Closing Soon - Deadline (or may close early if funding is exhausted)
Ecclesiastical Insurance: Movement for Good Awards £50,000 Awards (Closing 24th July)
The Movement for Good awards is an online nomination scheme programme designed to give £1million to charities. The aim is to put their giving directly into the hands of remarkable organisations (like yours perhaps) that are changing people’s lives for the better. 10 charities will be awarded £50,000.
The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust: Charity Survival Fund (Closing 5pm 27th July)
£10m Fund tol provide core funding grants of £1000 to £250,000 to help charities, especially small & medium sized, to offset lost income in the current financial year. Particularly interested in funding those not previously funded by them, so for the first time, the Trust will be open to applications.
Aviva Community Fund (Current Round Closing 28th July)
Every 3 months, £250,000 is shared equally among their UK employees to donate to the forward thinking projects that matter to them most. Each charity can apply for up to £50,000. In addition to the usual 2 key funding areas of community resilience and financial capability and inclusion, for the current round of funding they have broadened the eligibility criteria to include core running costs of causes looking to adapt or continue their vital services throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.
BBC Children in Need: Inspiring Futures (Closing 11.30am 31st July)
BBC Children in Need and Youth Futures Foundation are partnering to deliver Inspiring Futures, a £6 million programme to fund positive activities which support children and young people to achieve their potential on their journey towards employment. Offering grants of £10,000 to £80,000 for work commencing in October 2020.
Nationwide Building Society: Community Grants (Was expected to close 29th June but extended & still open as of 20th July)
Charities, Community Land Trusts and housing co-operatives who are making positive changes in their local areas can apply for grants of between £10,000 and £50,000.
PetPlan Charitable Trust: Covid-19 Equine Rescues Emergency Fund (Round 2 Deadline is 24th July & Round 3 Deadline is 16th October)
The Petplan Charitable Trust (PPCT) has joined together with World Horse Welfare and the National Equine Welfare Council (NEWC) to create a Covid-19 Equine Rescues Emergency Fund. The fund is to help smaller equine welfare organisations across the UK who are being significantly impacted by the current crisis. The maximum grant will be £5,000 with the expectation that the average grant will be around £2,500.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund: Heritage Emergency Fund (Closing date 31st July 2020)
The new level of Heritage Emergency Fund grants are worth £50,000-£250,000. Available to all past and current National Lottery Heritage Fund grantees and can be used to cover essential costs for up to four months. Intended to help organisations in the heritage sector address immediate risks, become more stable and work towards longer-term recovery after the crisis. The new grants are in addition to the existing £3,000-£50,000 Heritage Emergency Fund grants which were launched in mid-April as the crisis began to unfold and will be open until 12 noon on Friday 31st July). FAQ
New or Updated Funding Schemes
Allchurches Trust: Hope Beyond Grants programme
The Hope Beyond grants programme aims to enable churches and Christian charities to meet changing needs within their communities, helping them and the communities they support to adapt to the challenges and opportunities presented by Coronavirus. Grants of up to £50,000, dependent on the cost of your project and the level of need, ranging from 10% to 80% of project costs.
Burg-Wächter Secure Communities Scheme
Offers a cash award and security products to community projects to help secure their success. During the current national situation, Burg-Wächter is offering free security kits for community properties, equipment or outdoor areas that need extra security at this time and have limited funds to meet these needs.
United Kingdom Community Foundations (UKCF): BAME Intra Fund
UKCF is seeking applications from BAME-led infrastructure organisations to access its new fund to help more BAME-led organisations to apply for NET grants through their local Community Foundations. Grants between £5,000 – £20,000 over a maximum of 3months are available.
COVID-19 Homelessness Response Fund (Next Closing Date 3rd August)
5.5 million for 2nd round of grants distributed by Homeless Link. £4.8 million is provided by NLCF and £680,000 from Comic Relief, which raises money to support people living incredibly tough lives, and will primarily be allocated to charities based in Scotland, Wales and NI. Will provide emergency financial assistance to local homelessness organisations, preventing closure, service cuts or staff redundancies threatened by increased operational costs and a loss of fundraised income due to Coronavirus. Will also support those who have needed to expand or adapt their services in light of COVID-19 to support people experiencing homelessness.
The Wolfson Foundation: Covid-19 Support Fund (NB Not open for unsolicited applications - Invitations to apply will be sent out by Friday 21 August)
The Wolfson Foundation has allocated £10 million to provide unrestricted funding to organisations working in heritage and the arts; and health and disability. The Foundation is offering to support organisations to responds to their own specific needs – at this critical moment and as they plan for the months to come. The Foundation is planning to use this funding to support organisations who they have been working with over the past few years (generally through supporting their capital infrastructure projects). The Fund will not be open to speculative applications, and the Foundation will be in contact directly with organisations who are eligible for funding.
The Community Justice Fund
Grants of approx. 25-75K focused on the needs of specialist social welfare legal advice organisations. Aims to help them respond to COVID-19, with flexible support so organisations can respond to the challenges in ways that they feel best meets their needs but for which they do not currently have the funds. May be about ‘keeping the doors open’, making necessary shifts to home working, maintaining services, adapting services to reach people in new ways/at greater scale, supporting the wellbeing of staff, or a combination of these and other responses.
Comic Relief: Changemakers
They’re looking for organisations that will make a significant contribution to their sector – whether that’s forging new ways of working in the wake of COVID-19, contributing evidence that will move things forward, cross-sector collaboration which recognises the way issues intersect, or advocacy and campaigning work. Looking for change making efforts relevant to their social change themes of homelessness, forced migration, gender justice, mental health, and early childhood development. 150K to 600K grants over 3-5 years
ASDA Foundation: Covid-19 Grant
In response to Covid-19, Asda Foundation have developed 2 new grant streams. Hygiene grants are focused on personal hygiene dignity. Healthy holiday grants are designed to support groups that typically would be holding summer holiday activities to ensure children are provided with a hot meal. Small grants of up to £500 are available.
Centre for Social Justice Awards
An annual, high profile award ceremony honouring the best grassroot, poverty-fighting charities and social enterprises across Britain. In 2021, four winners will receive a £10,000 grant and be profiled in front of hundreds of leading figures from across the country.
Belfast City Council: 2020 Summer Funding programme
This summer funding programme will support groups involved in various activities helping community recovery. Activities must take place by 30 September. Funding of up to £1000 for groups focusing on children and young people, civic pride, preventing isolation, emotional wellbeing and preventing anti-social behaviour.
NFU Mutual Community Giving
Set up in 2005 to support community initiatives and charitable events, as well as to help boost staff fundraising In 2019, it helped 88 community groups and charities across the UK. Donations limited to a maximum of £1,000. Ideally like to fund something specific so they can measure the difference their donation has made – whether purchasing an item of equipment or furniture, or something else to help people over a long period of time.
NIHE Social Housing Enterprise Plus Investment Scheme: Embryonic Awards & Emerging & Established Awards
Part of the Social Enterprise Plus Strategy 2020-2024 which sets out to assist individuals or groups living or working in Housing Executive estates to enable development of personal or organisational capacity and to improve develop economic activity in the area. Provides grants of up to £25,000.
NIHE Social Housing Enterprise Plus Investment Scheme: Education, Training & Business Start-up Grants
A second part of the Social Enterprise Plus Strategy 2020-2024 which sets out to assist individuals or groups living or working in Housing Executive estates to enable development of personal or organisational capacity and to improve develop economic activity in the area. Provides grants of up to £1000.
More Funding Resources
·You can see all COVID-19 funding schemes including the latest on Government, local Council and trust and foundation funding, on NICVA's constantly updated COVID-19 Fundraising Hub
·To see over 800 other funding schemes in a one-stop format, subscribe to NI's Leading database, GrantTracker, for just £100 a year for NICVA members here.
·Also, see my article on “How to get the most out of GrantTracker during COVID-19 and beyond"