Grant Directories

The Trusthouse Charitable Foundation is a grant making foundation that give grants to small and medium sized local organisations in the UK with a demonstrable track record of success working to address local issues in communities of extreme urban deprivation and deprived rural districts. Through the small grants programme the foundation provides funding of between £2,000 and £10,000 to charitable organisations with an income of less than £250,000 for projects that focus on Community Support. Examples of the kind of projects that can be funded include: CommunityServices; CommunityCentres; Alternative Education; Training, mentoring, employment and volunteering opportunities; Youth; Counselling; Family Support Services; Substance Misuse.

The Community Business Trade Up programme is run by School for Social Entrepreneurs, in partnership with Power to Change. It is based on an innovative funding model where grant money of up to £10,000 is allocated in equal proportion to the additional income which the Community Businesses can generate from trading. It will help the leaders of up to 80 community businesses across England. The learning programme will take place in 8 locations across England: Cornwall, Dartington in Devon, Hampshire – Winchester, Liverpool, London (two cohorts), Midlands, York.

Charities and social enterprises in England working in either the homelessness or youth sectors can  apply for grants to develop or grow their enterprising activity and earned income. Feasibility grants of between £5,000 - £10,000 will enable organisations to investigate and develop an enterprise proposition from the very earliest stage into a proposed delivery plan. Development grants of around £50,000 offer support for enterprise propositions. In addition, leaders of established charities and social enterprises can apply to a leadership development programme. 

The £3 million Community Shares Booster programme supports groups in England seeking to launch community shares offer. Successful applicants receive a business development support grant up to £10,000 in advance of launching their community share offer. After that, their organisation could have access to up to £100,000 match funding when the share offer goes live. Match funding will be in the form of equity held on equal terms with other community shareholders. For further information on the programme and how to apply please click on the link below.

Bethnal Green Ventures (BGV) is an accelerator programme, early-stage investor and support network for ambitious technology start-ups that are tackling problems in the areas of health, education, sustainability, civic engagement, tech to support young people, workertech. BGV's accelerator programme invests in and supports teams with new ideas through an intensive three-month programme. Supported teams may include software developers, designers or people with personal experience of something they want to change - from teachers and doctors, to patients and carers. BGV looks for early-stage ideas with the potential to help millions of people. Teams of between two and four people selected to be part of the BGV programme will benefit from a £60,000 investment in exchange for 7% equity. BGV also provides a three month programme of support and advice to help build, test and launch each start-up.

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 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. 

Funding is available to help communities develop Neighbourhood plans. Neighbourhood plans can be used in determining planning applications, and ‘neighbourhood development orders' that grant planning permission; and vote them into force in a referendum. Through the programme neighbourhood planning groups will be able to apply for grant of up to £10,000 to pay for events to engage the local community, print leaflets and to pay for specialist planning expertise. In addition groups facing complex issues can apply for additional funding of £8,000 bringing the total to £18,000.  Groups wishing to bring forward Affordable Housing for Sale may be eligible for further grant funding of up to £10,000 to help develop these ideas. In addition, groups wishing to develop a Neighbourhood Development Order for housing may apply for technical support and a project support grant of up to £50,000.

The foundation is a family trust set up in 2010 that works with a wide variety of organisations.To further such objects or purposes which are exclusively charitable according to the law of England and Wales in any part of the world and in such manner as the trustees may in their absolute discretion think fit. Applications should be made in writing and can be made at any time.

The Coastal Communities Fund, which is financed through the Crown Estate's Marine activities, provides grants in excess of £50,000  per project to support the economic development of UK coastal communities. 

The Mohammad Ibrahim Foundation is a private independent grant making foundation. It makes grants to organisations which aim to improve the quality of life for people and communities in the UK, both now and in the future. Grants are awarded twice a year for works that help transform the UK. The grants range from £500 - £10,000. Extraordinary projects may receive grants up to £50,000. The Foundation is particularly interested in: Community Building, Environment (Scotland only), Strengthening Nonprofits and Supporting Families. The Foundation likes to consider work which others may find hard to fund, perhaps because it breaks new ground, appears too risky, requires core funding, or needs a more unusual form of financial help such as a loan. Applications can be submitted at any time.

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 Tudor Trust is an independent grant-making trust which supports voluntary and community groups working in any part of the UK.  The Trust particularly want to help smaller, community-led organisations which work directly with people who are at the margins of society: organisations which support positive changes in people’s lives and in their communities. The Tudor Trust don't have specific funding programmes designed to advance a particular agenda as they believe that the groups they support are best placed to identify problems and develop solutions.