UK registered charities with an annual income of less than £350,000 can apply for a grant of up to £7,000.

The funding will support programmes in the British Isles that are:

• Aiming to alleviate isolation and depression in older people, including informal day care or social, physical and recreational activities.
• Which give practical help, assistance and support for older people living in their own homes.
• Addressing the emotional and practical needs of older carers.Designed to meet the specific needs of people with
• dementia.

The Charles Hayward Foundation, who offers these grants, wish to fund preventative and early intervention programmes being delivered at the community level which allow older people to stay in their own homes and remain independent. Programmes need to demonstrate their effectiveness in improving the quality of life of older people. The Foundation favours projects that offer a consistent and sustained benefit rather than one-off events or short-lived activities.

Please note this is a very popular fund and is usually oversubscribed.

Deadline: 15th January 2025

The Ofgem Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme, known as the Energy Redress Scheme, is funded through payments from energy companies that may have breached rules. The Energy Saving Trust has been appointed by Ofgem to distribute the funding to charities.

Since 2018, a total of £128 million has been awarded, with more than 611 projects funded across England, Scotland and Wales.

In Round 10, the Main Fund contains £27 million, and the Small Project Fund contains £1 million. Registered charities in Great Britain can now apply for Energy Saving Trust’s Main and Small Project Funds, which aim to:

• Support energy consumers in vulnerable situations.
• Deliver benefits to the types of consumers negatively impacted by the specific issues that triggered redress payments.

Funding for Round 10 is as follows:

• Main Fund offers grants of between £50,000 and £2 million.
• Small Project Fund offers grants of between £20,000 and £49,999.

The grants can be used for capital or revenue funding and can provide up to 100% of the project cost.

Deadline: 17th January 2025

The funding is intended to support charities and organisations with projects and activities that directly benefit the Army community in six key areas: independent living, elderly care, education and employability, mental fitness, families and housing.

Applications from organisations with which the charity has no established relationship are likely to be below £15,000.

Typically grants are made for a single year; however, the Charity’s Trustees may consider making a grant spread over a number of years at their discretion if they feel this would be appropriate. The charity will not fund the full cost recovery of any project, but will contribute to the overall costs. Applicants will need to evidence as to how the remaining funds will be found or covered by reserves.

When appropriate, applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis from:

• Not-for-profit organisations & Community Interest Companies (CICs)
• Community Projects
• Housing Associations

The Charity prefers to support those organisations working directly with beneficiaries at a grassroots level.

Deadline: 5th February 2025 (EOI)

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has recently relaunched its Collection Fund as the Communities and Collections Fund to better represent its dual focus on collections and inclusion. 

Although the overall purpose of the Communities and Collections Fund has not changed, the fund will place more emphasis on equitable working, supporting wellbeing and legacy planning.

The fund offers:

• Core grants to museums that have established strategic aims for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and that are ready to use their collections and the funding to support social and climate justice, in ways that are relevant to local contexts and relationships.
• Partnership project grants to museums and community organisations that work equitably together and share aims for DEI, and which have ambitious and compelling ideas for inclusive project work with collections.

Grants of £40,000 to £100,000 are available over a period of up to three years. It is expected that around 12 grants will be awarded across the two funding rounds in 2025.

Deadline: 10th February 2025

The trade retailers Screwfix established the Screwfix Foundation in 2013 to support local projects that improve, repair and maintain homes and community facilities used by those in need in the UK.

More than a decade later, the Foundation continues to offer grants with money raised through staff fundraising and customer donations.

Local registered charities and not-for-profit organisations can apply for grants of up to £5,000 for projects which improve a physical building (or land attached to it) that is used by people in need.

The funding is to be used for the following types of projects:

• Improved energy efficient lighting and heating.
• Installation of new kitchen, bathroom etc.
• Installation of a sensory room.
• General painting and decorating.
• Improving safety and security of a building.

Registered charities, Community Benefit Societies, Cooperative Societies and Community Interest Companies can apply as long as they have suitable governance to manage the fund and are supporting people in need whether by reason of financial hardship, sickness, disability or other disadvantage or distress.

Deadline: 11th April 2025

Funding is available to constituted UK based organisations to run projects in England for children and young people (aged 25 or under) to make music activity more inclusive and foster learning, creation and employment opportunities.

Youth Music's Trailblazer Fund aims to support young people who want to change their lives through music but cannot because of who they are, where they are from or what they are going through. The fund provides grants for organisations that want to trial work or test a new way of working, sustain a grassroots programme or disrupt the status quo (or all three).

Two levels of grants are available:

• Grants of £2,000 to £15,000 are available to organisations of less than one year old.
• Grants of £2,000 to £30,000 are available to organisations of more than one year old.