Grant Directories

The Lloyds Bank Foundation is an independent charity that aims to help people, communities and Britain prosper. The Foundation provides support to small and local charities that help people overcome complex social issues and rebuild their lives. Through the Specialist Programme the foundation provides grants of up to £75,000 over three years to strengthen the capacity and capabilities of specialist charities, assisting people dealing with complex issues like homelessness, domestic abuse, and addiction. In addition to monetary support, it provides tailored development assistance to bolster the charities' resilience and effectiveness.

The Hertfordshire Community Foundation is an independent charity that aims to tackle need and deprivation by delivering a range of grants to support local small charities, community and voluntary groups, and individuals on behalf of a wide range of donors. Through the UKCF B.A.M.E. Infrastructure Support Fund, grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 are available for infrastructure organisations that can help B.A.M.E. led organisations to apply for National Emergencies Trust grants through their local Community Foundations. An initial £250,000 has been allocated for this purpose, with more funds anticipated on a rolling basis.

The Kent Community Foundation exists to benefit disadvantaged communities by making grants to support relevant charitable or voluntary organisations, which make a difference to their local communities. Through the Fidelity Fund the foundation provides funding of up to £18,000 for capital and infrastructure projects that strengthen robust, registered charities. Applicants must show how they will use the investment to achieve significant measurable outcomes in terms of new levels of achievement, efficiency and sustainability i.e. money saved, increased number of beneficiaries, increase in hours of service delivery, quality of intervention increased, additional income generated etc.

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by the National Lottery to support local communities. The Awards from the UK Portfolio programme supports UK-wide ideas and projects, with the aim of testing and growing bold ideas that put people in the lead to address long term social issues and to improve the quality of life across the UK and internationally. The UK portfolio supports projects that have a UK-wide significance in terms of interest, impact or influence.

The City Bridge Trust (CBT) Connecting the Capital fund aims to make London’s Communities stronger, more resilient and thriving. To achieve this a healthy and vibrant voluntary sector is required that works with communities and across sectors. Applications to this programme must achieve at least one of the following: Local Communities have better, more sustainable assets (financial, physical, environmental); Civil society organisations are more effective and resilient; Londoners experiencing inequality or disadvantage are better heard and represented; Londoners experiencing inequality or disadvantage have greater well-being and independence through improved access to arts, sports and other community facilities and services. Up to five years funding is available and funding for core costs will be considered

Essex Community Foundation (ECF) is one of 48 community foundations across the UK. Essex Community Foundation awards grants to voluntary or community groups and other not for profit organisations, which are charitable in purpose and are working for the benefit of people in Essex, Southend or Thurrock. ECF's support generally falls under the broad heading of social welfare; successful applications will demonstrate the following: A strong case for support; clear aims and objectives; wherever possible that the organisation or project is user led; that the grant will make a real difference to people within their community. ECF supports core costs / revenue costs, new or continuing projects, one-off initiatives and capital costs and particularly small, grass roots organisations.

The Baring Foundation is an independent grantmaking trust that distributes grants to UK charities. The Strengthening the Voluntary Sector programme supports the effective use of the law and human rights based approaches by the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom. Funding is available through two pilot funds: Training, education and capacity building – seed funding grants of up to £30,000 over six months to two years that support organisations to understand how their objectives can be achieved through use of the law or human rights based approaches; Applied projects – grants of up to £150,000 over three years to create new capacity for work that addresses specific discrimination or disadvantage and safeguards the freedom of purpose, action and voice of the sector.

The Friends Provident Foundation provides financial support to projects that promote a more resilient, sustainable and fairer economic system. The Foundation works on two levels. Systems change which aims to support work that can help to transform corporate behaviour, and to stimulate change in the current financial system; and Building local economic resilience which aims to test and review local or small-scale initiatives that build economic resilience through diversity, flexibility and building capabilities. Trustees will consider applications for grants, loans, underwriting or other forms of financial support. 

Locality is the national network of ambitious and enterprising community-led organisations, working together to help neighbourhoods thrive. Neighbourhood Planning Technical support aims to help groups with more complex issues develop their neighbourhood plan, those complex issues can include: Neighbourhood Forums; Clusters of Parishes; High Growth areas; Deprived areas; Business led neighbourhood plans; Populations of over 25,000; Groups preparing a neighbourhood development order. Technical support is designed to provide organisations with the information (evidence) and advice (professional judgement) which will help to decide priorities & direction, to draft policy, avoid legal challenges and to engage confidently with stakeholders such as developers, councils, local businesses and residents. Organisations will be allocated a lead supporter who will work with them to deliver the package of technical support through to completion.

Established in 1891, the Trust was formerly known as City Parochial Foundation. Trust for London is the largest independent charitable foundation funding work which tackles poverty and inequality in the capital. They are particularly interested in work that develops new and imaginative ways of addressing the root causes of London’s social problems, especially work which has the potential to influence and change policy, practice and public attitudes. The Trust focuses on four areas: Employment, Advice, Social Justice and Violence, plus it has a specific programme for small groups which funds activities that tackle poverty and inequalities and have an emphasis on user involvement and self-help.

UnLtd is the leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in the UK and supports individuals who have their social ventures firmly rooted in delivering positive social change. It operates a unique model by investing directly in individuals and offering a complete package of resources; from awards of funding to ongoing advice, networking and practical support. UnLtd resource community entrepreneurs to start-up; support those with more established social ventures to scale up; and are committed to developing an eco-system of support to make it easier for those who need help to find it. UnLtd offers a number of programmes with varying levels of funding and support. Please refer to the funder's website for details.

The Quartet Community Foundation is an independent charity that supports small, community-based charities and voluntary groups in the West of England (Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire) whose work benefits local people. The Foundation gives grants to a broad range of causes and welcome applications from both new and established groups. The Foundation runs its own grants programme called the Express Programme which awards grants of up to £5,000. The Foundation also manages a range of other grants programmes with their own priorities, criteria and closing dates.

Community Foundations support community and voluntary sector activity through grants to local groups and organisations. There are 48 Community Foundations of different sizes within the UK. Although all Community Foundations operate according to common criteria, they vary in terms of size and nature of grants available. Some Community Foundations will fund both organisations and individuals whilst other foundations will only fund organisations. Each community foundation covers a specific geographic area and will not normally be able to support work outside its area.

The Barrow Cadbury Trust is an independent charitable foundation, committed to supporting vulnerable and marginalised people in society. The Trust promotes social justice through grant making, research, influencing public opinion and policy and supporting local communities.  Their work is divided into three programme areas: Criminal Justice - building evidence of effective interventions, primarily for young adults and women, at all stages of the criminal justice process; Migration - promoting an immigration system that is fair to both migrants and established residents; Economic Justice - supporting effective approaches to reducing economic and social injustice and assisting in building resilient communities. There is a particular focus on projects located in Birmingham and the Black Country.