Here’s a round up of some of the funds currently offering charities around the UK grants, from the Synergi Small Grants Fund, to the Lloyds Bank Foundation’s Specialist programme for small charities.
Grants available for action on mental health & racial justice
The Synergi Small Grants Fund is open for applications until 29 January. The Fund will offer grants of £2,000-£3,000 to groups led by and for Black people and people of colour to take action on mental health and racial justice.
Grants will be awarded by the end of March 2023 and must be spent within 12 months.
Examples of the actions the Fund hopes to support include:
Collective care – such as providing food and essentials parcels, writing to incarcerated community members, creating opportunities for people to come together and support each other using shared experiences as in peer support groups, mutual aid, creative practices like dance or singing, or covering the costs of accessing therapy or other healing practices.
Campaigning and change-making – this could include protest, work to create change on a local or national level, sharing information and skills such as community organising training, or creating resources for members of a community to better advocate for themselves.
All of the actions should be led by, and for the benefit of, Black people and people of colour with experience of mental ill-health, distress or trauma.
More information on eligibility criteria and how to apply is available on the Synergi site.
Sport England reopens Small Grants Programme
Sport England has reopened its Small Grants Programme with awards of up to £15,000 available – 50% more than before.
The fund will run until the end of June this year and will prioritise funding projects that can make the biggest difference to people that need it most.
The Small Grants Programme was put on hold for a year in 2022 while Sport England launched the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Activity Fund.
Small Grants has now returned and the award limit has been increased from £10,000 to £15,000 to provide sport and physical activities for people who may be less physically active.
The programme will also prioritise projects that focus on environmental sustainability, can demonstrate how they connect with their communities, provide the biggest possible impact to those who need it most, and which are are working with people living in areas of disadvantage.
Applications can be made for awards of between £300 and £15,000. Multiple applications are allowed but organisations can only have awards totalling £15,000 or less in any 12-month period.
The closing date is 30 June. More information here.
Lloyds Bank Foundation still offering support to small specialist charities
Lloyds Bank Foundation’s Specialist programme focuses on supporting small, local, specialist charities with an income of £25,000–£500,000.
It offers a three-year unrestricted £75,000 grant and support for charities that understand the complexity of the issues people face and can make a genuine difference to their lives.
Open themes include addiction, asylum seekers and refugees, care leavers, domestic abuse, and homelessness.
The programme is open for applications until 5pm on 3 March, and this week, on 12 January, there is a Funding webinar & Q&A to go through the eligibility criteria and answer any questions. You can register here.
The Leathersellers’ Company reopens small grants programme for 2023
The Leathersellers’ Company is again offering small grants. Its Small Grants Programme is a fast-track application process for small unrestricted one-off grants (up to a maximum of £5,000).
The programme will consider applications from charities registered and operating in the UK (including CIOs but not CICs that are working:
To provide assistance to vulnerable people in their community
In geographical areas of deprivation (within the UK)
With an annual income of under £200,000 (secured for the coming year)
Applications are now open. They close one week before each committee date, or when 45 applications have been received.
More information on how to apply along with the closing dates for each round can be found here.
Bentley grants for charities working with vulnerable, disadvantaged or under-represented communities
Bentley is offering its Advancing Life Chances Small Grants Programme, with applications considered on a quarterly basis. The next deadline is 23 January, with the Q1 2023 application window opening on 6 February.
Through its grants programme Bentley provides grants up to £500 to support charitable organisations working with vulnerable, disadvantaged or under-represented communities. It supports those that help communities in 19 locations across the UK. The localised approach has been selected to maximise the impact of the programme.
Bentley works in partnership with the Charities Aid Foundation to deliver the programme, and grants must be spent within 12 months of award.
Information on the locations covered and how to apply is available here.
Local grants
Here in addition, is a short selection of some of the more local grants available:
