Coronavirus: weekly funding updates - 18/22 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 21 May
The George Bairstow Charitable Trust
The George Bairstow Charitable Trust (the GBCT) makes grants to UK registered charities for the provision of Emergency Aid in communities; the encouragement of volunteering among young people; and the enhancement of skills among young people. The Trustees of the GBCT acknowledge the unique challenges faced by the world at this current time and remain ‘open for business’, welcoming new grant applications. They are endeavouring to review any priority applications quickly during this period. The Trust’s criteria and guidelines on applying, along with the application form, are here.
Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA)
Working with Welsh Government, WCVA is operating the Third Sector Resilience Fund for Wales, to provide cash flow support to help organisations through the current COVID-19 crisis. The fund is part of the Welsh Government’s £24m of support, blending 75% grant and 25% initially interest-free loans for incorporated voluntary sector organisations to help meet the costs of ongoing revenue expenditure (including salaries). Organisations that need financial support to survive the unprecedented fall in fundraising and donations income due to the COVID-19 pandemic can apply for up to £75,000. For further details and how to apply, please see here.
WCVA is also administering the Voluntary Services Emergency Fund, which enables those providing vital support to groups such as people in isolation, the elderly, carers, people struggling to access food and so on, so they can be supported at this time. Grants will support not-for-profit organisations working at a community scale up to a national level in Wales, and can be for amounts between £10,000 and £100,000. For further details on eligibility and how to apply, please see here for details. Requests for grants outside this range may be granted – please email vsef@wcva.cymru to arrange to discuss.
Thursday 21 May
The Childs Charitable Trust
The Childs Charitable Trust is a grant-making charity supporting Christian UK registered charities and organisations working both in the UK and overseas. In the light of the present Coronavirus pandemic, the trustees have put together an Emergency Funding Application for Christian-based charities who meet the Trust’s usual funding criteria, but that are in financial difficulty due to COVID-19. The trustees can’t guarantee to fund all applicants, but will give prayerful consideration to every request they receive and aim to meet monthly to discuss applications. The Trust’s usual grant application is still in place and therefore the Emergency Funding Application should not be used where a normal one would be submitted.
The emergency funding application seeks details of how the coronavirus crisis is affecting the applicant organisation’s work, along with details of the current financial position and the purposes for which the emergency funding will be used, amongst other information. The Trust’s usual application process is here, while requests for Emergency Funding should be made here. Questions about the process can be addressed to info@childstrust.org or via the contact form on the website.
The Fowler Smith and Jones Trust
The Fowler Smith and Jones Trust (FSJ) is based in Essex and distributes funds to projects within the county, with particular preference to South East Essex, where the original benefactors lived. FSJ has already dealt with a large number of applications for emergency funding as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and has awarded over £100,000 to local charities and groups. However, the Trustees recognise the potential problems which may now arise as communities begin to ease out of the current Lockdown restrictions.
Organisations in Essex seeking funding for COVID-related projects should email the Trust and a representative will call you back to discuss a potential application. If you are applying for ‘normal’ funding during the September round of applications, please include an estimate of how the pandemic and Lockdown have affected your organisation’s finances and/ or fundraising. Further updates on the charity’s annual grants policy can be found here.
Wednesday 20 May
The Moondance Foundation
The Moondance Foundation has created a Covid-19 Relief Fund for Welsh charities struggling as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. The fund is open to registered charities that are based and working in Wales, and charities outside Wales for their work in Wales only. The fund is offering grants to cover the costs of staff retention, current activities and services in jeopardy, and the evolution of services to adapt to the current crisis.
A simple application form is available from the fund’s website.
Thurrock CVS
Thurrock Council of Voluntary Services has released a Small Grants Fund to support small or local charities during the Coronavirus outbreak. Grants of between £250 and £4,000 are available for Coronavirus relief projects that will positively help Thurrock residents affected by Coronvirus through assisting with basic needs such as food and toiletries, as well as community projects that provide emotional support.
There is an application form available to download from the charity’s website and the deadline for applications is May 25th.
Tuesday 19 May
Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF)
The Small Charities Challenge Fund, run by UK Aid Direct and funded by DFID, makes project grants of up to £50,000 to small UK-registered charities and not-for-profit organisations that are seeking to address the Global Goals (officially known as Sustainable Development Goals) to create a better world by ending poverty, fighting inequality and addressing the urgency of climate change. As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, SCCF’s latest funding round will prioritise applications that can demonstrate that they are responding to the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 in the context of the Global Goals.
Specifically, applicants must be able to explain how their project will address the anticipated longer-term impacts of the virus; and how the risks to project delivery presented by the virus can be mitigated. The next review date for applications is 17:00 on Thursday, 24 September, 2020. FAQs on this change of emphasis on SCCF’s current grant round can be found here, while you can test your eligibility to apply for an SCCF project grant here.
Independent Age
Independent Age provides advice and support for older age people. In recognition of the fact that our older generation will be one of the groups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the trustees have released £2 million of funds to help smaller organisations across the UK working with older people hardest hit by the virus. Independent Age will run four rounds of funding, in each of which £500,000 will be made available for grants of up to £15,000 per application. Applications for the first round of funding opened yesterday, 18 May, with a closing date of 9am, 4 June, with two key priorities:
- Older people living in particularly complex and challenging situations; and
- Older people in danger of being out of sight and out of mind.
Decisions on applications will be made by 19 June. Dates for the three subsequent rounds can be found here.
The UK Insurance and Long-Term Savings Industry’s COVID-19 Support Fund
The UK insurance and long-term savings industry has launched its COVID-19 Support Fund to help some of the people most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The Fund is supported by members of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA), Lloyd’s and The London Marketing Group (LMG). With £82.6m already pledged by firms working within the sector, it aims to raise a total of £100m; and will work with Charities Aid Foundation and a network of other partners, including the National Emergencies Trust, to ensure funding is distributed quickly and expertly to where it’s needed most. The Fund’s key aim is to provide immediate relief to charities adversely affected by COVID-19, as well as offering a longer-term programme of support for people, communities and issues where the need is greatest. These might include:
- Community based charities that are under unprecedented strain;
- Charities supporting the most vulnerable, in particular families and children living in greatest poverty and older people in isolation; and
- Initiatives to promote wellbeing and mental health across society.
Monday 18 May
Covid-19 Homelessness Response Fund
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has announced a fund of £6 million for homeless charities directly affected by Coronavirus. This fund was launched on the 14 May and is being administered by Homeless Link.
Frontline organisations where over half of their beneficiaries are experiencing homelessness and have a turnover of less than £5 million are eligible to apply for funding, the deadline for which is Wednesday 27 May. The awards must be spent by 30 October 2020.
The minimum and maximum amounts that can be applied for vary by income of organisation with organisations with an annual turnover of less than £100,000 being able to apply for £10,000 and organisations with a turnover of over £1 million eligible to apply for up to £100,000. Organisations with an annual turnover of between £100,000 and £1 million can apply for a grant worth up to 10% of their annual turnover. More guidance can be found from the Homeless Link website.
Organisations can apply for grants to cover the costs of adapting services, or creating new services, that respond to the needs of homeless people affected by Coronavirus, and/or to help alleviate the financial impact of Covid-19 on your organisation.
The application form can be found on Homeless Link’s website.
Clinks’ Covid-19 Response Grants
Organisations with an existing relationship to Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) with an annual income of under £500,000 who deliver, or have delivered, services to support people in prison, through-the-gate and in the community in the context of Covid-19 are now eligible to apply to a new grant scheme from Clinks. The £275,000 for the scheme has come from HMPPS.
Clinks is expecting to provide grants of between £3,000 and £5,000, with no organisation being granted more than £20,000. The fund will remain open until all the funding has been allocated, which is anticipated to be within 6 months. Funds must be spent by 30 November 2020.
Further information is available on Clinks’ website, with the application form downloadable from there as well.
UK Aid Direct
Two new funding rounds from UK Aid Direct have opened today. Both the Community Partnership and Impact grants have opened for small to medium organisations who can demonstrate that they will be using the funding to achieve the Global Goals of UK Aid Direct, at the same time addressing the long-term impact of Covid-19 in developing countries. The deadline for both grants is 30 June 2020 and a webinar with guidance for applications will be hosted on 28 May at 12:30pm (UK time). Organisations looking to attend the guidance webinar should register online.
The Community Partnership grant is for funding up to £250,000 for projects which last three years or less and the Impacts grant is for funding of between £250,001 and £4,000,000 for projects which will last between three and five years. Both grants have to be for projects in eligible countries
For previous updates click here
