding of up to £10,000. Further grant funding is available to groups meeting certain criteria.
If you’re facing complex issues such as allocating sites for development, you can apply for Technical Support where a specialist advisor will support you with specific issues or assessments.

The Movement Fund – Sport England

Launched in April 2024, the Movement Fund offers crowdfunding pledges, grants and resources to improve physical activity opportunities for the people and communities who need it the most.

If your project aligns with Sport England priorities, they can fund a wide range of costs and items up to £15,000.

Their focus is to support projects that match their goal of getting more people active, reducing the number of inactive people and tackling inequalities.

Projects providing opportunities for groups facing barriers to activity are of particular interest, such as:

people living on low incomes
disabled people or those with long-term health conditions
older people
people from culturally diverse communities
pregnant women and parents with very young children
girls aged 5-16
LGBTQ+ people
people who are in foster care
people who provide care without pay.

Utilita Giving – Small Grants

Utilita Giving supports people out of fuel and food poverty. We provide small grants to organisations registered with the Charity Commission and/or Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

These organisations must meet all of our essential eligibility criteria as follows:
• 100% of the beneficiaries are suffering hardship caused by fuel and/or food poverty.
• The project will provide long term support which then results in lasting benefits for people.
• The public will be more aware about fuel and food poverty.
• The project will be sustained beyond the grant timeframe.
• The results of the project will be captured and shared with Utilita Giving.
• Funding will be spent within a 12-month period of the funding being awarded.
Grants of up to £10,000 are available.

West Berkshire Council: Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds

West Berkshire Council is launching its Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for community groups. The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money is a charge they receive from new developments to go towards infrastructure. The council has decided to allocate some of this for community projects.

To date, they’ve approved over £1 million in community grants ranging from £10k to £100k. These include the renovation of village halls, scout huts and improvements to sports and playground facilities.

They are now allocating a further £500k of capital funding from their budget and are inviting bids from community groups, Town and Parish Councils and organisations wanting to deliver infrastructure to benefit residents and local businesses.

Application deadline: 16th September 2024 (5pm)

Sovereign Network Group

The housing association SNG launched a Thriving Communities fund in Jul 24. Grants from £1,000 up to £5,000 for a range of themes, including youth, health and well-being, ageing well, social inclusion and isolation (including equality, diversity and inclusion), environment and place, customer voice, employment support, food insecurity, digital inclusion and skills, money matters and debt advice. The fund will cover six distinct regions across the South of England where they operate. The fund works on a rolling basis, with a review of applications on a six-week cycle.

SSEN Resilience Funding

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), the Distribution Network Operator for central southern England and the north of Scotland, is now welcoming applications to its new Powering Communities to Net Zero fund.

The new Powering Communities to Net Zero (PCNZ) fund is a successor to the previous Resilient Communities Fund, which has awarded over £5m to around 700 projects in the past nine years. The new fund will run annually from now, concluding in Spring 2028. More than £3m in grants will be awarded during this time. This fund will support communities during prolonged power interruptions caused by storms, aid their ability to cope in periods of severe weather, and will now also support the adoption of new low-carbon technologies by non-profit organisations.

The new fund explained:

The fund is split into two categories; community-led physical and environmental resilience, and Low Carbon Technology (LCTs).

The new community-led physical and environmental resilience grants.
• Half of the £3m funding will be available over the next four years to enable communities to apply for grants that will bolster physical and environmental resilience measures. Further details of the criteria are found in the fund guidance and in the application form. Grants of up to £15,000 will be awarded to successful applicants in this category.

The new low-carbon technology grants.
• The other half of the funding being made available over the next four years will also be available for non-profit organisations to apply for grants to go towards the purchase of new Low-Carbon Technology. For example, a successful grant application could result in a social housing scheme or community centre being awarded funding to contribute to the cost of EV chargers, solar panels, battery storage or backup, low carbon heating systems, smart heating controls, or other general energy efficiency measures. Grants of up to £20,000 will be awarded to successful applicants in this category.

The deadline for applications to both categories is 5pm on Saturday 31st August 2024, and applicants are asked to consider the criteria in the fund guidelines. The application documents can be downloaded on our website http://www.ssen.co.uk/pcnz. This gives full details of what can be supported by the fund as well as guidance on which projects will be prioritised.

The PCNZ Fund Panel, will review applications and determine which projects should receive funding, with the successful applications announced in late October.

Our sources and thanks go to the following organisations; Rural Services Network, Volunteer Centre West Berkshire, Wokingham & Bracknell InVOLve and Slough CVS.