Youth Social Action Fund
Organisations working with young people in lower socioeconomic areas in England can apply for funding through the new Youth Social Action Fund. The Fund received £1 million from the Cabinet Office, as part of the government’s pledge to support Step Up To Serve’s #iwill campaign. The #iwill campaign aims to increase participation in youth social action (volunteering, fundraising and campaigning) by 50% by 2020. The £1.26 million National Youth Social Action Fund is jointly run with Pears Foundation. Charities, community interest companies and social enterprises can apply for funding to help young people in more deprived or rural areas to get involved in social action. The government is encouraging charities, community interest companies and social enterprises to apply. Expressions of Interest Forms and FAQs are available at – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-youth-social-action-fund-expressions-of-interest Applications will close at 5pm on Friday 28 August 2015.
Big Potential Advance Fund launched
Big Potential has expanded the support and grants to VCSEs looking to raise social investment – The Big Lottery Fund has launched the £10m Big Potential Advanced Fund. The new ‘Advanced’ route is an extension to Big Lottery Fund’s existing investment readiness programme; Big Potential. Big Potential now has a total of £20m available to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations looking to get investment ready and explore new ways to finance the delivery of services which increase social impact and support those most in need. The £20 million Big Potential offers the following application routes:
- Breakthrough – provides VCSE organisations with access to specialist one-to-one support from the Big Potential programme partners before making an application for grants between £20,000 and £75,000 to undertake more in-depth investment readiness work with one of Big Potential’s approved providers.
- Advanced – is for VCSEs that are clear about how social investment could work for them and can describe a potential deal or interest from investors and need help to close that deal. The Advanced route is also available to organisations that need help securing a contract. Grants of between £50,000 and £150,000 are available.
There are no deadlines. Applications can be made at any time during the three years that the programme runs.
More information on the support available, including The Big Potential diagnostic tool which will help your organisation think about how you can develop and build your systems and people to attract investment, is at – http://www.bigpotential.org.uk/
Launch of Virgin Money Foundation
Virgin Money has launched the Virgin Money Foundation – a new, independent charitable foundation that will focus initially on community projects in the North East of England, and over time will grow to operate nationally. The launch follows the announcement in December 2014 that the Government would provide £4 million of funding – £1 million per year for four years – to be granted through the Foundation to support charitable projects in the North-East of England. Virgin Money has confirmed that it will match the Government’s donation, taking the total of Virgin Money’s donation to £4 million over 4 years. This means that the Foundation has £8 million of committed funding over the next four years.
The Virgin Money Foundation is now ready to receive applications for its first round of grants. In this first round, applications for grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 that meet the charitable objectives of the Virgin Money Foundation are invited from community projects in the North-East of England. Applicants will need to show that their projects are strongly rooted in the local community, and that the work they propose to do will make a measurable and sustainable difference in the community.
There will be two rounds of grants over the next nine months, with the first awards expected to be made in November 2015. Full details of the eligibility criteria and the application process can be found at www.virginmoneyfoundation.org.uk
Comic Relief Grants Strategy Update
http://www.comicrelief.com/our-grants
Comic Relief has announced a Grants Strategy Update: The external environment for the voluntary sector in the UK continues to change. Internationally, the Sustainable Development Goals will be ratified in September 2015. Comic Relief is therefore taking this opportunity to look at evolving our grants strategy. A revised strategy will be launched in early 2016.
You can still apply for funding to the UK Main Fund until September 2015, and 2015’s final cycle for Small NGO grants has a deadline of midday on 18th August 2015. Please note Cycle 5 is only open to small and diaspora organisations. Funding for small grants up to £10,000 remains available through the Community Foundation network