WRAP is inviting not for profit groups or charities based in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool City Region, Cardiff and Sheffield to submit Expression of Interest project proposals that will help reduce household food waste in their communities. Work funded through this scheme will form part of WRAP’s national Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) ’10 cities’ consumer behaviour change campaign. Under this funding scheme, WRAP is looking to support community based engagement projects to change people’s behaviour and reduce household food waste. The overall objective of the grant scheme is to deliver innovative projects and/or activities to mobilise the local community to take action on and reduce household food waste. WRAP welcomes innovative, engaging and creative proposals which lead to actual reductions in household food waste. The focus of the activities must be household – not redistribution. We also do not want to duplicate existing activity already underway in the cities and so will not accept applications for Cascade Training or Cookery Demonstrations. To be eligible you must be a charity or community organisation with a minimum of 3 members, and have a UK-based bank account. The deadline for expressions of interest is 30th September. I understand that grants are worth £6,000 each but are not paid in advance. For more information go to the website. This may be a really good project for activities for community hubs.
Talent Match Innovation Fund. Talent Match is now in its second year and to keep the programme innovative and exciting we are working with some grassroots projects that have similar aims in engaging young people and moving them closer towards employment. As part of the programme we are looking to encourage freshness and new approaches of working with young people through a series of small commissioned projects. The innovation fund will only commission organisations that are well placed and creative in their approach, and there is up to £10,000 to enable the pilots to be delivered. Applicants must not duplicate provision that is already available and must demonstrate how each young person’s pathway and progression closer towards the labour market is captured. Projects must meet the following criteria:
• Target 18 -24 year olds who have been NEET over 12 months
• Be a new idea or new provision for very specific cohorts, with very specific needs
• Is delivered across the Liverpool City Region
• Brings innovation and creativity to the Talent Match Programme
Once commissioned projects will be allocated an Intensive Mentor to support the young people who are involved in the project. Regular networking events will be held to bring together all commissioned projects to share best practice. We have £50,000 available which will be awarded to five separate organisations (£10,000 each). The closing date for applications is 5th October @ 5.00pm. For more information and guidelines please contact Michael Atherton
Talent Match Co-ordinator M. 07896 519 025 T. 0151 357 1971 www.youthfed.org.uk
Paul Hamlyn Foundation Youth Fund will provide core funding to organisations within the youth sector and outside. The Foundation has launched the Fund in direct response to what they heard in their strategy consultation – that in order to achieve greatest positive impact in the lives of young people you work with or for, you need to achieve a balance of stability, continuity and flexibility. You can apply for between £10,000 and £60,000 for up to two years. Applications are through a two-stage open process. More information is available at – http://www.phf.org.uk/funds/youth-fund/
The Power to Change Initial Grants Programme (IGP) is designed to help existing community businesses in England that are in a position to significantly improve their long-term sustainability within six months of receiving a grant. Power to Change are looking for applications from existing organisations, which already have business plans in place and are ready to start work quickly on their proposals. Longer term funds, which will launch in early 2016, will include opportunities for new and early stage organisations to apply for funding. More information at – http://www.thepowertochange.org.uk/initial-grants-programme/
David Wilson Homes North West – Our Space, Your Place Grants Application Deadline: 30 September 2015. Grants are available to local community groups, charities, and schools in the North West for projects that will genuinely enhance or improve services, facilities or the environment within their local area. A maximum of £3,000 will be available for each round. Grants of between £100 and £1,000 are available. The grants are to be used for project costs.
Summer 2015 opens 1 June 2015 and closes 30 September 2015.
Winter 2015/16 opens 1 November 2015 and closes 31 January 2016.
Spring 2016 opens 1 March 2016 and closes 31 May 2016.
An application form and terms and conditions can be found on the Our Space, Your Place website or email [email protected]
Empty Properties Funding Programme 2015 – The Nationwide Foundation has launched a new empty properties funding programme to bring long-term empty properties back into use for people in housing need. Despite the current housing crisis, the UK has in excess of 200,000 long-term empty homes and many more commercial properties which could be used as homes. The Nationwide Foundation will fund work which turns empty properties into safe, decent homes for people in need and makes them available at a rate they can afford. The £1 million funding programme will be open to applications from the 14th September 2015 to the 1st November 2015. Only not-for-profit organisations are eligible for funding. We do not fund statutory organisations or individuals. We will consider funding towards: costs of the refurbishment of long-term empty properties: these can be empty residential properties or commercial spaces and must have been empty for more than six months; organisational core costs where these are directly required to bring the empty properties into use, e.g. costs towards salaries for staff supporting volunteers who are working on the renovation of the empty property; legal and other such costs associated with obtaining the empty properties, e.g. landlord negotiation and asset transfer; reasonable wider organisational costs as part of a full cost recovery approach. Applicants can apply for: between £100,000 and £175,000; a grant or social investment, or a combination of both, whichever is the most appropriate for the project. Funds are limited so the Nationwide Foundation’s support is expected to complement other sources of funding. To help reduce the amount of time you need to spend on your application, the application process has three stages. The deadline for applications is midnight on Sunday 1st November 2015. For more information go to the website.
Sport England Protecting Playing Fields opens for round 8.
The Triangle Trust 1949 fund. We offer funding for specialist community and voluntary organisations working with the rehabilitation of offenders or ex-offenders within the UK. The trust recognises in the current economic climate, building a solid foundation for long-term sustainability for your organisation can be of higher importance than starting a new project. We therefore offer Development Grants to provide funds towards your organisation’s core costs. We would like to see applicants use these grants to develop sustainable income sources, so that when our grant comes to end your organisation’s income will not be reduced. Grants are available for up to £40,000 or 50% of the organisation’s current annual income, whichever is lowest, per year for 3 years. We would expect to see the amount requested each year tapering down as applicants develop other income streams to replace the grant income. The 50% of annual income limit is in place to discourage smaller organisations making an unrealistic step change in income that cannot be sustained when the grant ends. The emphasis of the Development Grant is to support the development of a solid foundation for the future. Our grant could, for example, be used to enable an organisation to make a step change such as diversifying its income streams or setting up a social enterprise to help it become more sustainable in the long term. For more information go to the website
The Peoples Projects – Big Lottery. We know that the projects we fund through our small grants programmes can make a big difference to people and communities most in need. With awards of up to £10,000, people across the UK are using their skills and talents to make life better in their communities. We want to do more to celebrate some of the incredible projects we’ve funded over the past year, so we’re teaming up with ITV to showcase some of the best. This means some of our grantholders will get to be on TV, with a chance of getting up to £50,000 to help build on their successful project. We’re looking for projects that: have had a grant of up to £10,000 from us over the past year, are run by a voluntary or community group, such as a charity, community group, cooperative or social enterprise, have imaginative ideas on how to build on and develop the project we funded, have the support of people in their community, with opportunities for getting them involved, can make the most of the opportunity to publicise their great work. We will contact projects with details on how to enter. If you don’t hear from us but think you should have please contact our Advice Team on 0345 4 10 20 30 See the website.
The Power to Change Initial Grants Programme (IGP) is designed to help existing community businesses in England that are in a position to significantly improve their long-term sustainability within six months of receiving a grant. This means that we are looking for applications from existing organisations, which already have business plans in place and are ready to start work quickly on their proposals. Our longer term funds, which will launch in early 2016, will include opportunities for new and early stage organisations to apply for funding. By the end of this year, we aim to have provided £9 million of funding and support to up to 70 community businesses. We have already committed more than £3.75m of grants up to the end of August 2015. This is enabling us to start to meet the need for ‘missing middle’ finance identified as a priority in our report “What if we ran it ourselves?”, as well as helping the Power to Change take key learnings to inform the approach to our longer term funding programmes. For more information
Updates from the Merseyside Funding Advisors Meeting held on the 21st September at LCVS
Funder: Natalie Brandon – Big Lottery
Natalie discussed current funds including Women and Girls (applicants to be advised in next few weeks, Help the crises (notification end September), Awards for All, (no change in current criteria, becoming more competitive therefore may not have as much leeway correcting common errors), Reaching Communities (no changes), Peoples Projects (just announced), Building Better opportunities (dates and times to be sent when available). Building Capabilities (take up not as high as expected, money could be used to improve trustee skills)
Tips for funds:
Reaching Communities: It is a good idea to build into your consultation a survey monkey, and use statistics from IMD and ONS. You need to have consulted with a ‘reasonable’ amount of residents. Fast track still applies for smaller organisations or where delay in funding will have an impact.
Awards for All: If repeating an activity, it cant be too similar
Funder: Ann Edwards, PH Holt Foundation (Ann only works Wed – Friday)
Priorities are: create opportunities for people to contribute to their local community
Break down barriers preventing people taking control over their lives
Widen access to education for all ages
increase engagement in the arts for marginalised or excluded groups
Encourage care of the natural and built environment.
They are looking for projects that make this a better place to live, encourage self help and resilience, deliver strategic solutions and create positive change and measurable impact.
Big focus on improving life skills for children and young people.
Will only consider running costs/salaries associated with specific project costs.
Funds registered charities only, with a local presence. Majority of grants fall under £10 000 with the majority around £5 000. Next application deadline is the 1st November. More information can be found at www.phholtfoundation.org.uk
Other information
An organisation called ICS CIC is offering a funding service to schools, on a no win, no fee basis, but are charging £1200 if the bid is successful. Bear in mind that there are these services on Wirral, at a much lower cost.
Merseyside Funding Information Portal
An online resource that will give you all you need to know about funding your charitable or community work, whether you are an individual, community group, voluntary organisation, registered charity or social enterprise. In addition, information and support in tendering and procurement related opportunities for voluntary bodies are now offered through this portal.
www.mfip.org.uk/
Funding alerts from Funding Central
Are you getting the most out of your weekly funding alerts? Check your profile and see if there’s any information you might be missing out on. Your weekly email can contain new and updated funding alerts of regional, national and European opportunities as well as reminders of approaching deadlines, notifications about potential partners, news and events. Can’t wait for the weekly newsletter? Don’t forget you can run a search on the website at any time and adjust and save your settings for next time.
www.fundingcentral.org.uk
Other items of Interest …
ProHelp Wirral Do you need some legal, building, accounts expertise? Perhaps we can help with a little probono support. For more information email [email protected]
Small Grants Masterclass – Peter Riley has once again given us some of his valuable time, and will be running two masterclasses, one on the 27th November 2015 and one on the 22nd January 2016. For more information visit the website. Click here for the 27th November 2015 course and here for 22nd January 2016 course.
Utility Depot – Working alongside the private, public and third sectors, Utility Depot are experts in dealing with all of your energy requirements. We are experts in identifying inaccuracies in your energy bills and ensuring the suppliers refund any overpayments. We are also the only energy consultants who will not charge you for this service, meaning you will keep 100% of all monies returned.
Wirral Radio case study: Recently we were asked by Wirral Radio if we could audit their energy contracts for the past 4 years as they had been experiencing a number of issues surrounding their bills with British Gas. Once we had validated their bills we noticed that there had been a considerable overpayment. Wirral Radio were unaware of this and without our expertise, may not have become aware of this at all thus not receiving the refund they were entitled to. We then contacted our account manager at British Gas informing them of our discovery and a cheque was sent direct to Wirral Radio within 4 weeks. Testimonial from Wirral Radio. “John Parry came along to a network meeting and told us about his company. We used his services and he has very successfully managed to save us money on future bills as well as obtaining a very healthy rebate. I would certainly recommend that businesses, charities and third sector companies get in touch and have a chat. It costs nothing to talk but could save you £££s that could be spent on other things to help your business.” Pauline Murphy, Director, Wirral Radio
We made the process as easy as possible for Wirral Radio and there was only 2 short forms to complete. We managed everything else and because of the strong relationships we have with all of the energy suppliers in the UK we were able to have this matter resolved efficiently and quickly. We have now decided to offer our bill validation services exclusively to charitable organisations and can guarantee you will receive 100% of any refunds. We will even look at your current contract rates and if there are savings to be made there then we look to source the best possible rates for your organisation. Because of the strong relationships we have in place with 28 national suppliers we will also actively manage your contracts. So if you have any queries, complaints or issues no matter how big or small we will be there to help you in any way possible. By offering these additional services we are confident that not only will we save you money, we will also save you a great deal of time. We want to be thought of as an extension of your own staff only you don’t pay us as we are paid directly from the energy suppliers on a tiered structure depending on consumption and contract length.
If you would like to discuss our services further then please do not hesitate to contact me on the details below. John Parry, Director, E: [email protected]
, M: 07557 474968, T: 0333 011 3151, W: www.utilitydepot.co.uk
