Grant Directories

The Somerset Community Foundation was established in 2002. The Foundation's aim is to provide funding that will address the needs of Somerset's most vulnerable people and communities by tackling disadvantage, transforming people's lives and strengthening local communities. Through the Somerset Fund the foundation provides grants of between £250 and £2,500 to support village halls or community centres, community shops, cafés or foodbanks, sports clubs or playing fields, or community events and activities. The fund aims to help make community's stronger by providing the places and spaces for people to get together.

Cornwall Rural Community Council Wellbeing community grants support individuals, groups and peer support group networks in Cornwall. Through the Memory Activity & Support Network Development Grant the programme provides grants of up to £3,000 to assist the development and sustainability of self-support dementia groups through countywide networks.

The Oxfordshire 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 Step-Change-Fund the foundation provides grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 to registered charities and constituted groups to help high-quality social organisations make a step change to their business model that will create a more solid platform from which they can deliver services.

The Wiltshire 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 Science Museum Group Wroughton Solar Park Community Benefit Fund Small Grant programme the foundation provides funding of up to £2,500 to benefit the community in the surrounding area. The Small Grant supports projects which will improve the lives of people living in the parish areas of:  Wroughton, Chiseldon, Clyffe Pypard, Broad Town, Broad Hinton, Ogbourne St George, Ogbourne St Andrew, Aldbourne, Baydon. Grants are focused on activities for communities and people who cannot afford to cover the costs themselves. Organisations can apply for a grant: to continue the work the organisation already does or to pay for a new activity. 

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.

Dorset Community Foundation is one of the delivery partners of Comic Relief's Local Communities programme. Through the programme, grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 are available to support projects that will empower local people and enable them to create lasting change in their communities. Projects should be run by people directly affected by the issues they are dealing with and priority will be given to small, locally based groups or organisations in areas of disadvantage that have a clear understanding of the needs of their community. Organisations can apply for funding to improve people's life skills, education, employability and enterprise; maximise people's ability to strengthen community cohesion and build social capacity; and advance people's physical and mental health, wellbeing and safety.

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.

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.