Signposts to funding

19th April 2023

We understand that funding to run your vital support services remains a big concern for many, and we want to support wherever we can. As well as helping save money on supplies we signpost to new funding sources we hear about. Here are some current opportunities.

Also, read about how your partnership with us can support your funding applications and reports.

The 7Start Foundation

The7Stars Foundation is currently offering three different streams of funding to charities and individuals across the UK, prioritising themes of abuse, addiction, child carers and homelessness.

Applicants can apply for the following funding opportunities:

• Project funding – for charities aligned to the funding priorities and age range.
• Shine Bright funding – enables charities across the UK to purchase items and resources to protect and support the children they serve through the cost of living crisis. Grants of up to £1,500 are available per application.
• Direct funding – requests on behalf of individual young people by outreach/social/care workers and legal professionals.

All successful applicants are required to submit a grant report 6 months post award.

Deadlines to apply: 1st March – 30th April for May funding review, 1st July – 31st August for October funding review.

Miller Homes Community Fund

The Miller Homes Community Fund gives groups the opportunity to apply for a donation between a minimum of £250 up to £2,000, to help enhance the lives of individuals and the areas in which they live. They focus on causes that:

• are linked to education
• promote wellbeing
• promote the environment
• encourage sports participation

Deadline to apply: There are two funding rounds annually. The next round closes on 3^rd May 2023.

Hubbub: New funding to expand community fridges into food hubs

Hubbub, in partnership with Starbucks, has opened applications for up to 50 members of the Community Fridge Network to help set up new food activities such as healthy cooking classes, food growing projects and meals for the local community. Grants of £7,000 are now available for new activities within community fridge groups, linked to one of four themes: skills, affordable food, community connection and growing.

Deadline to apply: 31^st May 2023.

Gillian Stevenson Charitable Trust

The Gillian Stevenson Charitable Trust is offering grants of up to £5,000 for UK registered charities working with children, young people and families who are living in difficult circumstances or from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Organisations eligible to apply must be registered as a charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and/or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (from grant-making policy); or qualify as a charity under the law of England and Wales, but not required to register with the Charity Commission for England and Wales.

Deadline to apply: 31^st May, 31^st August and 30^th November 2023, however, applications are accepted at any point in the year.

Ford Britain Trust

The Ford Britain Trust has been committed to supporting the communities that they work and live in since the trust was founded in 1975. They support local communities with grants to sow the seeds of change, with a particular focus on projects that centre around education, environment, children, people with disabilities, youth activities, and projects that provide clear benefits to their communities.

Registered charities, schools/PTFAs, and not-for-profit organisations (including small clubs and groups, but excluding CICs) have the option of two grants:

• Small grants for amounts up to £250.
• Large grants for amounts between £250 – £3000.

Deadline to apply: 30^th June 2023 (small grants) and 31^st July 2023 (large grants).

Warburtons (England, Scotland & Wales)

Through their Financial Giving Programme, Warburtons provides support to organisations that focus on solving significant social issues. They are currently offering 3 different grant programmes:

• Community Grants – Grants of up to £400 for organisations in England, Scotland and Wales.
• Development Grants – Grants of up to £3,000 for registered charities and CICs within 15 miles of their depot site (please note: only previously successful Community Grantees are eligible for this grant).
• Project Grants – Grants between £10,000 and £20,000 for registered charities and CICs within 15 miles of their bakery or depot site (please note: only previously successful Development or Project Grantees are eligible for this grant)

The Community Grants aim to support charitable organisations to improve health, place or skills for families in their community and are decided on a quarterly basis.

Deadlines to apply: Q3 applications must be submitted by 8^th May and will be decided by 16^th June, and Q4 applications must be submitted by 7^th August and will be decided by 15^th September (all 2023).

The Phoenix Fund: Children and Youth Emergency Round (England)

The Phoenix Fund, launched in 2020 by The Phoenix Way, has been led by The Ubele Initiative and supported by Global Fund for Children and is offering a new £1 million emergency grant round for Black, Asian and other minority-led organisations in England, which support children and young people and are dealing with rising costs. This grant round provides one-off emergency grants of up to £20,000. Check your organisations’ eligibility here.

Deadline to apply: 8^th May 2023.

Sport England: Small Grants Programme

Sport England’s Small Grants Programme is looking to develop opportunities for not-for-profit organisations to get their communities more physically active and is offering to support new projects by providing National Lottery funding of between £300 and £15,000.

They are keen to receive applications from projects that demonstrate how they connect with their communities, make best use of the existing skills and assets in an area, and will provide the biggest possible impact to those who need it most.

Multiple applications can be submitted, but organisations can only receive up to £15,0000 in any 12-month period.

Deadline to apply: 30^th June 2023.

Magic Little Grants 2023 (England, Scotland & Wales)

Magic Little Grants is offering small charities and community groups the opportunity to apply for a £500 grant, thanks to support from the People’s Postcode Lottery. To be eligible to apply, organisations must either be in their first year of operation or have an annual income under £250,000, and use funding to launch new projects, support existing ones, or cover core costs associated with ongoing work. Please note that schools are eligible to apply if they are a registered charity.

Applicants may apply for funding for projects under one of the following themes:

• Provide support to improve mental health.
• Enabling participation in physical activity.
• Enabling participation in the arts.
• Preventing or reducing the impact of poverty.
• Supporting marginalised groups and tackling inequality.
• Improving biodiversity and responding to the climate emergency.
• Improving green spaces and increasing access to the outdoors.

Deadline to apply: 31^st October 2023.

Youth Investment Fund (England)

By 2025, the Youth Investment Fund plans to distribute £368 million in grants to up to 300 organisations in selected eligible areas across England (check your eligibility here), that offer value for money, are environmentally responsible, and offer positive activities for young people aged 11-18 (up to 25 for young people with SEND).

Deadline to apply: March 2024.

London Marathon Charitable Trust – Active Spaces Fund

The Active Spaces Fund is available for projects, that improve and activate spaces, places and facilities in London that will help the least active children, young people, marginalised groups and communities to lead active and health lives.  

The following activities and projects are eligible for funding:  

• All kinds of physical activity, from team sports like football and rugby, to individual activities like running and swimming, and other ways of being active like play, dance, walking and gardening. 
• Funding for capital and/or revenue projects, including building or renovating facilities, purchasing new or replacement equipment, venue hire, and new/extended staff posts. 

The majority of funds will be between £5,000 and £50,000, although requests for more than £50,000 will be considered (contact the London Marathon Charitable Trust before starting your application to discuss this).  

Deadline to apply: Applications for funding of up to £20,000 can be submitted at any time, but the deadline for funding of more than £20,000 has passed.

City Bridge Trust (Greater London)

City Bridge Trust are offering up to £3.5m in one-off, unrestricted grants to around 400 Greater London-based charities in an effort to help ease pressures caused by high inflation. They provide grants for either revenue costs or capital costs (not both). Revenue grants can be for up to five years and applications for core funding are encouraged.

Deadline to apply: No deadline.

SGN Safe and Warm Scheme (Scotland and the South of England)

The Centre for Sustainable Energy is working with SGN to help create a network of community organisations who can provide much needed support for people struggling with the current cost of living crisis and energy price cap increases. The scheme aims to support people in high vulnerability locations who are in need of help to stay safe and warm over the winter period.

Grants between £10,000 and £25,000 will be available for small grassroots organisations that meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Have experience in working with hard to reach and seldom heard groups.
• Are embedded in their local area and able to connect with individuals who may not otherwise access support.
• Are keen to join a network of similar organisations to share learning and best practice.
• Are legally incorporated.
• Have robust administrative and management systems, including being able to record customer interactions, provide summary data for reporting, and be in a position to share detailed records for audit at the end of the funding period.

Deadline to apply: No deadline.

National Lottery – Cost-of-Living Support Scotland

Grants from £10,001 to £75,000 are available for projects in Scotland to help support individuals, families and communities currently experiencing hardship as a result of the cost-of-living increases. The grants are aimed to fund activity that means people:

• Have more resilience and are more able to identify ways to deal with the impact of increase cost of living in their lives
• Are able to shape activity in their community to address the increased cost-of-living

The National Lottery are keen to see applications from smaller voluntary and community organisations who are working with those most vulnerable and disproportionately affected by the increased cost of living.

Deadline to apply: No deadline.

National Lottery for People & Places projects (Wales)

People and Places funding from £10,001 to £100,000 for projects in Wales where people and communities are working together and using their strengths to make positive impacts on the things that matter to them the most, to support communities to adapt, recover and thrive.

The grants aim to:

• Support people, communities and organisations that are facing increased demands and challenges as a direct result of the cost-of-living crisis.
• Support people, communities and organisations with the direct and indirect impact of the cost-of-living crisis.
• Support organisations experiencing current cash flow problems as a direct result of the cost-of-living crisis

Deadline to apply: No deadline.

Youth Hostel Association – Breaks Programmes

The Youth Hostel Association’s (YHA) Breaks Programmes aim to reach young people and families with the most challenging lives and provide them with life-changing experiences.

YHA believes in the power of travel and adventure to transform a child’s view of the world and their potential to succeed in it, to provide respite and improve health, education and wellbeing.

Their programmes include help for charities and community groups who are seeking support for a residential stay with YHA. Enquiries can be made for groups of young people and groups of families. Support for school groups in the alternative provision sector of education, along with SEN schools, is also available.

Deadline to apply: No deadline.

BBC Children in Need Grants

BBC Children in Need are offering several funding programmes, such as the Core Grants Funding Stream and the Emergency Essentials grants, to UK-based organisations who support disadvantaged children and young people aged 18 or under.  

BBC Children in Need will prioritise smaller, local organisations and will rarely offer funding to organisations with an income above £1 million. However, for UK-wide hospices and Housing Associations, there is no maximum income limit.  

Applications for over £15,000 p/a will only be considered if you are a registered non-profit organisation.  

Deadline to apply: No deadline. 

The Anton Jurgens Charitable Trust

The Anton Jurgens Charitable Trust offers grants between £1,000 and £5,000 for UK registered charities supporting socially disadvantaged and disabled people in the United Kingdom.

Deadline to apply: No deadline.

Paul Hamlyn Foundation – Youth Fund  

The Youth Fund supports organisations whose main purpose is working with and for young people (aged 14-25) who face complex transitions to adulthood.  They usually make around 25 grants per year to organisations with an income below £30,000 or above £3.5 million. 

Stagecoach Community Fund 

Stagecoach supports a range of good causes, community projects and individual initiatives and have pledged to donate 0.5% of their pre-tax profits to charitable causes every year. Through their monthly Giving for Good fund they support smaller, local charities. 

There is a simple application form to complete. All requests are reviewed by their Charity Committee on the first Wednesday of each month and they ask that applications are sent to them before the last Friday of each month.