Coronavirus: weekly funding updates - 25-29 May

As we receive updates from our research team in Liverpool, we'll post weekly updates to coronavirus funding programmes and more to help you (remember - don't forget to share!)

No time to read 50-page government policy documents? Don’t worry – we’ve done it so you don’t have to. Check out our short summary of the UK Government’s Our Plan to Rebuild policy paper on ending the social lockdown – wherein we summarise the key points, outline current timings, and raise issues for charity staff and trustees to consider (which, let’s face it, you won’t get in the gov.uk version). View our summary here.

Friday 29 May

The 7 Stars Foundation

In July, The 7 Stars Foundation is launching an unrestricted grant funding programme open to charities with a turnover of less than £1.5m across the UK who are working with at-risk young people across the themes of abuse; addiction; and homelessness; and for those who are supporting young child carers. The charity is offering grants of up to £2,500, which can be directed towards overheads; salary costs; and/ or wherever else the organisation needs to apply the money to ensure its survival and sustainable services in the future.

Thursday 28 May

The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust

Aware that the COVID-19 crisis is having an extreme and significant effect on the whole charitable sector, The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust has reviewed its criteria for its next round of grants. In order to spread the Trust’s available funding as far as possible, grants will be for £1,000 rather than the usual £5,000 for grant round 3, which is for projects to deal with people aged 60 and over. You can apply for a grant from the Trust if you have an operating income and expenditure of between £100,000 and £1,000,000, and applications should be submitted between 1st and 31st July. Further information on the eligibility criteria, on future grants rounds and what the Trust will and won’t fund are here.

 

Barnwood Trust

Barnwood Trust, a disability and mental health charity in Gloucestershire, has changed the way it does things in response to COVID-19. It has launched its Keeping Strong programme which involves four ways the charity can help during this time. There is an online resource for finding all kinds of support, and ongoing support of various kinds for community spaces as they adapt to the new environment.

Barnwood Trust has also introduced the Keeping Strong Fund, issuing grants starting from £50 for individuals in Gloucestershire with a disability or mental health challenge who can’t afford to buy something that would make a big difference to keeping theirs or their family’s physical or mental health strong over the coming weeks and months. Finally, there are grants for Gloucestershire voluntary organisations to keep them going during COVID-19, to response to the crisis or for investment to strengthen them after the immediate crisis is over.

For more details and to apply for grants online, see the Trust’s website here.

 

The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust- Emergency grants

The Carnegie Dunfermline Trust is offering emergency grants of up to £1500 that can be applied to under the small grants scheme for local charities and who have had to change their operations as a result of Coronavirus. The scheme is open to charities and constituted groups in Dunfermline and the surrounding area and grants can be used to cover the costs of additional expenses incurred as organisations respond to the Coronavirus pandemic, such as IT costs spent to facilitate organisations moving to remote working.

Charities looking for this emergency funding should email [email protected] with a request for funding, funding will be paid once organisations have provided evidence of expenditure since March 2020.

 

Wednesday 27 May

Material Change, The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Support Grant Package

A £600,000 grant fund has been announced this week for charity sector reuse organisations impacted by Coronavirus. The fund is open to all registered charity Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities. The fund has been created with money from the electrical industry after research into the sector showed that charity electrical waste reuses organisations had been financially impacted by the closure of many household waste recycling centres as a result of Coronavirus.

To apply, email a request for an application form to [email protected], applications close at 5pm on Monday 1st June.

 

Trust for London

Trust for London funds work which tackles poverty and inequality in the capital, supporting projects that provide greater insights into the root causes of London’s social problems and how they can be overcome; activities which help people improve their lives; and work empowering Londoners to influence and change policy, practice and public attitudes. The closing date for applications for their next round of funding is 1pm on 2 June 2020. The Trust’s funding priorities for this round remain the same as usual, but they expect applicants to outline how they intend to respond to issues emerging as a result of the pandemic, particularly in terms of:

  • Responding to emerging needs as a result of the pandemic e.g. an increase in demand for advice, casework and representation;
  • Gathering evidence, data insights and learning about the impact of COVID-19 on London’s communities, particularly those who are on low incomes and disadvantaged; and/ or
  • Campaigning, advocacy work and strategic communications to strengthen the safety net and to bring about longer term change as a result of the pandemic.

The application form is available on their online portal here.

 

Tuesday 26 May

The Community Justice Fund

The Community Justice Fund has been formed by a partnership of key representative umbrella bodies (Advice UK, Law Centres Network and Citizens Advice) and a group of independent funders (The AB Charitable Trust, Access to Justice Foundation, Indigo Trust, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The Legal Education Foundation and Therium Access) to help specialist social welfare legal advice organisations to cope with the immediate impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and lay the foundations for longer term renewal. The Fund is made up of contributions from a range of sources, including the government, and it’s envisaged that funding will be awarded in two waves.

The first wave, which is now open and will run for six months, will provide flexible grants to organisations that meet the eligibility criteria and priorities here. Grants are likely to be between £25,000 and £75,000, but could be larger in certain circumstances. The Fund aims to assess applications on a weekly basis and decisions received within ten days of an application being submitted. To find out more about the Fund, see the guidance and find the online application form here.

For previous updates click here

 

For information on 8,000 sources of funding giving a total of £8 billion, take a look at Funds Online.