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  • Real Help for Communities:

Real Help for Communities:

Volunteers, Charities and Social Enterprises

Hardship Fund: An additional funding package totalling £16.7m was announced in the Budget 09 and is aimed at third sector organisations delivering recession-focused front-line services with a turnover of at least £200,000 who are experiencing financial difficulties.

Delivered by the Community Development Foundation (CDF), grants of between £50,000 and £250,000 will be made available to organisations that meet the eligibility criteria, which states organisations that are suffering financial hardship that is impacting on their ability to deliver front line services in health and social care, housing support, education and training and advice, information and guidance are eligible to apply.

  • The fund is now open for applications. To apply, organisations must have a turnover of £200,000 a year or more.

  • To download an application form and guidelines visit the website at http://www.cdf.org.uk/web/guest/hardship-fund.


The Big Lottery Fund: Reaching Communities (England) now open to advice projects

Reaching Communities can now consider ‘projects that provide advice on rights and responsibilities, as well as those that offer softer advice such as counseling.’ The Big Lottery Reaching Communities Programme in England will now accept applications for projects that were previously eligible for other BIG programmes.

You can apply to Reaching Communities if you are:

  • a registered charity

  • a voluntary or community group

  • a statutory body, (including schools)

  • a charitable or not-for-profit company

  • a social enterprise – a business that is chiefly run for social objectives, whose profits are reinvested in the business rather than going to shareholders and owners.

During 2009 -2010 BIG Lottery Fund's Reaching Communities programme will remain open to applications. This is designed to act as a 'bridge' between their current funding programmes and their new Open Funding stream which will go live in 2010. An extra £20 million pounds has been added to the Reaching Communities programme as part of the recession package which was launched at the end of June 2009.

Questions about Reaching Communities? Find out more:
http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_reaching_communities.htm?regioncode=-uk&status=theProg&tab=3&

Reaching Communities has proven to be a popular and highly competitive programme. Please note there are high levels of interest in this programme and consider whether your project would be better suited to another Big Lottery Fund programme. Further information: Click here for more information about the Reaching Communities grants programme. (http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_reaching_communities?tab=1&regioncode=-uk&status=theProg&)

Call their national helpline for advice on 0845 410 20 30. Email them at: general.enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk
OR Call the Lottery Funding Helpline on 0845 275 00 00 or go to www.lotteryfunding.org.uk

Communitybuilders Fund opens Monday 7 September

The Fund will provide a mix of loans, grants and mentoring support to a range of community anchor-type organisations across England. The Fund is designed to help empower citizens and communities by strengthening the resilience of multipurpose community-led organisations across England through a mixture of financial and advisory support. The Fund will open on Monday, 7 September 2009.

The Communitybuilders Fund will be organised into three investment packages:

Development package: will consist of bespoke business support based on an initial needs assessment and leadership grants of £2,000 for staff development and training. Each investee will be assigned a Supporter who will lead them through an honest exploration of the health of the organisation; help develop foundations around governance, financial systems, and leadership as well as core functions.

Feasibility package: will consist of further business support of up to 5 days and grants of up to £20,000 to use towards project development of a growth plan. Grants of up to £75,000 and 30 days of support will be available for larger projects.

Investment packages: will be tailored for investees who are ready to develop, grow and expand their role within the community. Investment will consist primarily of loans between £50,000 and
£2,000,000 offered at 5% for an initial three year period of a ten year loan term.

Organisations can find more information on the Fund, including the full details of the eligibility criteria, and register their interest at the website www.communitybuildersfund.org.uk or by calling 0191 261 5200

Modernisation Fund: This is a £16.5m funding programme delivered by Capacitybuilders and Futurebuilders consisting of bursaries, grants and interest-free loans aimed at helping front-line third sector groups and organisations increase their impact and become more resilient to the economic downturn.  

The £9.5m loan element of this fund is delivered by Futurebuilders and offers loans at 0% interest between £30,000 and £500,000.  Investments by Futurebuilders will range in size from £30,000 to £500,000; the largest part of every investment will be a loan, but there is also some grant money available. Loans are provided interest-free for five years.
Note also Futurebuilders Merge-maker service, an online match-making service for voluntary organizations considering working together through merger, collaboration or forming consortia. Interested organisations will be displayed on Futurebuilders’ website.  

The grant element of this fund is delivered by Capacitybuilders and is applicable to organisations with an annual turnover of £150,000 to £750,000.

The deadline for online applications for phase one £1,000  bursaries  was Friday, 17 July. The 1,000 successful phase one bursary recipients will be able to apply for further funding for up to £10,000 in order to further aid these mergers and collaborations between organisations.  The fund was launched on 1 June and should be spent by the end of 2009, with tidy up by end of March 2010. For more information, online applications, and access to other resources and support including an online self assessment tool: http://capacitybuilders.createsend3.com/t/r/l/tudutk/shkita/r

Funding Central – the smart guide to over 4,000 grants, contracts and loans: The National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and OTS have launched Funding Central, the new free website for comprehensive information about national, local and regional Government funding, national, local or regional charitable funding, and European Union funding.                            

Visit http://www.fundingcentral.org.uk/ for more information.

Future Jobs Fund: Around £1 billion is being made available to support the creation of jobs for long term unemployed young people and others who face significant disadvantage in the labour market. It is a challenge fund which invites organisations to submit bids for funding. The fund aims to create 150,000 jobs, primarily aimed at 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for a year.

The Future Jobs Fund is now open for bids. For further information on the fund and how to apply, please email future.jobsfund@dwp.gsi.gov.uk or visit www.dwp.gov.uk/campaigns/futurejobsfund