Information sources: with thanks to Slough CVS, West Berkshire Volunteer Centre, Wokingham Involve, Norfolk Community Action

Big Lottery Fund — Reaching Communities 

Reaching Communities make grants of over £10,000 in England, supporting organisations with great ideas that enable communities to thrive.

The grants are awarded to voluntary and community organisations or social enterprises for up to five years. They can fund project activities, operating costs, organisational development and capital costs.

Find out more about the Big Lottery Fund — Reaching Communities

National Churches Trust – Foundation Grants Programme 2019-2023

Grants are available for listed and unlisted Christian places of worship of any denomination in the UK to support urgent maintenance work and small investigative works. To read more please click here.

UK Theatres Grants Scheme

The UK Theatres Small Grants Scheme is a capital fund that awards up to £5,000 to theatres across the UK, run by charities and not-for-profit groups that can clearly demonstrate the value capital improvements to their theatres would make to their work in local communities.

Priorities include projects that address urgent building repairs, improve operational viability, introduce environmental improvements, and enhance physical accessibility. Please note that applications for technical equipment and refurbishment of soft furnishings are a low priority for the scheme.
To be eligible you must:

• Own or manage theatres with titles or signed leases of more than 5 years on buildings in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Demonstrate that they run a regular theatre programme of professional, community and/or amateur work, presenting no less than 30 performances a year
• Have a bona fide UK charitable or not-for-profit legal structure and be able to provide certified or audited accounts for at least two years

Applications for awards up to £5,000 can be made.

Round 13 of the UK Small Grants Scheme will close on Tuesday 8^th January 2019 at noon.

Find out more about the UK Theatres Grants Scheme

Pocket parks plus: supporting parks and public spaces

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government is inviting applications from community groups interested in establishing a new pocket park or refurbishing an existing park.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is providing a £1 million fund to support the development of new pocket parks and to refurbish existing parks that have fallen into disrepair where their restoration could have a significant positive impact on the local community and address a specific local need.

They expect to allocate grants of up to £15,000 for new pocket parks and £25,000 for refurbishment of existing parks split between capital and revenue.

The deadline is 5pm on Friday 25^th January 2019.

Find out more about Pocket parks plus: supporting parks and public spaces

The Wolfson Foundation

The Wolfson Foundation is an independent charity that awards grants to support and promote excellence in the fields of science, health, education and the arts & humanities. They generally only fund capital projects (buildings/refurbishment, equipment) and only award grants to charities or organisations with charitable status (or equivalent).

The size of our grants vary greatly across different programme areas. For an idea of how much you might reasonably hope to receive, should your application be successful, you may wish to look at their recent Annual Reports to see what amounts similar organisations/ projects have received.

Find out more about The Wolfson Foundation

Centre for Ageing Better: Age-friendly and Inclusive Volunteering Fund

Grants to support charities and community groups in England with initiatives that will tackle the barriers that might prevent older people from volunteering and contributing to their communities, thereby benefiting from this positive interaction. The fund seeks to stimulate new approaches and identify good practice that other organisations can learn from and replicate. Please click here for further information.

Healthwatch Community Investment Fund 2018

Healthwatch Wokingham wants to invest in grassroots projects by individuals or groups that aim to improve the health & wellbeing of local people. There’s no need to be a registered charity or an official group. We’ll be judging applications on how well we think they could contribute to improving people’s wellbeing. It would be great if your project relates in some way to emotional wellbeing/mental health. Projects do not have to be expensive or complicated & the application process is easy and straightforward. If interested, send in a short description of your project idea & the amount of funding with a breakdown of costs to nicola.strudley@healthwatchwokingham.co.uk or call 0118 418 1418. Deadline for applications is 24.12.18.

Did you know that applying to the Big Lottery Fund is now easier?

If you would like to apply for funding between £300 and £10,000 you can apply online for our Awards for All Grants. See our website for more details:-https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/funding/under10k

If you are looking for funding for over £10,000 and your project helps to:-

• Shape the spaces and places in your local community,
• Strengthens relationships and brings people together or
• Enables people to work together to address issues at the earliest possible stage,