Every community group needs funding to deliver its
local activities. This can come from subscriptions, donations, membership
fees, sponsorship, trading, fundraising and grants.
Grants are a key source of funding and are available from a range of sources. Funders are keen to support local community groups providing activities and services to the community – they are on your side.
This page will help you find local sources of funding and give you advice about submitting a successful application.
Before you start, have a read of the following tips
Get organised before you apply:
- Before you apply for funding, be clear how the money will be used. Very few funding bodies provide funding for ongoing running costs. Most want to fund a well defined project or activity, so decide what you are going to apply for.
- Check the funder’s grants criteria carefully to make sure your application or project is eligible – every scheme is different. Checking eligibility at the outset will save you heaps of time later.
- Prepare carefully, get all the information you need – your accounts, your project costs, timetable, details and supporting documents. This will make things far easier when you come to fill in the forms.
- Decide on the most likely funding agency. Make your projects fits with the aims and priorities of the organisation you are proposing to approach.
- Make a strong case. Funders are looking for evidence of need. How many people will your project benefit? What will people get from your project? Is there evidence of local need? How will your activity be sustained once the funding runs out? These are all things funders will be looking for.
- Check the rules on capital and revenue funding. Some funders will provide capital grants – funding for equipment, buildings, ground works, vehicles and assets that have a long life span. Others, may provide revenue grants – funding for activities, salaries, project running costs and consumables. Be clear at the start.
Find a local funder:
All the links in this section take you directly to a page that gives funding information and advice on how to apply or gives a link to a page that contains a range of funding opportunities for community groups.
- Big Lottery
£300 to more than £500,000 to community and voluntary groups and charities
- National Lottery
There are currently 12 Lottery funders who independently decide which projects have successfully applied for a grant. Each is independent of Government but has to follow guidelines when deciding who should receive National Lottery funding.
- Comic Relief Community Cash
Comic Relief Community Cash grants of £500-£1,000 are available to small organisations in Wiltshire and Swindon that are doing great work to help local people living tough lives.
- People’s Postcode Trust
This fund exists to try to make the world a better place through short-term, designated funding for projects that focus on the prevention of poverty, support healthy living initiatives and uphold human rights for some of society’s most vulnerable groups. It will also consider projects which help different communities come together for the benefit of their local area.
- Wiltshire Community Foundation
The Foundation can help you apply for a grant. If you are a local charity or community group you can register for FREE to search for relevant grants and funders in your area. You can search by name, cause or locality. You can access their resources by following the links below:
- The Local Community Projects Fund
The Greggs Foundation helps organisations based in local communities to deliver projects or provide equipment to people in need at the heart of our local communities.
- Tesco Grants Scheme
Information about local Tesco stores community champions and what can be offered to local communities.
- Wiltshire Area Boards Grants scheme
Wiltshire’s 18 area boards fund a range of community grants. They fund capital grants for community groups, youth grants and funding for health and wellbeing projects. Over £1m is available and up to £5k is available.
- Community First Rural Communities Transport Scheme
This scheme is on offer to Community Transport groups who are in a good position to take on new services and are already operating in an enterprising way but need some support financially to develop capacity. ( from £5K to £20K)
- Plain Action
This programme of funding 2015 to 2021 is all about increasing jobs and the local economy in rural areas.
- Vale Action
This programme of funding 2015 to 2021 is all about increasing jobs and the local economy in rural areas.
- Landfill Communities Fund
The Landfill Communities Fund supports community, built heritage and environmental projects in the vicinity of landfill sites and / or landfill operator depots. The majority of Wiltshire & Swindon is covered by eligible catchment areas.
- The Office of Police & Crime Commissioner Grant
The Fund is particularly keen to support projects which seek to bring communities together to tackle local issues improving trust and understanding, and welcomes projects which offer a new or innovative approach. Funding is available for one year only, and the maximum grant will be £3,000. Applications are required to address one or more of the following areas: Anti-social behaviour – Crime in local neighbourhoods – Drug and alcohol related crime -Reducing re-offending – Violence against women and girls – Youth crime – Raise awareness and combat cyber-crime against older people
Other resources
- Funding Central
Funding Central is a leading funding website for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises registered in England. providing unique access to thousands of grants, contracts and loan finance opportunities from local, national and EU funding sources, all in one place. “Funding Central picks out opportunities that other funding searches don’t. ”To use Funding Central you need to subscribe. We provide free access to smaller organisations and low cost access to larger organisations, individual users starting from £50
- Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is a new way of raising money, in return for ‘rewards’. A quick 30 day time limited fund raising campaign. With crowdfunding, anyone can raise money to fund their own cause. If it benefits a friend in need, or a local community, crowdfunding can help you make it happen.