Newly Reopened: Magic Little Grants

With a simple 20-minute application process for a £500 grant and an outcome within six weeks, the Magic Little Grants fund reduces the work required for grass-roots organisations to access the funding they need to launch or strengthen their services. The following criteria apply:
• Organisations must either be in their first year of operation or have an annual income under £250,000.
• Funding can be used to launch new projects, support existing ones, or cover core costs associated with ongoing work.
• Organisations and the projects for which they apply must be located within England, Scotland, or Wales,
This year we will be funding more organisations than we ever have before and we will still be spreading this funding out far and wide across the country. Applicants may apply for funding for projects under one of the following themes:
• Providing support to improve mental health.
• Enabling participation in physical activity.
• Enabling participation in the arts.
• Preventing or reducing the impact of poverty.
• Supporting marginalised groups and tackling inequality.
• Improving biodiversity and responding to the climate emergency.
• Improving green spaces and increasing access to the outdoors.
Please note that schools are eligible to apply if they are a registered charity. Groups in Northern Ireland are not eligible to apply for this funding. Groups may only apply once in 2023 for a grant. For further details please click here.

Deadline: Applications are now open and will be until 31st October 2023.

Gisela Graham Foundation

Aim to help UK charities to help others. Instead of undertaking charity work ourselves we offer grants, bursaries and other types of contribution to charities, volunteer groups and organisations concerned with causes we care about. In principle our focus is on smaller charities, where a donation can make an important impact.

The aim of the charity is to:
• Further advancement of public health and safety through the research and treatment of chronic illnesses and conditions.
• Alleviate poverty and deprivation amongst children through care, education, and family support.
• Assist the aims of enterprising young and unemployed requiring start-up funds.
• Promote causes supporting young homeless people seeking to achieve self sufficiency.
• To promote and support the benefit of adults with learning disabilities, and contribute towards the provision of property for the accommodation of such adults.
• To support charities and other organisations concerned with safety at sea, including those actively involved with youth training.
• Assist organisations concerned with the propagation of the creative and performing arts, and in particular concerned with training and equipping young performers and artists.
Grants awarded are normally for sums under £10,000, but most donations are for less than £5,000.

How to Apply — Gisela Graham Foundation (ggrahamfoundation.org)

Deadline: Rolling

DWF Foundation

The DWF Foundation supports registered charities with an impact in one or more of the following areas:
• Homelessness
• Health and wellbeing
• Employability
• Education
• Environment and Sustainability
These themes also align to DWF’s purpose and enable us to work together to maximise the support given to communities.
Grants are given to initiatives that develop and improve local communities by:
• Tackling a specific community issue.
• Helping voluntary and community groups become more effective and efficient.
• Encouraging the involvement in the community of those too often excluded.
• Enabling young people to develop skills for the benefit of the community.
If you are a registered charity working in a country where DWF has a presence and would like to make an application for a grant, please complete the online DWF Foundation application form.

The Foundation does not have a minimum grant size but the majority of our grants will fall under £5,000. Due to the funds we have available the DWF Foundation will not fund multi-year grants.

DWF Foundation | DWF (dwfgroup.com)

Deadline: Rolling

The Britford Bridge Trust

The primary charitable purposes of the Trust are the prevention or relief of poverty; the advancement of education; the advancement of health or the saving of lives; and the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage, or science.

The Trustees typically make grants of between £10,000 to £50,000. Larger amounts may be available in exceptional circumstances.

The secondary charitable purposes of the Trust are the advancement of citizenship or community development; the advancement of amateur sport; the advancement of environmental protection or improvement; and the relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship, or other disadvantage.

Further details here.

Deadline: Applications to the trust are reviewed quarterly. Quarterly cut offs are 30 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December each year.

Gillian Stevenson Trust

We are a family CIO with a mission to help charitable organisations in the UK carry on doing what they do best.

Our focus is on supporting charities that work with children, young people and families who are living in difficult circumstances or from disadvantaged backgrounds. The grants we make are usually between £100 and £5,000. We will consider applications to fund up to 100% of the project costs. If you are only applying for part of the total cost, the details of the source(s) of the additional funding must be included in your application form.

Our current grant-making strategy is focused on providing responsive funding to those charitable organisations working with young people and families who are in need due to ill health, disability, financial hardship or some other disadvantage. We are particularly interested in supporting organisations which provide access to activities, experiences, services or facilities that their beneficiaries would otherwise find difficult or impossible to take advantage of.

Your organisation must be registered as a charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. We aim to keep the application process as simple and efficient as possible. To help us do this, we only accept applications via our online form. Please send an email stating the name of your organisation to info@gillianstevensontrustuk.org and you will be sent a link to the application form.

Applying for Funding (gillianstevensontrustuk.org)

CLA Charitable Trust

About Us: We support charitable organisations that access the benefits of the countryside to pursue the health and wellbeing of people and to provide opportunities for education about the countryside in England and Wales.
Criteria: Small and medium sized charities and not for profit organisations such as CIC’s with clear social purpose based in England and Wales, who have not been in receipt of a grant from CLACT in the previous three years and have a current safeguarding policy.
Grant Size: Up to approx £5,000
Deadline for applications: 26 April 2023

Find out more about the CLA Charitable Trust

Summer Playscheme Grants

Applications close Thurs 6th April.
Grants are available for locally based small-scale registered charities in the UK to support children’s summer playschemes. Our grant-making prioritise the areas of isolation among children and young people, disadvantaged families, and prisoners/ex-offenders. The trustees particularly look to fund projects that help families and young people and that are aiming to improve the life chances of the beneficiaries. They like projects that promote community cohesion and the development of skills that will change the outlook and outcomes for the users. Discover more information.

The Prince’s Countryside Fund – Supporting Rural Communities Programme

Grants are available to constituted not-for-profit organisations for community-led projects that improve the lives of those living in rural communities in the UK.
Application deadline: 11 April 2023. Further information please click here.

Asda Foundation – Cost of Living Grant

Asda Foundation’s goal is to build resilient communities by empowering local groups to make a positive difference, addressing local challenges and social needs. We aim to achieve this by provide funding to local grassroots community groups to enable them to meet the diverse needs of their community and to help them thrive and grow.

We know communities and grassroots groups have been impacted by the Cost of Living crisis. Many have seen a rise in demand for their services at the same time as a decline in income and rising costs. This grant is one of three grants underneath our ‘Grassroots Grants’ programme and aims to support the increased running costs groups are facing because of the Cost of Living crisis, along with essentials.
Groups may apply for one Grassroots Grant per year to a maximum value of £1600 and minimum value of £400.
How to Apply | Asda Foundation

Deadline: Round 1 applications must be submitted to your local Community Champion between 27th February – 21st April and activities must start/take place before 2nd June 2023. Further information is available here.

Football Foundation – Energy Fund

Grants are available to support the implementation of energy-saving measures at the clubhouses and pavilions of community football facilities in England.
Application deadline:  13 April 2023. Further information here.

National Lottery Heritage Fund – Dynamic Collections

Grants are available to museums, libraries, and community organisations for projects which involve a wider range of people in heritage and promote public engagement with collections. Application deadline:  24 April 2023 Further information available here.

Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme (NCPGS) 

A competitive capital grant scheme for environmental groups, local authorities, charities, public bodies, individual landowners and organisations undertaking peat restoration projects in England. Application deadline: 26 May 2023. For more details click here.

Sport England Small Grants

Our Small Grants Programme seeks to develop opportunities for communities to get more people physically active and we’ll support new projects through providing National Lottery funding of between £300 and £15,000.
We want to support projects that bring communities together and provide sport and physical activities for people who may be less physically active.
We also particularly want to support projects focusing on environmental sustainability.
We believe that communities that work together and share resources provide a stronger and more sustainable impact.
Therefore, we want applications from projects that demonstrate how they connect with their communities, make best use of the existing skills and assets in an area, and will provide the biggest possible impact to those who need it most.
We also want projects to show how they’ve sought to reduce their impact on the environment through the goods and services they use to deliver the activity. Awards are to help inactive and less active people become more active.
Our priority is to support projects working with people living in areas of disadvantage as defined by the Indices of Multiple Deprivation areas 1 to 3. Applications should explain why there’s a need for the project and how end users have been involved in developing the project.

Applications should consider how the project adds value to services currently available in your local community, and work collaboratively with other groups to maximise the impact of the project. For further details click here.

Deadline: The closing date for applications is 30 June 2023.

Tesco Community Grants

Tesco Community Grants supports schools to apply for extra financial help they might need to provide healthy food and activities that boost young people’s mental and physical wellbeing.

Tesco Community Grants support thousands of local community projects and good causes across the UK. The scheme is open to all schools, registered charities and not-for-profit organisations, with priority given to projects that provide food and support to young people.

Tesco Community Grants is open to charities and community organisations to apply for a grant of up to £1,500. Every three months, three local good causes are selected to be in the blue token customer vote in Tesco stores throughout the UK.

Examples of eligible applications with a focus on food security, children and young people could be:
• A school providing pupils with food for breakfast clubs or snacks throughout the day.
• A school wanting to buy equipment for outdoor or indoor activities.
• A school wanting to develop a food growing area.
• A school supporting an after school club.
• A voluntary organisation working with families to run a food bank.
• An organisation addressing holiday hunger.
• A healthy eating project that supports families to cook healthy meals on a budget.
• A Brownie or Scout group needing funding for new play equipment or activities.
Tesco Community Grants click here.

Save the Children – Great Big Green Week

Your activity must raise awareness of the impacts of the climate crisis, and its effects on children and young people.  Youth engagement must be at the heart of your activity.

We are particularly interested in applications from, or in partnership with, children (under 18) and young people. If not expressly led by young people, they must be empowered participants rather than passive attendees. The activity should listen to and amplify the views of children and young people and / or empower and support them to share their views and raise their voice.

We are particularly interested in activities that support local groups to create new connections that support people, organisations and/or MPs to take climate action locally.  Ideally these activities would take place in the week leading up to, during and/or the week after Great Big Green Week (10th to 18th June).

We encourage applications that engage a diverse range of young people and families, including those from underserved communities. We are especially interested in hearing from groups that work with or support children and young people who:

• Are from families on low incomes
• Have migrated to the UK
• Are from racialised communities
• Have experience of the care system
• Are LGBT+ or from an LGBT+ family
• Are disabled or live with someone who is disabled

Grants of £300 – £800 will be considered.

You can also apply for additional supporting expertise from Save the Children staff. For example, two hours with a campaigner, media training, etc. We cannot promise to meet the request for expert support but will make every effort. Further details here.

Motability Community Transport

Through this new grant programme we aim to help charities and organisations to make an immediate impact for disabled people, by awarding funding to develop, expand and improve community transport options. We are focussing our grant making for this programme on:

• Funding support for staff or volunteer training and costs.
• Funding to increase the number of vehicles available in the community to help organisations support disabled people.
• Funding local, regional, or national initiatives to increase awareness of community transport and influence its inclusion in transport strategy and policy.
• Funding to schemes, programmes and initiatives that already exist, and who provide best practice solutions, but need further support to remain operational or scale up the service they can provide to help more disabled people.

If any of the above are relevant to your charity or organisation, please take some time to read further down this website page and review the documents included within our guidance for applicants section below.

Using a wide range of research including insight from Motability beneficiaries and Scheme customers, other disabled people and representative organisations, Community Transport has been identified as a priority area for support.

Disabled people make 38% fewer journeys than non-disabled people every year – a figure that has not changed in a decade.

To help address this problem now, charities and organisations working in Community Transport sector can apply for grants from £100,000 to £4 million at any point over the next three years. Click here please.

Thank you to Berkshire CVS’s for the information contained in this blog; Slough CVS, Wokingham & Bracknell InVOLve and West Berkshire Volunteer Centre.

There is no doubt that food prices in the last 12 months have risen dramatically. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) food and non-alcoholic beverage prices increased faster in the last year (up to Nov 2022) than they have done since 1977. The exact same shop in November 2022 would have cost you 16.5% more than it did in November 2021. Recent inflation news (Feb 2023) shows that inflation is at 10.4%, mainly driven by salad and vegetable shortages which have pushed up food prices even further.

Through the delivery of our Family Fuel and Water Poverty Project we know firsthand just how many people are finding it a struggle to get through the current cost of living crisis. We are on hand to help families on low incomes in Berkshire reduce their energy & water bills and find out what further support is available to them. Get in touch with our Project Coordinator Helen.Dean@ccberks.org.uk for more information.

According to Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) each year UK households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of food that could be eaten.

One top tip is to keep track of what you already have in your cupboards and the expiration dates. Making a list can be helpful and that way you’re not going to buy products you don’t need and can use up anything which is nearing its expiration date.

Other tips on how to save money and waste less include avoiding serving bigger portions than necessary as food left on the plate is much more likely to be thrown away, instead, we could serve less (getting seconds if still hungry) and then use the leftovers for lunch the next day or freezing for future quick dinners.

Try to plan your meals for the week. Make a list of your main meals and include the ingredients you’ll need – tick off what you already have and add the rest to your shopping list. Think about the types of ingredients on your list and try to use them in other cheaper recipes or consider batch cooking to cover two dinners.

Think about where you shop, some people find it easier to stick to their budget if they shop once a week – whether that’s one supermarket or several local shops. Do also check out the reduced section too – you may find some items on your list there for a fraction of the price. Other tips include heading to the frozen section first as usually meat, fish and veg are cheaper than fresh so you could make significant savings just by changing the order of the aisles you visit.

Don’t forget to use your freezer (if you have one) particularly useful if items are getting close to their use-by date or you’ve picked up something in the reduced aisle which is close to the sell-by date. Many items like cheese, milk, fruit, and veg can be frozen. A useful guide on what to freeze, fridge or leave can be found here from Which?

The Money Saving Expert is also a great resource for comparing costs, not being loyal to branded products (you’re paying more for their marketing), and understanding packaging further. Check it out here and sign up for their weekly tips straight into your inbox.

You could also consider growing your own when it comes to veg or fruit. Some of us might only have space for a window box others might be able to put in a raised bed in their garden or even consider putting their name down for a local allotment. The Eco Experts say “Growing your own fruits, vegetables, and herbs can save you a significant amount of money every year. For the cost of a few seeds, or just by using food scraps, you can grow produce which costs dozens of pounds at your local supermarket – and the sky’s the limit.” The video below may inspire some to get growing! This useful article might help you decide what to grow too: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/may/07/how-to-grow-your-own-fruit-veg-cut-food-bills

The Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF) is inviting applications for grants of up to £25,000 from community projects across the UK, with up to £250,000 available.

The PCF is interested in projects that will make a difference in rural communities across the UK and clearly demonstrate the need within the community. Applications are encouraged from all parts of the UK.

Keith Halstead, Executive Director of The Prince’s Countryside Fund said: “The PCF’s grant programme enables rural communities to become more self-sufficient by funding community-led solutions. With thanks to Waitrose and players of People’s Postcode Lottery, the PCF aims to invest at least £500,000 each year through our rural grant programmes to make projects happen, particularly in hamlets, villages, and small towns.” 

Zero Carbon Llanidloes have been awarded funding for their Llanidloes Library of Things – a project which will create a community resource by providing a store of useful tools and equipment to borrow – like a carpet cleaner or stairgate. This will save local residents from having stuff that is rarely used cluttering up their homes and means those who cannot afford to buy can still access the things they need.

Maya Binson, Secretary of Zero Carbon Llanidloes said: “The funding from The Prince’s Countryside Fund will make a huge difference to Llanidloes Library of Things and to the people of Llanidloes.  It will help change the way all of us view the things we have and the things we need.  We all have cupboards and garages full of stuff we only use rarely – pressure washers, camping gear, and kitchen equipment. 

“If we shared those things, those who cannot afford to buy them would be able to access them and all of us would need to buy less.  We will encourage people “to borrow not buy” and we will give new life to old things. This funding will help us work with local schools helping young people see the value in mending and re-using and giving them invaluable life skills at the same time.  And all of this will reduce our carbon footprint while building a stronger, friendlier community.”

Madeleine Taylor, Head of Operations said: “We’re looking for organisations that can demonstrate how they are operating at the heart of their local community. We want to know why their project is the solution to a communal issue or challenge. Because of this, we ask applicants to provide evidence of demand direct from their target community and to show us how the project will make a tangible difference to the lives of those in their rural village or town. 

If you are interested in applying please ensure that you have ready the guidance, FAQ and Grant application tips, which can be read on our website at: www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk/grants.

If you are unsure whether you meet the eligibility criteria or would like to discuss you project, please complete the online Expression of Interest form on the website and a member of the team will be in touch. Examples of the types of projects we like to support can be found in The Village Survival Guide.

Applications for grants close on 11th April 2023 at midday. 

On 21 September 2022, the Government outlined plans to help cut energy bills for businesses. Full details are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-outlines-plans-to-help-cut-energy-bills-for-businesses

The following information is for organisations and businesses who use alternative fuels for energy such as kerosene.

The Non-Domestic Alternative Fuels Payments Scheme provides a fixed payment of £150 to UK non-domestic consumers who are off the gas grid and use alternative fuels. Most consumers that are eligible for this payment will have already received it automatically as a credit on their electricity bills.

Properties not connected to the electricity grid will not have received £150 automatically and will need to apply through the online portal.

Higher users of heating oil (kerosene), defined as over 10,000 litres per year, will be eligible to apply for an additional payment based on the amount of Kerosene they use. Please note that the additional payments are for Kerosene only and do not cover other fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) gas oil or red diesel. Anyone in any doubt about the fuel they are using should contact their supplier.

Who can apply?

This scheme provides support for all UK non-domestic consumers using alternative fuels such as kerosene for energy, that are not on the gas grid. This includes commercial businesses, voluntary sector organisations including charities and community interest companies and public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals and care homes.

How to apply

If you are connected to the electricity grid, the fixed payment of £150 will be paid to you automatically by your electricity supplier. You do not need to make an application.

If you are not connected to the electricity grid, you will need to apply for the £150 fixed payment.

If you use more than 10,000 litres Kerosene per year you may be eligible for the additional payment and you will need to apply and provide evidence to support your claim.

Where possible, all applications should be completed on-line.

Apply now at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-energy-bill-support-for-non-domestic-properties

The BBC has announced that it will suspend the license fee as a one-off for the King’s Coronation weekend. The broadcaster said it is in “exceptional circumstances” that a temporary dispensation is granted, with the event needing to be of “national importance”.

The exemption means that events can be organised to screen the coronation for communities in venues such as churches and village halls without needing to purchase a license, although a PRS Licence will still be required. Other examples of community venues include commercial premises such as concert halls, performing arts venues, and cinemas. It also applies to any outdoor venues that have the facilities to screen.

Further details are available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/terms/can-i-screen-the-coronation-and-the-coronation-concert/


• Be in celebration of The Coronation
• Take place between 5th and 8th May 2023
• Be organized and run by unpaid volunteers
• Be provided for the local community
• Have a total expected attendance/capacity 300 or fewer
• Not generate a profit
• Be held in premises or a place that does not otherwise require, or currently hold, TheMusicLicence.

Provided that these conditions are our ACRE Network has been advised that “We would not license this event under our discretionary charging policy.” i.e. no license if needed.

If you’re organising a community event to celebrate the King’s Coronation in Berkshire we’d LOVE to hear from you so we can share and promote it on our social media channels. Please send details to gemma.pearce@ccberks.org.uk