Signposts to funding

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.

Find a government grant

Browse the government’s ‘find a grant’ service for sources of government grant funding. You can search and filter based on your needs. You can also sign up to weekly emails here.

Matthew Good Foundation: Grants for Good

The Matthew Good Foundation invites applications on behalf of local community groups, charities, voluntary groups or social enterprises that have a positive impact on communities, people or the environment and had an average income of less than £50,000 in the last 12 months.

Charities and projects are welcome to apply all year round, and your application will be considered in the next funding round. Funding is awarded every three months, in April, July, October and January, with an application deadline of the 15^th of the month before. E.g., for the October round, applications will close on the 15^th September.

Lloyds Bank Foundation – England and Wales

The Lloyds Bank Foundation works in partnership with charities and communities that understand the needs and aspirations of people and can make a lasting difference to their lives. Their Local Collaborations programme is for small charities seeking to influence change in areas of accommodation, social security, and refugees and asylum seeker support at local or regional level.

Flexible grants of £100,000 over two years are being awarded, with the opportunity to extend by a further year and additional £50,000.

Deadline to apply: 22^nd September 2023.

Crowdfunder Cost of Living Crisis Emergency Fund

Crowdfunder are offering up to £5,000 in funding for community food projects who are tackling food poverty caused or accelerated by the cost of living crisis. The fund has been donated by members of the public who want to support community projects through the cost of living crisis.

Registered charities, community benefit organisations, social enterprises and charity companies across the UK can apply for funding. Please visit Crowdfunder’s website for more information on eligibility.

Deadline to apply: The fund will close when funds are fully allocated, so applications should be submitted as soon as possible.

Hedley Foundation

The Hedley Foundation funds small to mid size UK registered charities helping to improve the quality of life of people in the UK, with a focus on initiatives that benefit the lives of young people, people living with disabilities, older people, the terminally ill and otherwise disadvantaged people and their carers.

The Trustees meet four times per year to review grant applications. These should be received in good time before each meeting and at least 6 weeks before the meeting date. The next meetings are as follows:

• 8^th November 2023
• 24^th January 2024
• 24^th April 2024

£76m Cost of Living Fund – England

The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) are administering £76m of funding – The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund (CCLF) – to support organisations across England. Organisations can apply for between £10,000 and £75,000 to maintain or expand critical cost of living services from now until the end of March 2024.

To apply, your organisation must already run critical services around at least one of the following:

• Food and emergency supplies
• Emergency shelter
• Safe spaces
• Warmth
• Financial and housing advice

Deadline to apply: 16^th October 2023 at 12 noon

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: 30^th November 2023, however, applications are accepted at any point in the year.

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.

The Bailey Thomas Charitable Fund: Small Grant Programme

Charities and organisations that aim to aid the research into learning disability and to aid the care and relief of those affected by learning disability are eligible to apply for grants of £250 upwards. Grant sizes will depend on several factors, including:

• The purpose
• The total funding requirement
• Potential sources of other funding (in some cases this includes matching funding)

Please note that they do not give grants for research into or care of those with mental health problems, dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism, or ADHD if they do not also have learning disabilities.

Deadline to apply: For grants below £10,000, there is no deadline. For grants above 10,000, the deadline has passed.

Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund

Aviva, in partnership with WWF and the RSPB, is giving £1 million to support community groups across the UK to protect and restore nature in their local area. Projects that are accepted will receive 2:1 match funding from Aviva. The maximum value of 2:1 match funding a project can receive is £5,000.

Support will be prioritised in areas where the need is greatest, specifically areas that are ranked 1-5 according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Organisations must be working towards one of the following outcomes:

• Nature restoration
• Nature connectedness and pro-environmental behaviours
• Community cohesion and connection

Find out more about the eligibility criteria here.

Deadline to apply: Ongoing until funds are allocated.

The Clothworkers’ Foundation Open Grants Programme

The Clothworkers’ Foundation Open Grants Programme supports registered charities, not-for-profits and CICs with funding towards capital projects. They define capital projects as:

• Buildings: purchase, construction, renovation or refurbishment.
• Fittings, fixtures and equipment: this includes but is not limited to office equipment/ furniture, sports/ gym equipment, digital/ audio visual equipment, software and websites, garden equipment and specialist therapeutic (excluding medical) equipment. It does not include equipment for one-off use.
• Vehicles: This includes a minibus, car, caravan, people carrier, or 4X4. They are unlikely to fund the total cost of a new vehicle and do not provide grants towards vehicle leasing.

They fund small and large projects and grants will be determined based on several factors, e.g., the size of your organisation. For larger projects (£100,000+), they generally fund 10% or more of the balance to be raised. For smaller projects (with a balance of less than £10,000), they generally fund between 50% and 100% of the balance.

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.