Ready to plan a summer to look forward to? The Big Lunch

The days are finally getting longer and the first signs of spring have appeared. What have you got in the diary to look forward to?

If you fancy planning a get together with your neighbours and community, then be the first to get your hands on the free, digital Big Lunch pack! With editable invitations, posters, fun activity ideas and practical tips, it’s got everything you need to plan a fabulous event this summer

Since 2009, The Eden Project Communities Big Lunch has brought millions of people together to share friendship, food, and fun in their communities. This year they’re dishing up ideas to help make it the greenest Big Lunch yet, and they’ve launched brand new resources to help get the party started.

The Big Lunch also kicks off the Month of Community when good causes come together to celebrate community, encourage action and fundraise annually throughout June.

The Big Lunch brings millions of people together to share friendship, food and fun on 1 and 2 June and everyone’s invited. So, pick your date and get ready to dish up some neighbourly cheer this year! Get your free pack


Funding Opportunities in March

Utilita Giving Charity

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Any grant application from an organisation or charity needs to be for the purpose of supporting people in fuel and food poverty. Each application will be carefully reviewed individually and any applicant can expect to receive a response within 14 working days. We will not generally make a grant to an organisation, individual or household that it has supported within the last three years, and any repeat payment will only be made with the approval of the Trustees. You will be asked
to provide details about the organisation or charity, up-to-date contact details and a description of what the grant will be used for. The maximum grant size is £10,000.

Little Lives Childrens Charity

Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
The number of children in the UK who do not have access to the activities and services they need to live a happy, healthy, and fun childhood is at a staggeringly high level. We want to guarantee that children around the UK can join clubs, take part in activities, learn, and have fun without it costing them or their family anything. We support children’s organisations that provide free activities, sessions, or classes for children around the UK in need. We can offer up to £2,200 worth of funding.

The Clothworkers’ Foundation

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
We aim to improve the lives of people and communities, particularly those facing disadvantage and marginalisation, through grantmaking. We award grants to UK-registered charities, CICs, and other registered UK non-profit organisations (including special schools). Grants are awarded towards capital projects, which we define as buildings, fittings, fixtures, equipment and/or vehicles. We aim to make a decision within twelve weeks for grants less than £10,000
or within six months for grants over £10,000, up to £150,000.

Wooden Spoon Capital Grants

About Us: Wooden Spoon is a British and Irish Rugby charity which supports projects to help mentally, physically disadvantaged children under the cognitive age of 25.
Criteria: Schools and not-for-profit organisations can apply for funding through the Wooden Spoon Society’s Capital Grants programme. Can be rugby or community-focused.
Through the programme funding is available for:
• Buildings and extensions
• Equipment and activity aids
• Sensory rooms and gardens
• Playgrounds and sports areas
• Soft playrooms.
Grant Size: average amount is £20,000
Deadline for applications: Rolling programme

Grow Wild

Bring your nature project to life this summer!
Criteria: For young people aged 14-25 to bring their nature project to life this summer. Individuals or groups of up to six people can apply for a grant to support an innovative project idea to celebrate why UK native plants and/or fungi are so special.
Organisations supporting young people with their project must be established, relevant and charitable in purpose or not for profit.
Grant recipients will receive:
• £500 grant for the project which can be used for anything needed such as materials, equipment, resources or helpful training.
• Support and online training from Grow Wild.
• Opportunities to connect with a community of young nature enthusiasts completing projects across the UK.
• The chance to complete Kew’s Young Environmental Leader Award designed to work alongside their Grow Wild project and recognise their achievements.
There is particular interest in applications from people who don’t know much about UK native species. Successful projects can be started in May 2024 and must be completed by the end of October 2024. Grant Size: up to £500. Deadline for applications: 3pm on 19 March 2024.

Community Ownership Fund

£150 million of national funding to ‘help communities across the UK to take ownership of assets at risk of closure’.

Schroder Charity Trust

The Schroder Charity Trust is an independent grant-making family trust which supports a wide range of charitable activities. The Schroder Charity Trust makes grants of up to £5,000 towards core and project costs to charities registered in the UK for work under the following categories:
• Arts, Culture and Heritage
• Education, Training and Employment
• Environment and Conservation
• Health and Wellbeing
• Strengthening Communities
The Trustees are particularly interested in applications which can demonstrate the following within the funding categories:
• Build strong communities and understand how to engage with intended beneficiaries
• Replicable and sustainable work
• Value for money i.e. the costs vs the number of people reached and the scale of the programme
• Maximising the use of volunteers
• Support of older people
• Support for marginalised/vulnerable younger people
• The use of helplines and information support services
• Sustainability of funding i.e. the charity will not be solely reliant on a grant from the Schroder Charity Trust for their work.

McCarthy Stone Foundation – Community Grants

We are now welcoming applications for our Spring 2024 Grant Programme.

You must be a registered charity, community group with constitution or Community Interest Company working in England, Scotland or Wales with a turnover under £250,000 p.a. as evidenced in your recent annual report. We also consider exempt charities, but do not make grants to individuals. If you are a CIC, you must be limited by guarantee.

You must be working with adults over 65 years of age and providing DIRECT person-centred interventions e.g., Befriending to address loneliness. This funding does not cover connector or infrastructure services, such as Citizens Advice or Community Transport.

Bracknell Forest Multiply Programme

Bracknell Forest Community Learning is inviting applications for grants of up to £10,000 from organisations to deliver numeracy opportunities for adults over 19 years old. It’s looking for programmes which introduce numeracy in non-traditional ways, integrating learning into everyday activities, building confidence and engaging with those who would not take part in mainstream learning programmes.

Applications to be made to allow activity to be completed by 31st March 2025.

Priority areas are:

  • Helping people use basic maths to improve managing their money.
  • Opportunities aimed at people who can’t apply for certain jobs because of lack of numeracy skills and/or to encourage people to upskill in numeracy to access a certain job/career.
  • Learning opportunities leading to a Functional Skills Qualification.
  • Learning opportunities aimed at those who are leaving, or have just left, the care system.
  • Innovative programmes delivered together with employers.
  • Learning opportunities designed to increase confidence with numbers.

To find out more, or arrange an initial discussion, email community.learning@bracknell-forest.gov.uk

Greene King Proud To Pitch Fund

About Us: We’re donating 10p from every pint of Greene King IPA and 50p from every 4x500ml can pack sold* to support local clubs from the ground up, with cash grants to help them continue the sport they love.
Criteria: For grassroots and community sports clubs across the United Kingdom. To be eligible for funding, projects must be located in the United Kingdom and project beneficiaries must be aged 18 or over.
Grant Size: up to £4,000

Berkshire focussed grant makers.

Greenham Trust We are accepting applications on a rolling basis and welcome Applicants to apply now if they are supporting people with: https://greenhamtrust.com/greenham-trust-grant-funding/

Berkshire Community Foundation Grants awarded support a variety of community groups across Berkshire working to support a wide range of causes, tackling disadvantage, supporting victims of crime, poverty, homelessness, health and wellbeing, isolation and loneliness, education and skills and strengthening the community in general. https://www.berkshirecf.org/

Shanly Foundation Lending a hand where needed in the community. The Shanly Foundation primarily supports good causes predominantly within Berkshire and other home counties. https://www.shanlyfoundation.com/

The Good Exchange An online funding and fundraising platform that is wholly owned by a charity. Greenham Trust runs The Good Exchange to help funders in its local area to give and receive grants more quickly and efficiently. www.thegoodexchange.com

With thanks to Slough CVS, Wokingham & Bracknell inVOLve and West Berkshire Volunteer Centre for providing information for the articles contained in this blog.


Would you like to work with a charity to help improve rural communities in Berkshire?

We are seeking new Trustees to help us continue our work of enhancing, empowering, and strengthening rural communities in Berkshire. This is a fantastic opportunity to join the friendly and welcoming team at CCB as we enter a period of growth with new projects to help support our rural communities.

We are seeking enthusiastic individuals who have an interest in working to improve community life in Berkshire to join our Board of Trustees. This is a non-remunerated post however out of pocket expenses such as travel are payable.

We are particularly interested to hear from people who have a background in human resources, experience of working on a parish/town council, or someone who is a great communicator and loves attending events/networking on behalf of our charity.

Your skills and experience will be used to make a lasting difference in our local communities. If you have more time to dedicate, then this could be the perfect role for you as we are a small team and rely on volunteer support to help complete key task and finish jobs. Alternatively, if you have a busy working life then there are only a handful of, mostly evening, meetings to attend a year in which you could attend while sharing your expertise, providing guidance, and helping to make important decisions.

We have over 50 years of experience and history in community development work and are an active member of the Action with Communities in Rural England Network (ACRE). Our vision is for all communities in Berkshire to be strong, resilient, sustainable, and able to control their own futures. CCB’s purpose is to inspire action at a community level that improves people’s quality of life. Please click here for further details.

Please e-mail admin@ccberks.org.uk or to find out more about us and our current projects please visit our website: www.ccberks.org.uk. To make an appointment for an informal conversation with our Chief Executive Officer Tim please call on the landline; 01189 612000.


FREE Professional Energy Reviews for Community Buildings Advice Service members

We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Wokingham Council Energy Team to offer free, professional Energy Reviews for eligible CBAS Member Halls. An energy review focuses on how energy is accessed and used in the hall. It is specific to the hall you manage and will offer detailed guidance, including costs, on the changes your committee can make to your hall and details of cost savings and carbon reductions.

This offer is open to both Charities and Parish council-run halls.

We are offering 8 free Energy Reviews this spring with a further round being offered later in the year.

To be eligible, your hall must meet the following criteria:

  1. Be a CBAS member hall that has had a CCB Hall Audit
  2. Have one or more of the following features identified in your Hall Audit:
    • Poorly insulated or uninsulated floors, roof, ceiling or walls.
    • Single glazing, poorly fitted, rotting, or draughty doors or windows.
    • Old and/or inefficient heating and/or hot water systems (including temperature controls)
    • Use of off-grid gas or oil
  3. Be able to demonstrate in a short statement a strong intention to take action to reduce energy use and carbon emissions
  4. Provide the names and contact details of three trustees or committee members who support the application (This includes the lead applicant)

The deadline for this round of applications is midday on Monday 25th March. We will be contacting all applicants in the week following the 25th to let them know whether they have been successful.

Apply online by clicking here.

For more information please contact Kate Meads at kate.meads@ccberks.org.uk or call us on 0118 9612000


Meet our new Rural Housing Enablers!

We are now very pleased to introduce to you our two new Rural Housing Enablers – Maria Kelly and Barry Malki

Maria joined our charity over a year ago as our Project Development Officer on our 21st Century Halls programme (https://ccberks.org.uk/our-projects/rural-hubs-village-halls-fit-for-the-21st-century/). Maria has worked in the community sector for 20 years and has extensive experience in community-led partnerships.

Maria says “I’m thrilled to take on a new role at CCB working with communities to help tackle rural housing need. Lack of affordable housing is a huge problem across the country and can make it impossible for people in rural areas to stay living in their communities if their housing needs and circumstances change. It’s exciting to be part of this nationwide initiative which could make a real positive impact on rural housing.”

Until the end of March 2024, Maria will be splitting her time over both roles and we soon will be recruiting another member of the team to support our Community Buildings Advisor, Kate Meads to deliver this important key project and further develop new opportunities for CCB to support Berkshire’s rural communities.

We also offer a warm welcome to a new face in the CCB family in the form of Barry Malki. Barry has spent many years working in the Housing Sector, primarily focused on social impact and communities. During this period, Barry has worked with different organisations and agencies across the country and is a passionate advocate of shared learning and supporting networks.

Barry says “I am keen over the next six months to engage with many different organisations and stakeholders across the county, to help them to understand their role in the development of new Housing supply in areas that may otherwise be overlooked by developers.“

Before working in Housing, Barry toured as a full-time musician, and since 2020 has come out of retirement to play in several touring theatre shows (so you may catch him somewhere in a sparkly blazer with epaulettes!).

There are increasing problems with affordability in our villages which makes our rural communities increasingly unsustainable. Building the homes people need brings vitality to rural communities and helps boost the rural economy at this difficult time. This project will help rural communities in Berkshire carry out a housing needs survey and identify potential sites.

TONIGHT (27/02/24) at 7pm they kick off the project with an online Rural Housing Event. This launch event will give more information about the support available for your community to carry out a housing needs survey and identify potential sites. If you’d like to book click here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rural-housing-event-tickets-844734352187?aff=oddtdtcreator