Funding is available for registered charities that are working to support disadvantaged children and young people, as well as vulnerable older people and their carers in England and Wales. The Masonic Charitable Foundation Charity Grants programme awards small grants of between £1,000 and £5,000, and large grants of between £10,000 and £60,000 to support projects that are focusing on: children affected by domestic abuse; early years; children with special educational needs and disabilities; and people with dementia and their carers. Applicants are invited to submit an expression of interest, and if successful, will be invited to complete a full application. EOIs can be submitted at any time. Grants to Support Disadvantaged Children & Vulnerable Older People (England & Wales)

Small-to-mid-size registered charities helping improve the quality of life of people in the UK, particularly those disadvantaged and vulnerable, can apply for grants of up to £5,000. The funding is being made available through the Hedley Foundation. Each year, the Foundation makes around 250 grants for initiatives that benefit the lives of young people, disabled people, elderly people, the terminally ill, and otherwise disadvantaged people and their carers. Occasional larger sums are given to charities where high impact can be achieved. Applications should be received at least 6 weeks before the next review meeting on the 29th April 2025. Grants to Improve the Quality of Life for Disadvantaged & Vulnerable People (UK)

The workload in submitting multiple funding bids is now a major problem, so we’re going to create a Good Grant Makers Guide of those that make it easiest and also identify ways funders can make applications less onerous. Make your voice heard by completing our short survey, thank you.  

Feel free to share this with anyone who might be interested in completing it.  Anyone that adds their e mail, will be sent the results.

Schools, colleges and community groups in England can apply for grants to support the education and development of children and young people through educational, cultural, sporting and other projects. Projects that will help enhance the self-confidence, teamwork skills and future employability of children and young people are of particular interest. In most cases, grants are made on a relatively small scale. Many grants will be under £2,000, most will be under £5,000, and in only a few cases will grants exceed £10,000. The funding provided by the BlueSpark Foundation can be for physical assets (such as iPads, sports equipment, or lighting for stage productions) for services or facilities (such as sports coaching or music or drama tuition) or simply for the provision of experiences (such as theatre visits). These examples are intended to be illustrative and not restrictive regarding the funding BlueSpark may provide to support projects. Applications can be submitted anytime and must be made online using BlueSpark Foundation’s standard application form. Funding for Projects that Support the Education and Development of Children and Young People (England)

UK charities, voluntary organisations, and schools can apply for grants to help children and adults suffering from severe learning difficulties and autism. The funding is being made available through the Baily Thomas General grants programme and can be used to purchase equipment, support capital works as well and cover project and core costs. Previous grants have been used to support capital works for residential, nursing and respite care, and schools; employment schemes including woodwork, crafts, printing and horticulture; play schemes and play therapy schemes; day and social activities centres; support for families, including respite schemes; independent living schemes; support in the community schemes; and Snoezelen rooms. The next deadline for applications seeking funding over £9,000 is the 1st March 2025. Applications for £9,000 and below can be submitted at any time. Funding for Projects that Address Severe Learning Disabilities (UK)

DSC’s Digital Content and Communications Officer, Gabriella Poznansky, has pulled together some top tips from fundraising professionals to help you plan for 2025. Take a look here.

Offering up to  to £500 to local community and voluntary groups who operate across the 14 boroughs of NWL and SWL to hold activities and events that support local people to stay healthy and well. During these events we will be asking for groups to raise awareness about the HPV vaccine and its roll in cancer prevention and we will provide groups with all the resources they need to support with this, including an online training session to be held in January before activities start.

This programme is part of the RM Partners cancer prevention strategy.

We are open to ideas about different types of events or activities. Types of events groups could run might include a football tournament, coffee and tea mornings, arts and crafts, exercise classes, and more. All events or activities will need to take place between 3 February and 18 April 2025.

You can find out more and apply by visiting https://rmpartners.nhs.uk/new-grant-programme-launched-to-raise-awareness-of-hpv-vaccine/

The deadline for groups to apply is Sunday 15 December at 11.55pm.

Grants of up to £7,500 are being offered to civil society organisations in Britain to support their participation in a critical UN review process.

These grants will enable organisations to provide in-person evidence to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, scheduled to take place in Geneva in February 2025.

The funding will help groups represent marginalised communities and share insights on rights issues in Britain, such as employment, education, health, and social services. The evidence presented will inform the Committee’s review of the country’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The funding is provided by the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, which will accept applications until 11pm on the 1st December 2024. 

Useful Links:

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre/news/funding-available-organisations-britain-give-evidence-un-committee-economic

UK charities and social enterprises supporting children and young people, disadvantaged families, prisoners, and ex-offenders can apply for funding to help cover their core costs.

Two types of grants are available:

  • Small grants – up to £3,000, but usually £1,000 or less
  • Large grants – over £3,000. However, only a few large grants are awarded each year and only to charities known to the Trust.

The funding will support small-scale, local initiatives that effectively use volunteers, encourage past and current users to participate, and ensure that funds awarded will promote community cohesion and the development of skills that will change the outlook and outcomes for their users.

The types of costs that could be supported include:

  • staff salaries
  • rent
  • utilities
  • general office costs
  • accountancy and audit costs
  • fundraising
  • governance and compliance
  • costs supporting the core programmes of the organisation

Preference is given to small to medium-sized charities (annual income of less than £200,000) where small grants can have more impact.

The funding is being made available through the Woodward Charitable Trust which will accept applications until 12pm on the 13th December 2024.

Useful Links:

FAQs

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We are excited to share our next exciting funding opportunity – The Fore’s Spring 2025 Funding Round.

What we offer successful applicants:

  • An unrestricted grant – up to £30,000, spread across 1 to 3 years
  • Access to skills and networks– including peers and pro bono support from experienced professionals
  • Access to training– through our workshops programme and fully funded impact measurement support courses

Who we fund:

  • Registered Charities, Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs), Community Interest Companies (CICs) limited by guarantee, and Charitable Community Benefit Societies (CBSs)/Non-Charitable CBSs with an asset lock
  • Your annual revenue should be less than £500,000

To double check your eligibility, please take our short quiz here.

What we fund:

We offer unrestricted funding to help applicants grow, strengthen, become more efficient or resilient. We believe that by asking you and your charity what you need, our grants will create a transformational impact on your organisation.

For example, our grant might help your organisation to grow, increase your staff capacity, become more sustainable or make your systems more efficient. You can find examples of what we have previously funded here.

How to apply:

  1. Register your interest in applying (2–3 minutes). Registration will be open for one week from 12pm (midday) on Wednesday 4th December to 12pm (midday) on Wednesday 11th December. During this window, the link to register your interest will be on our Apply for Funding webpage.
  2. On Thursday 12th December, everyone who has registered will receive confirmation of whether they have been allocated a place on the funding round along with details of how to apply. If there are more applicants registered than places available, places will be allocated at random.

While we would really like to offer places to all who register for each funding round, The Fore is a charity and the number of places offered is limited by the amount of funding we have available to distribute and our wish to give feedback to every organisation who submits an application. This unfortunately means that while an organisation might register, they may not be invited to submit a full application. This is why registration is set up to take 2 to 3 minutes as we want to avoid taking up the precious time of charity leaders. We are continuously fundraising so we can offer more places per funding round and ultimately fund more applicants in the future.

  1. Once you have received confirmation of your place on the funding round, write and submit your application before the deadline of 5pm on Monday 13th January.

We are hosting an online Q&A session on Wednesday 4th December, 3pm to 4pm. If you want to hear more from The Fore team about our application process and pose your own questions before you register your interest in applying, you can sign up here. If you can’t make it on the day, please still register if you would like to receive the recording.

If you have any questions, we are happy to help – Please email us at info@thefore.org