Funding news for Community RePaint projects

Local Food now on the Funding Menu
Local Food, a new and exciting grants programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund, will be open for applications from 17 March 2008.
The £50 million programme, aimed at making locally grown food accessible and affordable to local communities, has been developed by a consortium of organisations, and is managed on their behalf by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT).
Local Food is the first scheme funded under the Changing Spaces programme to open its doors for applications. It will distribute grants to a variety of food-related community projects across England.
www.localfoodgrants.org

The Co-operative Foundation Community Support Programme
Next deadline for applications Friday 6 June 2008
Local community and grass root groups that want to make a positive difference to their local community can apply for grants of between £500 and £30,000 through the Co-operative Foundation. The Co-operative Foundation is particularly interested in locally -led and run groups which can demonstrate evidence of co-operative values and principles: self-help; equality; democracy; concern for the community. In particular the Foundation wants to support projects that focus on specific geographic areas such as a village, town or housing estate – or could be a community of people brought together to address as specific issue which affects them. To be eligible, applicants will need to be located in the Co-operative’s trading area (Yorkshire, South Cumbria, North Wales, Northern Ireland, North West, North Midlands & Staffordshire). The Trustees meet four times a year to consider applications and the next deadline for applications is the 6th June 2008.
www.co-operative.co.uk/en/foundation/

New £10m Risk Capital Investment fund for social enterprises announced
Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector, announced at the end of February that a radical proposal to set up a £10m Risk Capital fund for social enterprises will go ahead.
The fund will be the first of its kind and will particularly benefit social enterprises at the critical start up and early growth stages of developing their business. The fund will be run as a ‘pathfinder investment scheme’ where the Government’s £10m investment will be matched by private and independent investors. www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/news/news_stories/080227_riskcapital.aspx

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust in England to get a further three years funding from March 2008.
“In view of the trust’s continued good performance, provision is to be made for the continuation of the trust’s funding for a further three years. The details of this will be announced shortly”
Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing
www.coalfields-regen.org.uk

Capacity Builders – Three Year Funding Investment Programme
Capacitybuilders has announced the roll-out of a new three year funding investment programme – to introduce strategic change and modernisation in the way third sector organisations are supported at local and regional level.
The £30 million fund for 2008-11 has two principle strands, both of which will commence in April 2008:
• £12m in consortium development grants
• £18m modernisation project fund
www.capacitybuilders.org.uk

£130 million ‘grassroots grants’ scheme
‘Grassroots Grants’ will launch this year with £130 million available from 2008-2011 to strengthen the community sector. It will be divided into two parts:
• £80 million small grants fund for community organisations
• £50 million endowments programme to enable local foundations to generate additional donations from the private sector to match and support frontline community organisations.
CDF is currently requesting applications from third sector organisations to manage the small grant and endowment elements in their area. Between now and July 2008, CDF will be allocating the money to Local Funders. Therefore, funding for grassroots community and voluntary groups will not open until after July 2008, and will be subject to the timelines set by the Local Funders.
Details of the successful Local Funders available on CDF’s website in July 2008.
www.cdf.org.uk/bfora/systems/xmlviewer/default.asp?arg=DS_CDF_TECHART_23/_page.xsl/27&xsl_argx=2

Working Neighbourhoods Fund
The Working Neighbourhoods Fund is a new dedicated fund for local councils and communities to develop more concentrated, concerted, community-led approaches to getting people in the most deprived areas of England back to work. It replaces the existing Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) and incorporates the Department of Work and Pensions Deprived Areas Fund (DAF). 65 local authority districts will receive full WNF funding from April 2008 and a further 22 authorities which currently receive NRF but will not receive WNF will receive transitional payments.

www.communities.gov.uk/communities/neighbourhoodrenewal/workingneighbourhoodsfund/

Lloyds TSB Foundation – Supporting small and medium charities
Every year the Lloyds TSB Foundation funds thousands of charities working to tackle disadvantage across England and Wales. They support small and medium under-funded charities that can make a significant difference to the lives of disadvantaged people by helping them to play a fuller role in the communities of their choice.
www.lloydstsbfoundations.org.uk/Pages/Welcome.aspx

HBOS Foundation Community Action Programme
As part of its commitment of supporting communities where HBOS plc does business, the Foundation operates a structure of Regional Co-ordinators enabling it to work more closely with local communities and respond to local issues.
Foundation Regional Co-ordinators are based across the UK in the heart of these communities and represent the majority of HBOS businesses, including our subsidiaries.
The Community Action Programme provides local grants of up to £10,000 to support a diverse range of projects – from funding equipment at a special needs school to supporting a debt advice service in an economically deprived area.
HBOS Foundation donations must fit two key themes:
• Money advice and financial literacy
• Developing and improving local communities
Each of the Foundation Regional Co-ordinators will assess applications against these themes and on the impact that a donation will have on the community.
www.hbosfoundation.org/index-community.html

The Business Development Fund
The Business Development Fund is for community enterprises in the early stages of development. A grant of up to £15,000 comes with five days’ support and can be used to develop an organisation’s skills and capacity, making it ready to run its own enterprise and trading activities.
www.adventurecapitalfund.org.uk/content/view/36/50

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation aim to improve the quality of life throughout the UK. The Foundation does this by funding the charitable activities of organisations that have the ideas and ability to achieve change for the better. They take pride in supporting work that might otherwise be considered difficult to fund. Their primary interests are in the UK’s cultural life, education, the natural environment and enabling people who are disadvantaged to participate more fully in society. The majority of their funding is channelled through the Main Fund, described in full in ‘Guidance for Applicants’. They also make a small number of grants through time-limited, specialist funding ‘Strands’.
(Esmee Fairburn have advised that they are not funding general recycling, but they would consider other activities like education campaigns, reuse and composting. First step of applying is not too onerous, just 2 pages of A4)
www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk/index.html

St. Modwen Environmental Trust (UK)
St. Modwen Properties PLC, one of the UK’s largest regeneration companies, has launched a new environmental fund to support communities in which the company is active. The Funding will be available through two grant making streams. These are larger project grants of over £10,000 and small projects grants of less than £10,000. The funding is available to not-for-profit organisations, such as community groups and charities. The Fund will normally make grants only for projects which are within 10 miles of a landfill site.
www.stmodwenenvironmentaltrust.co.uk/index.html
Johnson Wax Charitable Trust
The Johnson Wax Ltd Charitable Trust gives grants from £25 000 – £50 000 for projects in the field of children and youth, social welfare, the arts and the environment.
Tel: 01276 852000
Johnson Wax Limited Charitable Trust
Frimley Green
Camberley
Surrey GU16 5AJ
The Garfield Weston Foundation
The Foundation’s aims are to support a broad range of activities in the field of religion, education, the environment, the arts, health (including research) and other areas of general benefit to the community in the UK.
In the year to 5 April 2007, the Foundation supported 1,982 applications with grants totalling £41.7 million.
The Garfield Weston Foundation has helped a wide range of organisations with grants of varying sizes. Our recent rounds of funding have helped projects in the following categories: Arts, Community, Education, Welfare, Medical, Social, Religion, Youth and Environment. For more detailed information
www.garfieldweston.org/
Sunley [Bernard] Charitable Foundation
The Foundation’s aim is to give grants to charitable institutions. The majority of grants assist community projects, the disadvantaged and where there is a focus on environmental issues
Contact Tel: 020 7408 2198 or E-mail office@sunleyfoundation.com

The Ashden Charitable Trust
The Trust’s aim is general charitable purposes at the Trustees’ discretion; the Trustees continued to initiate and consider proposals and make grants against the following categories: environmental projects UK, environmental projects overseas, homelessness, community arts and urban rejuvenation
Contact Tel: 020 7410 0330

The H.B. Allen Charitable Trust
This is a general charitable trust. The Trustees have no restrictions on them as to the kinds of project or the areas they can support. The Trustees are prepared to fund core costs as well as capital projects, but they are unlikely to provide initial funding for newly established organisations.
www.hballenct.org.uk/

Awards for All

You can apply if:
• you are a not-for-profit group or you are a parish or town council, school or health body
• you have a bank account that requires at least two unrelated people to sign each cheque or withdrawal
• you have a governing body with at least three unrelated members
• you can use the grant within one year.
You can apply for between £300 and £10,000 to fund a specific project or activity. Organisations can receive up to a maximum of £10,000 from Awards for All in any two year period. Groups can only make one application at a time.
Awards for All will fund a wide range of projects and activities.
www.awardsforall.org.uk/

Funding Advice & resources

Bfunded: Useful website
bfunded is a multi-agency project providing free funding information and advice to organisations in the Bradford District.
The website contains:
• information about a range of local support services available to help your organisation’s growth and development
• help sheets for voluntary and community organisations to guide them through the funding process
Through the bfunded website you can search sources of funding available to:
• Voluntary and Community Sector
• Social Enterprises
• Businesses
www.bfunded.org.uk
Communicating with funders
The work of all six National Hubs of expertise on building relationships, working with or simply communicating with funders is available on:
www.hubs.org.uk/page.asp?id=76

4 new briefings launched
Based on feedback from delegates at the regional seminars held from November 2007 to February 2008, the 4 briefings initially published in September 2007 have now been improved and updated (March 2008).
Acevo has now published the 4 updated briefings which cover the following areas:
• Tendering
• Impact
• Negotiation
• VAT
www.acevo.org.uk/index.cfm/display_page/Sucessful_Procurement2
Free Funding Toolkit
A new toolkit entitled ‘Granting You the Money’ has evolved from experience on the other side of the funding fence. In the course of appraising grant applications they have seen many of the common traps people fall into and they hope that by following the guidelines these pitfalls may be avoided and chances of securing the funding may be optimized.
Obtaining the right grant can be critical to the success of a project – so it follows that a poorly prepared application can be costly in terms of time and resources, as well as potentially having a knock on effect on other activities in the organisation.
Available to download from www.lewisclare.com/toolkits.htm

Awards

BT Community Connections

BT Community Connections enables community and voluntary groups throughout the UK to get online and make use of information and communication technology (ICT). If you are a community or voluntary organisation that is looking to extend your work through use of the internet and ICT but don’t have the means, take a look at the two different awards outlined below that could help you bridge the digital divide.
www.btcommunityconnections.com/

Loans

The Futurebuilders Fund

The Futurebuilders Fund has already helped many community sector organisations grow, and it still has over £100 million to allocate over the next two years. Now that the fund is open to environmental organisations, there is an opportunity for the community waste sector. They are encouraging organisations in the waste and recycling sector to contact them to talk about their ideas and begin the application process.
www.futurebuilders-england.org.uk or Tel 0191 261 5200

Charity Bank in the North
To support organisations in the Yorkshire / Humber region we’ve developed an innovative programme, ‘From Carrier Bag to Toolbox’. It provides a range of business support tools and a mix of funding approaches which can transform the future of organisations by giving them the ability to develop, grow and prosper long-term.
They also offer a different way of saving for people who want to make a difference to the world. Individuals and businesses have the chance to put some of their funds to better use, supporting organisations set up to tackle society’s problems, by investing in our Yorkshire Deposit Bond. It’s a unique way of supporting charities because instead of giving your money away through donations, you can get your money back.
We’re also offering businesses the chance to provide on-the-ground support to a handful of organisations. We’re inviting organisations in the Yorkshire & Humber region to encourage their employees to register for our Business Mentors programme, where they can use their business acumen to make a difference to charities looking
www.charitybank.org/north/in-the-north.html

Unity Trust Bank £50m Social Economy Fund
Unity Trust Bank is pleased to announce that it has made £50m available to support the launch of a new Social Economy Fund.
Unity has formed the fund to meet the growing demand it is experiencing for access to loan finance to support the increasing working capital requirements of charities, voluntary organisations, social enterprises and other social purpose bodies.
Existing and new clients of Unity Trust Bank wishing to discuss the Social Economy Fund should contact Mark Davies, Charities Manager, in the first instance. He can be reached on 0121 616 4301 or by email at mark.davies@unitygroup.co.uk

Big Invest finance
Big Issue Invest is a specialised provider of finance to scale up social enterprises. Founded by The Big Issue, it is led by social entrepreneurs and staffed by social financiers. They provide loans as well as innovative financing products including royalty structures, guarantees and loan conversions. The average loan is around £200,000, minimum is £50,000. Their team can also provide support during the investment appraisal process that will reflect and respect the social enterprise’s financial and social objectives.
www.biginvest.co.uk/

Triodos
The ethical bank Triodos has pioneered a new system of loans that will allow charities and social enterprises to repeatedly take out and pay back loans up to a fixed amount within a fixed time period. The revolving credit facility has been used before in commercial markets but has not previously been applied in the third sector. www.triodos.co.uk/uk/business_banking/?lang=

The Local Investment Fund
The Local Investment Fund is a national organisation that makes loans of between £25,000 and £250,000 to projects and organisations across England.
LIF is in the process of establishing Regional Community Loan Funds in each of the English regions. These regional funds focus on the local communities in each region, with the aim of building a close connection between the funds, the clients and the sponsors. The regional funds make loans of between £15,000 and £100,000.
www.lif.org.uk/

Other resources

Using the Media to Recruit Volunteers
VolunteerGenie is a new website from TimeBank to help charities use the media to recruit more volunteers, produced by Voluntary Action Media Unit. There’s a wealth of material, much of which is applicable to any charity or campaign promotional activity, but has a volunteering slant.
www.volunteergenie.org.uk

Finding new trustees – What charities need to know
The Charity Commission has updated its publication and it is available from www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publications/cc30.asp

Resources

VolResource – Information for Voluntary & Community Organisations
Well worth a look – www.volresource.org.uk has a wealth of useful information on running a voluntary organisation.