Kent Community Foundation: Grassroots Grants

The Office of the Third Sector has appointed the foundation to administer £1.9million in grants over the next three years. Under the programme, grants of up to £5,000 are available to voluntary and community groups across Kent and Medway. This is a new opportunity for groups to raise funds through a straightforward application process that has been set up particularly to help groups with incomes below £20,000 per annum. There are no deadlines for applications, so they can be sent in at any time and there will be a very quick response.

Awards can be used for many purposes, which might include:

• purchase of equipment;
• payment of rent or running costs;
• payment of part-time staff costs;
• funding of activities which benefit local community;
• small refurbishment or access projects.

Groups that apply need to:

• have been active for a least a year;
• have annual income of less than £20,000;
• be able to run activities that improve people's lives.

Outreach advisors from the foundation can help applicants through the process.

Further information
Phone: 01303 814500
Email: admin@kentcf.org.uk
Website: www.kentcf.org.uk/news.html

Faiths in Action Fund

This new £4million grants programme is open to faith, inter-faith, voluntary and community organisations and groups in England. It supports projects that bring communities together and promote positive relationships between people of different religions and beliefs.

There will be two rounds of funding:

• Round one: grants of up to £12,000 will be on offer, to be spent between April 2009 and the end of March 2011;
• Round two: it is expected that grants of up to £2,500 will be available, to be spent in one year from April 2010 to the end of March 2011.

The fund concentrates on four key priorities set out in the government's framework Face to Face and Side by Side: a framework for partnership in our multi-faith society:

• developing the confidence and skills to bridge and link;
• supporting shared spaces for interaction and social action;
• developing structures and processes that support dialogue and social action;
• improving opportunities for learning which build understanding.

All applications must directly relate to one or more of these four priorities. Organisations may apply in both rounds, providing the total of the money requested over the two rounds does not exceed £12,000. Faith, inter-faith, voluntary and community sector organisations in England are eligible to apply.

Deadline
Sunday, 1 November 2008, 5pm.

Further information
Website: www.cdf.org.uk/pooled/articles/BF_NEWSART/view.asp?Q=BF_NEWSART_304410

Free Swimming Programme (England)

Local Authorities (LAs) can apply for funding under a new £140million Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Programme, which aims to make swimming free for the over-60s and under-16s. It also makes grants available for improvements to public swimming pools owned by LAs or maintained schools. The funding available is for the building of new swimming pools, modernisation works and major fixed equipment. LAs can also apply for capital projects at maintained schools where pools which are or will, as a result of this funding, be open to use by the wider community outside normal school hours. There is a two-stage application process. LAs should first identify their top strategic priority, then complete the stage one application form and return it by no later than Wednesday, 15 October 2008. Those bids successful at stage one will be encouraged to develop a full proposal.

Further information:
Website: www.sportengland.org/index/get_funding/swimming_capital_modernisation_programme.htm

Church and Community Fund (CCF)

Grants of up to £15,000 are available to community projects run by parish churches, deaneries, dioceses and other bodies connected to or working in partnership with the Church of England. Typical projects supported by the CCF might include employing a youth worker, renovating an old church hall for use as a community centre or providing hot meals for homeless people in a church room.

Deadline
Thursday, 5 November 2008

Further information
Website: www.centralchurchfund.org.uk/index.html

Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF): Young Roots

This scheme helps 13 to 20 year-olds (and people aged up to 25 years with special needs) find out about their heritage, develop skills, build confidence and promote community involvement. Projects should provide new opportunities for young people to:

• learn about their own and others’ heritage;
• lead and take part in creative and engaging activities;
• develop partnerships between youth and heritage organisations.

Applicants must also show how young people are managing and participating in the project. Grants range from £3,000 to £25,000. In April 2008 the HLF introduced new application materials for this programme and it started assessing applications under the new arrangements on Monday, 1 September 2008. Decisions will be announced within 10 weeks of an application.

Further information
Website: www.hlf.org.uk/English/HowToApply/OurGrantGivingProgrammes/YoungRoots

Community Spaces: Flagship Grants

This lottery-funded programme has opened its large and flagship grants scheme. Grants of between £50,000 and £450,000 are now available for not-for-profit groups wanting to improve green and open spaces in their neighbourhoods. Projects could include canal-side improvements, cycle path routes, nature reserves, woodlands or city farms. There is a two stage application process and applicants successful at stage one will be allocated a facilitator to support the development of their project. There will be only four large grants and one flagship grant allocated in each English region.

Deadlines
The deadline for large grants (£50,000-£100,000) is Friday, 9 January 2009 and the deadline for flagship grants (£100,001-£450,000) is Friday, 30 January 2009.

Further information
Phone: 0845 3671671
Website: www.community-spaces.org.uk/default.aspx?page=10

Music grants for older people

The registered charity Concertina makes grants to charitable bodies that provide musical entertainment and related activities for the elderly. The charity is particularly keen to support smaller organisations which might otherwise find it difficult to gain funding. Since its inception in 2004, Concertina has made grants to a wide range of charitable organisations nationwide in England and Wales. These include funds to care homes for the elderly to provide musical entertainment for their residents.

Deadlines
The trustees of the charity will review applications on Saturday, 31 January; Tuesday, 30 April; Tuesday, 30 June and Saturday, 31 October 2009.

Further information
Website: www.concertinamusic.org.uk/page.php?domain_name=concertinamusic.org.uk&viewpage=Grants

The Volant Charitable Trust

This trust was set up by the author J K Rowling to support charitable causes in the following areas:

• research into the causes, treatment and possible cures of multiple sclerosis;
• charities and projects, whether national or community-based, at home or abroad, that alleviate social deprivation, with a particular emphasis on women’s and children’s issues.

Deadlines
The trustees meet twice a year, in March and September, to consider applications and allocate funds.

Further information
Robin D Fulton, Secretary,
The Volant Charitable Trust,
Box 8, 196 Rose Street,
Edinburgh EH2 4AT
Phone 0131 228 8111
Website: www.volanttrust.com

The Church Urban Fund (CUF)

The CUF has had its funding levels maintained under the Office of the Third Sector's strategic partners programme. The charity will receive £181,076 between 2009/10 and 2010/11. The CUF has an annual grant-making budget of around £3million. Grants are awarded to community groups offering all kinds of support to people living in England’s poorest communities. The CUF particularly supports churches in deprived areas reaching out to serve their local communities but it also welcomes applications from other faith groups.

Further information
Website: www.cuf.org.uk/page18511529.aspx

Voluntary Action West Kent (VAWK): back office support

If your organisation needs help with human resources, public relations, marketing and information technology, three toolkits have been developed to help enhance and improve the effectiveness of back office systems and practices. The work was undertaken as part of the government-funded Change Up initiative and funded by the Capacity Builders programme, a fund specifically for strengthening infrastructure services for frontline organisations. Each toolkit is set out in a number of sections, which allows you to print off individual fact sheets. To order the toolkits, contact VAWK with your name, organisation, address, telephone number and email address.

Further information
Email: info@vawk.org.uk
Website: www.vawk.org.uk

Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF)

The AHF promotes the conservation and regeneration of historic buildings in the UK. Funding is available to voluntary organisations and building preservation trusts to regenerate historic buildings for community and education facilities, workspace and homes. To be eligible, your organisation must be a registered charity and the building(s) must be listed, scheduled as an ancient monument or in a conservation area. If it is in a conservation area, it must be of acknowledged historic or architectural importance. The project must also involve a change of ownership and/or a change of use. Previously-funded projects include turning run-down historic buildings into:

• community theatres;
• resource centres;
• community learning centres;
• workspaces;
• places to live;
• community meeting places.

Deadline
Friday, 23 October 2008

Further information:
Website: www.ahfund.org.uk/index.html

The HB Allen Charitable Trust

Although this grant-making trust has no restrictions on the type of projects it can support, it does seem to have a preference to provide funds in the following fields:

• environment (including wildlife and animals);
• medical conditions (including research and hospitals);
• health (including blindness and visual impairment, carers, the elderly, children and young people, deafness and hearing impairment, disability, hospices and overseas and international aid;
• heritage (including museums, galleries, heritage projects).

Bidders must be UK-registered charities. The size of grants can vary but a large number are around £5,000. The trustees give priority each year to those organisations to which grants have been made in the past.

Further information
Email: mail@hballenct.org.uk
Website: www.hballenct.org.uk

New closing date for Youth Music Open Programmes

Funding is available to non-profit making organisations for music-making activities, held mainly outside school hours, that complement music in the national curriculum. The open grant programmes consist of:

• First Steps, which supports creative music-making for children aged up to five years;
• Make it Sound, which supports music-making activities for five to 18 year-olds who otherwise lack the chance to take part;
• activities where the voice is the main instrument.

The grants available range from £5,000 to £30,000, depending on the programme under which applications are submitted.

Deadline
Tuesday, 15 December 2008

Further information
Website: www.youthmusic.org.uk/Open_programmes_closing_date.html

Children, Young People and Families Grant Programme

This scheme funds projects led by the voluntary and community sector to improve outcomes for children, young people and families. These outcomes are embedded in the Children Act 2004, the Every Child Matters outcomes and the Children's Plan. There are two types of support:

• strategic grants aimed at work of national significance in areas such as capacity building, support networks and developing specialist services;
• innovation grants that focus on new, innovative approaches to tackling long-standing and intractable issues, for example, the use of intergenerational solutions to tackle family, parenting or couple relationship issues.

The minimum grant is £50,000 and funding will be granted for a maximum of two years.

Deadline
Saturday, 31 October 2008

Further information:
Email: CYPF.2009-10@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
Website: www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/strategy/voluntaryandcommunity/cypfgrant

Take It Away

This new initiative from the Arts Council aims to make musical instruments and tuition more affordable for aspiring musicians, especially younger people and those on lower incomes.

The scheme allows individuals to apply for a loan of up to £2,000 for the purchase of any kind of musical instrument. They can pay it back in nine monthly instalments, interest free. All instruments are included in the scheme and to help musical development and manage costs, equipment and services such as amplifiers, sheet music and tuition can be included within the loan where available.

The scheme is only open to individuals, so schools or organisations cannot use it for multiple purchases.

Further information
Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/takeitaway

Revolving Green Fund opens for applications

The Revolving Green Fund is a partnership between the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Salix Finance Ltd to help institutions adopt a low carbon approach to energy. They are inviting institutions to apply for a new £30million fund, available from 2008 to 2011, for projects that reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. All HEFCE-funded higher education institutions are eligible to apply to the fund through two strands:

• an institutional small projects fund (ISP), which provides long-term, interest-free, ring-fenced, recycling funding for energy and carbon-saving projects;
• a transformational fund, which provides recoverable grants for larger projects designed to transform the institution's approach and act as a beacon of good practice.

Applications in the region of £1million to £4million per institution are anticipated.

Deadlines

• Expressions of interest for the ISP fund: Saturday, 12 September 2008.
• Applications to the ISP fund and expressions of interest for the transformational fund: Saturday, 17 October 2008.

Further information
Website: www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2008/rgfopen.htm

Grants of up to £150,000 are available for environmental improvements (UK)

Grants of up to £150,000 are available towards environmentally-focused projects through the Veolia Environmental Trust. The trust was established in 1997 and has given more than £30million in grants to more than 600 community and environmental initiatives. Projects supported through the trust have included:

• reclaiming land that has been disused or used as a landfill site or coal mining site;
• installing and refurbishing play facilities;
• improving the natural habitat and encouraging biodiversity through the creation of nature reserves;
• preserving or restoring buildings of historical or religious importance.

To qualify, projects must be located within five miles (8km) of a Veolia Environmental Services facility. Due to a recent upsurge in demand for funding, the trust has been reviewing its criteria for making grants, and organisations applying for funding should submit an outline proposal.

Deadline
Tuesday, 20 October 2008

Further information
Website: www.veoliatrust.org