Deadline: 1st April 2024 (opens 25th March)

Unrestricted grants are available for smaller charities and good causes in the east of England (including Derbyshire). In 2024, grants range from £500 to £25,000.

The amount of grant depends on the type of not-for-profit legal structure:

• Applicants that are not formally registered as a charity with the Charity Commission can apply for between £500 and £2,500 in funding. These grants are intended for constituted organisations with no charity number, excepted and exempted charities and companies limited by guarantee with an asset lock
• Applicants that are registered with the Charity Commission and can provide a charity number can apply for between £500 and £25,000 in funding. These grants are intended for community interest companies with an asset lock (schedule 1 and 2 only), community benefit societies, and charities registered with the Charity Commission.

The funding is for projects that have a clear alignment with one of the Trust's themes for 2024:

• 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
• Providing support to improve mental health with a focus on organisations that are actively supporting specific mental health issues rather than general mental wellbeing activities

The funding offered is unrestricted and therefore flexible. It can be used however it is most needed.

Deadline: 30th April 2024

Tesco and the newspaper, The Sun, have joined together for a second year to provide a total of £150,000 to encourage more children and young people to take up football or improve access to the game.

The grants are part of The Sun’s Footie for All campaign to highlight how financial struggles are forcing young people to give up football.

The funding is designed to provide support to grassroots football organisations working with children under the age of 18 to enable them to continue to deliver activities that allow local young people to take part.

Constituted not-for-profit grassroots football clubs from across the UK can apply for grants of up to £1,000 which will support 100% of project costs.

The funding can be used to assist clubs in improving facilities, purchasing equipment and new kits, and meeting any other needs that can enhance the experience of children and young people, enabling them to access and participate in football within the local community.

Summer registration opens: 28th March 2024

The Fore offers unrestricted funding to small charities across the UK that are making a big impact and who want to significantly grow, strengthen, become more efficient or resilient. The national funding programme is open to any sector and region within the UK with particular interest in grassroots organisations working with underserved communities.

Unrestricted grants of up to £30,000 spread over one to three years are available. In addition, non-financial support such as access to a network of skilled, pro-bono volunteers, online training workshops and seminars are available to successful charities for life.

The unrestricted funding can be used for any purpose, including core costs and capital funding as long as the grants will help strengthen the organisation internally and help it to take the next step forwards in its growth or sustainability. Applications for core costs must show how the funding will move the organisation forward rather than enabling ‘business as usual’.

Applications will be considered from UK registered charities, community interest companies, charitable incorporated organisations and community benefit societies with less than £500,000 annual income in the previous completed financial year. 

Deadline: 5th April 2024

Funding is available to arts organisations in England to support the delivery of projects which celebrate and energise creative practice with children, across a range of art forms.

The Energiser Fund is Youth Music's first investing in more than music, on the basis of research for Arts Council England's Let's Create Strategy which indicated that children see creativity in broad terms, not limited to specific art forms. The funding is intended to foster change in early years creativity by promoting excitement, deeper understanding, and greater equity for marginalised and underestimated age groups; specifically, the co-design and participation in creative activities for 2-4-year-olds.

In 2024, the Energiser Fund will award each of 10 organisations a grant of up to £120,000. Funding will be for three years, from September 2024 until September 2027. Additionally, each Energiser funded partner benefits from:

• The Energiser Learning Community - a curated programme of online and in-person workshops, reflection sessions and mentoring.
• Communications and advocacy strategy and support from Youth Music.

Deadline: 31st May 2024

Biffa Award is currently accepting Expressions of Interest to its 2024 Partnership Grants Scheme.

Grants of between £250,000 and £1 million will support capital projects that address either of the following themes (the project must not cross over the two themes):

• Built Environment projects should restore, modernise and/or improve facilities such as cultural, heritage or visitor centres. The facility should be inclusive and promote learning, curiosity and participation to large numbers of visitors on a national scale.
• Natural Environment projects should restore and/or improve the environment and the natural systems or habitats that support it. Projects should be working to Biodiversity 2020: A Strategy for England’s Wildlife and Ecosystem Services, its predecessor or a Local Biodiversity Action Plan.

To be eligible, projects must start in February 2025 and be completed by February 2026 and:

• Be located within 15 miles of a significant Biffa Operation or active Biffa Landfill site.
• Be located within 10 miles of any licensed landfill site (not necessarily owned by Biffa Group Limited) in England and Northern Ireland.
• Have a project site open for a minimum of 104 days of full public access to the project per year.

Applications can be made for 100% of the projects costs; however, only 90% of the grant can be paid by Biffa Award using Landfill Tax Credits. The remaining 10% needs to be provided by another source.

Deadline: 30th June 2024

The COVID-19 Community Fund aims to support voluntary and community sector organisations by providing much needed funding. This allows them to continue to play a key role in the local response to COVID-19 and to improve the health and wellbeing of Derbyshire residents.

The criteria for applications for the fund will be in line with the national and local approach, as outlined in the government's Living with COVID-19 plan. This highlights the continued importance of promoting safer behaviours across the population to reduce the risk of infection and protecting those people most vulnerable to COVID-19. This includes the promotion and encouragement of access to the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the already existing health inequalities across Derbyshire, meaning poorer outcomes for those already disadvantaged. Community and voluntary organisations play an essential role in helping tackle these.

Formally constituted organisations can apply for a maximum of £2,000.

Non-constituted organisations can apply for a maximum of £250.