Deadline: 29th November 2024

The purpose of the Health and Wellbeing Grant is to support new and existing not-for-profit voluntary and community groups/organisations in Bolsover, Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire whose work strengthens the local community and improves the health and wellbeing of their beneficiaries.  Grants for one-off costs beyond regular running expenses for projects or activities the group would like to run are available. Groups can apply for up to £1,000 per area.

Deadline: 19th November 2024

Ofgem Energy Redress Scheme’s new Just Transition Fund is making a total of £5 million available to charities and community energy groups across England, Scotland and Wales to develop renewable energy projects that benefit those most in need.

The fund, piloted under the scheme’s Carbon Emissions Reductions priority, aims to build the capacity of the community energy sector and deliver impactful renewable energy projects. It seeks to demonstrate how a just transition to net zero can benefit everyone.

Grants of between £20,000 and £250,000 are available for individual projects.

Applications are accepted from registered charities, Community Interest Companies (CICs), Community Benefit Societies and Cooperative Societies in England, Scotland and Wales that are registered with the Energy Redress Scheme and have passed the due diligence process.

To access the online application, organisations must first register with the scheme via the Energy Redress website. This should be done at least ten working days before the fund closes to allow time for eligibility checks and to complete the form if registration is successful.

Earlier this year, the Foyle Foundation announced that it will complete its grant giving programme in 2025 and it will stop accepting new applications to the Small Grants Scheme at the end of January 2025.  

The Foundation was established in 2000 with unrestricted charitable objectives and no request or need to maintain a permanent endowment. The Trustees decided to spend down its funds over 25 years, enabling more charitable causes to receive more support, more quickly, than would have been possible if the Foundation had maintained a permanent endowment. 

The scheme is open to UK charities that have an annual turnover of less than £150,000.  Priority is given to local charities still active in their communities that are currently delivering services to the young, vulnerable, elderly, disadvantaged or the general community. Applicants must show how any grant will make a significant difference to their current work and must be able to demonstrate ongoing financial viability over the next 12 months. 

Grants of between £2,000 and £10,000 are available for 12 months. The funding can be used for core costs (including salaries), projects, essential equipment, or building projects as long as they can be completed before the end of 2025. 

The Foundation has indicated that competition for the funding is ‘intense’ as they are receiving an unprecedented number of applications, many more than can be funded. 

Deadline: 15th December 2024

This funder provides grants to organisations helping visually impaired people in the UK and overseas. It also funds medical research and the provision of facilities for the treatment or alleviation of visual impairment.

Funding is at the discretion of the Trustees. Grants range from around £100 to £500,000.

Applications are accepted from organisations that help the visually impaired in the UK or overseas. Organisations need not necessarily be a charity and can be a community interest company (CIC) or social group and could include:

• National and local blind and partially sighted societies
• Schools and colleges for visually impaired people
• Sports and social organisations for visually impaired people

The funding can be used for costs associated with projects to improve or enhance services that will benefit people with significant visual impairments. Preference will be given to projects that will lead to longer-term benefits after the initial funding has ended.

Eligible costs can include equipment or materials. Staffing costs for specific, time-limited projects may be considered at the Trustees' discretion.

Opens: 1st November 2024

Funding for UK charities to support grassroots sports projects which provide opportunities for self-development for people living in the most disadvantaged areas in the UK who encounter physical, mental, social, or economic barriers. The funding is for physical activity initiatives that:  

• Offer high-impact, life-enhancing opportunities for those who live in the top 10% of areas of deprivation.
• Remove barriers to participation for disabled or disadvantaged people.
• Focus on grassroots involvement rather than elite participation in physical activity.
• Focus on skills development and confidence building for individuals.
• Incorporate effective strategies for wider impact, perhaps through training, partnerships and/or dissemination activities.
• Demonstrate a high degree of involvement across the organisation from beneficiaries and those with lived experience.
• Have a well-developed plan for sustainability and seek to deliver a legacy.
• Reflect the Foundation’s values of Excellence, Entrepreneurship, Integrity, Sustainability.

Two levels of funding are available and will cover capital, project or core costs:

• Small grants – up to £5,000 (priority given to organisations with annual income under £500,000).
• Major grants – £5,001 to £30,000 (priority given to organisations with annual income under £5 million).

Applications are accepted from UK organisations that:

• Are either a registered charity or a registered CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club).
• Have been registered with the charity regulator for two years or more (charity applicants).
• Have been registered as a CASC for two years or more (CASC applicants).
• Have produced independently examined or audited accounts for at least one full year of operation.

Community Interest Companies (CICs) and exempt charities may not apply.

Opens: 4th November 2024

The Woodward Charitable Trust, a grant-making trust, is one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts. Twice a year it awards grants to UK registered charities with an annual turnover of less than £200,000 who are making ‘a real difference in their communities and who stand out in the work that they do’.

The funding is for charitable organisations in the UK working in the following areas:

• Children and young people (up to 25 years) who are isolated, at risk of exclusion or involved in antisocial behaviour. This covers gang violence and knife crime, education and mentoring, as well as projects that work to raise self-esteem and employment opportunities and encourage an active involvement in and contribution towards the local community.
• Disadvantaged families. This covers parenting support and guidance, mental health, food poverty, refuges and domestic violence projects.
• Prisoners and ex-offenders and specifically projects that maintain and develop contact with prisoners' families and help with the rehabilitation and resettlement of prisoners and/or ex-offenders after their release.

The majority of an applicant's beneficiaries (more than 50%) must be within at least one of these areas to be eligible.

Although grants of up to £3,000 are available, most grants are for £1,000 or less. The Trustees favour small-scale, locally based initiatives and most grants are only for one year.

The grants are for core costs rather than specific projects and will cover staff salaries, rent, utilities, general office costs, accountancy/audit costs, fundraising, governance and compliance, and costs supporting the core programmes of the organisation.