Support For Groups - Latest Funding Opportunities

This page aims to keep you up-to-date with useful info about funding opportunities inside Westminster and more widely in London. Also make sure to check the training and events page for an updated list of training opportunities and events.

One Westminster can also help your organisation through the Online Resources section of this website and through our staff team.

Funding

November

Inside Out grant programme

Inside Out is a free and inclusive summer festival, produced by Westminster City Council and partners, that brings our city’s world-renowned arts, entertainment and culture into the streets and open spaces of Westminster for all to enjoy. The programme showcases live performances, cultural walking tours, outdoor exhibitions, family workshops, sculpture trails, installations and pop-up activities in accessible outdoor locations.

This year we retained a spotlight on West End while also extending the festival further across the borough to reach more of our communities. Find full details of the successful August 2023 programme.

Applications are open to cultural organisations or those agencies, artists, curators and performers delivering cultural activities for residents or visitors to the City of Westminster, including venues, landowners and Business Improvement Districts.

Applicants can apply for funding between £1,000 and up to £10,000. Proposed projects should take place in Westminster with clear benefit to our residents. Preference will be given to applicants based in the City of Westminster.

Deadline: 26 November 2023

Nike's Make Moves Fund

Nike and Spotify have joined forces to launch a brand new initiative to improve the mental wellbeing of girls (aged 10-17) by leveraging the power of music to get the least active girls moving.

The Make Moves fund will provide £20k grants to UK-based community organisations to pioneer innovative, girl-first programmes that combine music and movement.

Deadline: 30 November 2023

December

The Phoenix Way – Children and Youth Round

The Phoenix Way (TPW) is a national collaboration partnership created in May 2021 as a response to the structural inequalities that Black and racially minoritised communities and community-led organisations face accessing and influencing grant funding in the UK.

In the current round of funding, priority will be given to support children and young people with the highest risk factors of becoming involved with serious violence.

Funding is for projects that deliver one of the following activities:

Diversion from the criminal justice system - Targeting support for children and young people who have been arrested but not taken to court.
Supportive home – Support to help families facing challenges and help them create a safe, loving environment.
Education – Activities designed to reduce absence or exclusion, or improve behaviour management policies for children and young people.
Trusted adult relationships – Ensuring trusted adults build relationships to support children and young people at risk of becoming involved in violence, and support for young people to be assigned an adult mentor, key, or case worker.
Positive activities – Sport, Art, and other activities designed to support children and young people and keep them safe from becoming involved in violence.
Therapies - Therapy to help children and young people deal with challenges and protect them from involvement in violence.
Improving police and community relations.

Funding can be used to support a new project, an existing project, or the expansion of a project. Funding can be used for staff costs, running costs, activity costs, equipment and/or other resources that are needed to support project delivery.

Funding is for not-for-profit groups, organisations, and charities that:

Are led by representatives of and work within Black and/or racially minoritised communities.
Have an annual income of up to £150,000 per year.
Are located and work in England and/or Wales.
Work with children and young people who are 18 or under.
Work with children and young people who are at high risk of becoming involved in violence.

Deadline: Sunday 3 December 2023

Windrush Day Grant Scheme

Grants are available to organisations to develop and run creative projects to celebrate, commemorate and educate about the Windrush Generation and their contribution to British economic, social, and cultural life. 22nd June each year marks National Windrush Day and projects must include an activity on this date. All further events and activities must take place within the 10-week period of 8 June 2024 to 31 August 2024.

Projects need to focus primarily on at least one of the following overarching aims of the scheme:

To educate people about the Windrush story.
To foster a greater sense of national pride and recognition of the historic and ongoing contributions made by the Windrush generation and their descendants to UK society.
To develop the skills and entrepreneurial ambitions of young people.
To celebrate and commemorate the continued contributions of the Windrush generation to the UK.

This year, there are two tiers of funding:

Tier 1: smaller projects, of a value of between £5,000 and £24,999
Tier 2: larger projects, of a value between £25,000 - £50,000

Deadline: 17 December 2023

Westminster VCS core funding programme

This fund has been introduced to support the sector to stabilise, strengthen and have the opportunity to grow. It is targeted at small to medium sized organisations with an annual expenditure of less than £450,000. It aims to particularly support organisations that are led by and work with Global Majority (BAME) communities and other marginalised groups such as (but not limited to) those with disabilities. The fund also intends to prioritise organisations led by and for people with lived experience related to the charitable objectives at hand.

Applicants must be registered charities, CIOs or community interest companies (CICs). However, any organisation with more than a £200k annual expenditure must be a registered charity. Organisations should be registered and physically based in Westminster, providing services to Westminster residents. Organisations that are not registered in Westminster but have an established service for Westminster residents in the borough, can also apply but may not be prioritised.

This is a 3-year funding programme - the amount requested should be an equal amount for each year. Organisations must not apply for more than 50% of the total value of their yearly expenditure. For example, if your annual expenditure is £20,000, then you should not request more than £10,000 per year in your grant application.

Organisations with an annual income of less than £200,000 can apply for a maximum of £15,000 per year, while organisations with an annual income of £200,000 - £450,000 can apply for a maximum of £30,000 per year.

Online information sessions for the fund will be held over the next two weeks:

Hosted by the BME Health Forum on Thursday 16th November 2023 at 2pm.
Hosted by One Westminster on Thursday 23rd November 2023 at 2pm.

Both sessions will be the same, so please only attend one. To attend either session, please reach out to Phayza Fudlalla from the BME Forum by email [email protected]. For the One Westminster session please register here.

Deadline: Friday 22 December - 1pm

January

Thomas Wall Trust Grants

Grants of up to £5,000 – for up to 3 years - will support a project or running costs for a charity that equips disadvantaged people (aged 18 and over) with the communication skills ready for employment.

Charities must have been registered with the Charity Commission for at least 3 years and have an annual turnover between £10,000 and £500,000.

Deadline: Monday 8 January 2024

LLoyd's Bank Funding Programme for Specialist Small Charities

The Specialist Programme offers an unrestricted grant of £75,000 for three years, alongside tailored support aimed at helping to strengthen charities and build the knowledge, skills and capabilities of their staff and trustees.

The programme is for registered charities and charitable incorporated organisations operating mainly in England and/or Wales who are helping people living in England and/or Wales.

Applicants must be providing in-depth services in one of the following eight themes:

Addiction
Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Care Leavers
Domestic Abuse
Homelessness
Offending
Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
Trafficking and Modern Slavery

NB. Grants of up to £500 are available for groups who need accessibility support to apply for this programme. The grant will help fund the cost of support, such as a scribe or BSL interpreter.

Deadline: Thursday 25 January 2024 - 5pm

Anytime

The Drapers' Charitable Fund

The Fund supports registered charities in London who are involved in the activities outlined below:

Social Welfare, including:

Homelessness
Prisoners
Ex-service personnel
Support services for the elderly, carers (especially young carers), and community and family services.
Disabled adults (not children), especially those with less visible disabilities such as sensory impairment, mental health issues and learning disabilities.

Education and training: Projects which raise the aspirations or help to realise the full potential of disadvantaged young people under 25 years old particularly in deprived areas of Greater London.

Textiles and Heritage, including:

Textile conservation
Support projects within the textiles industry
Museums, memorials and monuments relating to the armed forces, history of London or the textile trade

There is no minimum or maximum grant. Grants are normally awarded for sums up to £15,000, but larger grants may be awarded.

You can apply at any time of the year. The Charities Committee meets five times a year and applications will normally be considered at the next meeting following submission.

Betsy Foundation

Grants of up to £30,000 are available to registered charities with a turnover of less than £750,000 supporting people under the age of 30 to help to alleviate the effects of poverty, abuse and homelessness as well as help recipients to overcome the causes of these. Charities must operate in London or the South-East.

BBC Children in Need Emergency Essentials Programme

BBC Children in Need Emergency Essentials Programme supports children and young people who are facing exceptionally difficult circumstances, and is delivered by Family Fund Business Services. The programme provides items that meet a child’s most basic needs such as a bed to sleep in, a cooker to provide a hot meal and other items or services critical to a child’s wellbeing.

All applications must be made by a registered referrer.

There is no deadline for applications, but each region or nations has a tier allocation, which may be subject to change, as the current funding year progresses.

Henry Smith - Improving lives

The Improving Lives grant programme provides grants to charitable organisations that help people when other sources of support have failed, are inappropriate, or are simply not available.

It supports established organisations delivering services directly to beneficiaries. They are looking for services which can demonstrate a track record of success, and evidence the effectiveness of the work.

There are 6 funding priorities:

Help at a critical moment
Positive choices
Accommodation / housing support
Employment and training
Financial inclusion, rights and entitlements
Support networks and family

The amount requested must be between £20,000 and £60,000 per year. The maximum length of funding that can be requested is three years. The grants are for revenue costs and direct service delivery.

Applications can be submitted at any time.

The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation

The grant scheme support capital projects, not running costs. There are three types of grant; major grants of £50,000 and above, medium grants between £5,000 and £50,000 and small grants below £5,000. Small grants account for 80% of those awarded annually.

There are two criteria to fulfil before applying for a grant. Please ensure you read these carefully before making an application.

1. You must be a registered charity in England or Wales or have accepted/exempt status to apply

AND

2. You must fall into one of the categories set out below. Please click on a link for more information as to whether you qualify:

Community
Education
Health
Social Welfare

Deadline: Applications can be submitted at anytime.

UK Youth – Cost of Living Fund

The UK Youth Fund in partnership with Pears Foundation will provide targeted funding to youth organisations delivering high quality youth work to ensure doors stay open, bills get paid and youth workers receive the salaries they deserve. This will help to ensure young people aged 8 – 25 years old continue to be supported at this most difficult of times by the youth organisations and youth workers on whom they’ve come to depend.

This new fund is a three-year unrestricted grant programme aimed at mitigating the devastating impact the cost of living crisis is having on the youth sector. Grants of approximately 10% of the current turnover of the applicant organisation per year are available (For example, an organisation with a turnover of £250,000 can apply for up to £25,000 a year).

Applicants have to be a charitable or not-for-profit organisation in operation for at least two years and with a turnover of less than £500,000 in the last financial year.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis whilst funds remain to be distributed.

Tesco Bags Of Help

Grants of up to £1,500 are available to support community projects involving Children and Young people or Food Insecurity in the broadest sense including equipment, activities, holiday/breakfast clubs, cookery classes, food growing courses, food packages etc.

Shortlisted projects are displayed in their local Tesco stores for a 3 month voting period, and the top placed project will receive up to £1500, the 2nd - £1000 and the 3rd - £500. Funding must be used within a year.

Organisations that have been nominated by a Tesco employee via this portal not only stand a very good chance of being selected at shortlisting, but because of this local endorsement would not necessarily need to fit the themes of children and young people or food insecurity.

Applications are now open on a rolling basis and will be accepted at any time.

The Architectural Heritage Fund Project Viability Grant

Grants of up to £15,000 are now available for formally constituted charities or social enterprises that have the necessary powers to undertake a project involving the acquisition and conversion of an historic building.

The Architectural Heritage Fund Project Viability Grant aims to enable organisations to work out whether a proposed use for a building will be economically viable. The grant will contribute towards the cost of exploring different options for reuse or testing a single option.

Applications can be submitted at any time and you will normally get a decision in 6 to 8 weeks.

Google Ad Grants

Google Ad Grants provide over £7,500 per month of free Google Ads advertising to eligible Not For Profit organisations. The adverts will appear on relevant Google search result pages and can boost organisations’ visibility to their key audiences. The programme is designed to help people connect with causes to make a greater impact on the world.

No deadline

The Charles Haywood Foundation

The Charles Hayward Foundation is a grant-making charitable trust which is located in the United Kingdom. They make grants to charities which are registered through two different programmes:

Main grant programme

Social & Criminal Justice and Heritage & Conservation (for charities with an income of more than £350,000) and Overseas (for charities with an income between £150,000 and £5,000,000).

Small grant programme

Social & Criminal Justice and Older People (for charities with an income of less than£350,000).

The Foundation predominantly funds capital costs. Projects that are preventive or provide early intervention are encouraged with a preferred area of impact at the community and neighbourhood level.

Size of grant is typically £15,000 to £25,000. Where agreed, project funding may be for up to a maximum of three years in duration. Small grant scheme makes grants of up to £7,000.

The trustees meet only four times a year to consider applications and you may have a wait of several months before you receive a decision. On average, trustees approve one in twenty applications.

The National Lottery Community Fund - Social Enterprise Support Fund

The funding is for social enterprises that reach the most marginalised communities and promote inclusion and it can be used for helping you get your social enterprise back on track or helping you work with communities that are recovering from the impacts of Covid-19. You can apply for grants from £10,000 to £100,000 - most grants will be between £10,000 and £50,000.

Your social enterprise must have been incorporated for at least a year and most of your beneficiaries should be in England. Your annual income was between £20,000 and £1.8 million pre-COVID-19 or in your last financial year. Your social enterprise should be substantially reliant income from trading (e.g. sales and contracts) to deliver social impact. If your trading has been affected by COVID-19, you should have a clear plan for growing or returning to substantial trading income.

Your social enterprise must be incorporated. It may be a charitable company, a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), a Community Interest Company (CIC) or a Community Benefit Society (CBS/Registered Society).

It may also be a company limited by guarantee (CLG), a company limited by shares (CLS), a co-operative society, or other registered society, if, within its governing document, it has:

a clear social purpose, such as an Objects or Social Purpose clause
a restriction on distribution of profits, to the extent that at least 51% of surpluses are reinvested for its social purpose
an ‘asset lock‘, which is a restriction on the distribution of assets

Community Knowledge Fund

The Community Knowledge Fund is making grants worth between £10k and £100k available to community groups and organisations around the UK to support them to play a stronger role in research and innovation. Funds will help develop and test new ideas and approaches to creating, sharing and using the knowledge held within communities to make progress on local and national challenges.

Communities will be able to apply for grants of £10k to develop their initial ideas, create the right conditions for research and innovation, and begin early testing. They will then be able to apply for additional funding of up to £100k to further test and grow their ideas in Phase 2.

The Community Knowledge Fund is an open fund, meaning they’re interested in hearing what matters to you and what ideas you have, but they are particularly interested in two areas - one is ‘environment and sustainability’ and the other is ‘community safety and resilience’.

No deadline.

Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation

The Foundation provides funding to a broad range of UK charities working to support or improve the lives of UK nationals through art, healthcare, literature, music and theatre. The Trustees give priority to projects where their donation can make a difference and can progress the Charity’s initiative. There is a broad remit and all applications will be considered on their own merits.

There is no maximum or minimum limit to funding requests.

There are no deadlines for applications, which are reviewed at regular intervals.

The Percy Bilton Charity

Capital grants are available to organisations and individuals in need throughout the U.K.

Social workers may apply on the behalf of individuals who have a disability or mental health problem, or who are over 65, for grants to purchase basic furniture, equipment and clothing.

Organisation that may apply should be a registered charity in the U.K. whose primary objectives are to assist one or more of the following groups:

Disadvantaged/underprivileged young people (persons under 25)
People with disabilities (physical or learning disabilities or mental health problems)
Older people (aged over 60)

They have 2 programmes for organisations:

Large grants: one off payments for capital expenditure of approximately £2,000 and over i.e. furniture and equipment; building/refurbishment projects. Please note that they do not fund running costs.
Small grants - Donations of up to £500 towards furnishings and equipment for small projects. This programme is more suitable for smaller organisations.

Deadline: Applications may be submitted at any time and will be considered at the next appropriate Board meeting. Applications for Small Grants are considered monthly.

Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund

The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund has opened its small grant programme to UK registered non-profit organisations supporting grassroots projects in diverse and deprived communities. The small grants programme awards single or multi-year grants to a maximum value of £5,000. The average award is £1,500.

Applications will be considered from organisations with an income of up to £1 million that have completed at least two years of activity and are able to submit accounts or income and expenditure statements.

This is a rolling programme - Please note that the Small Grant Committee considers applications in February, May, July and October.

Westminster Community Events Fund

Funding has been made available for communities in Westminster to lead and organise events of cultural significance as well as events that promote community cohesion and integration. These can be:

Cultural events
Events that raise awareness of issues that affect the community
Events that bring communities together for collective reflection.

The fund can be used to book a space or pay for other associated event costs. For each event, a maximum of £2,500 will be made available, or for collaboration between organisations grants of up to £5,000 will be available.

Deadline: the fund will close when the allocated funding runs out.

Yapp Charitable Trust

The Yapp Charitable Trust offers grants only for core funding to registered charities with a total annual expenditure of less than £40,000 and are undertaking work that focuses on one of these priority groups:

Elderly people Children and young people aged 5 - 25 People with physical impairments, learning difficulties or mental health challenges Social welfare - people trying to overcome life-limiting problems of a social, rather than medical, origin (such as addiction, relationship difficulties, abuse, offending) Education and learning (with a particular interest in people who are educationally disadvantaged, whether adults or children) The charity will fund running costs for up to three years. Grants are for a maximum of £3,000 per year.

Applications are accepted at any time.

National Lottery Community Fund - Bringing People Together

Large grants of up to £300,000 for up to two years are available to voluntary and community organisations for projects that will build stronger connections across communities and improve the infrastructure and conditions that are needed to strengthen these connections.

The programme seeks to fund ideas that enable communities to thrive by creating the conditions, infrastructure and social fabric that enable better and longer lasting ways of bringing people and communities together. This will be achieved by supporting:

Bold and experimental responses to bringing people together using new, or new combinations of approaches.
New projects or projects that build on existing work.
A range of projects reflecting a mix of communities and places from across the UK.

It is expected that up to 20 awards will be made for the 2021/22 period

Applications may be made at any time while funding remains available.

The Fat Beehive Foundation - Digital Fund

The Fat Beehive Foundation is providing small grants of up to £2500 for websites and digital products for small UK registered charities to help these organisations carry out their work in a more efficient and effective way.

Charities must have an average income of less than £1 million a year.

No deadline

The Leathersellers' Company Charitable Fund

Charitable Grants are available to UK registered charities working within the UK. Whilst we prioritise those charities working for the benefit of people in Greater London, we do welcome and support applications from all corners on the UK. Fund is available for special projects, capital grants and core costs such as salaries, rent and utilities. You can apply for up to four years of funding. The Fund operate two grant giving programmes for charities:

The Small Grant Programme is a fast track grant assessment for one-off grants of up to £3,000. Applicants can expect a result within six weeks of making an application.
The Main Grants Programme is a far more thorough assessment for single and multiple year grants of £5,000 or more. A successful application can take up to nine months to receive a result.

The Fund particularly welcome applications supporting the use of leather within the fashion industry, education in leather technology and the leather trade.

Foyle Foundation

The small grants scheme is designed to support charities registered and operating in the United Kingdom, especially those working at a grass roots and local community level, in any field, across a wide range of activities. Applications are welcomed from charities with an annual turnover of less than £150,000 per annum. The focus will be to make one-year grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 only to cover core costs or essential equipment, to enable ongoing service provision, homeworking, or delivery of online digital services to charities that can show financial stability. The priority will be to support local charities still active in their communities which are currently delivering services to the young, vulnerable, elderly, disadvantaged or the general community either directly or through online support if possible. Charities must show that such a grant will make a significant difference to their work.

Change X – UK Community Play Fund

ChangeX has launched the £145,000 UK Community Play Fund, supported by the LEGO Foundation as part of its Build a World of Play campaign. The fund aims to enable communities across the UK to start proven learning through play projects and empower community groups, parents, and caregivers to create more playful experiences for children. Funding ranges from £500 to £4,700 per new project.

The fund will close when all funding will have been awarded.

John Lyon's Charity - School Holiday Activity Fund

The School Holiday Activity Fund is designed to enable organisations to deliver fun and accessible activities for children and young people during the school holidays. This includes all half-term breaks, Easter, Christmas and the summer holiday. You may apply to the School Holiday Activity Fund once a year for a maximum of three consecutive years.

The Fund will pay for the running costs of holiday programmes that provide young people with activities in supportive and accessible environments. Up to £4,000 is available.

Applications to the School Holiday Activity Fund can be submitted at any time, but must be received by the Grants Office by the following deadlines:

Summer holiday – 1 June 
October half-term – 21 September 
Christmas holiday – 16 November 
February half-term – 18 January 
Easter – five weeks before Easter Monday 
May half-term – 25 April

Cameron Grant Memorial Trust

Applications for a grant of between £100 and £2,500 will be considered. The grant can be used to trial a new service, create an asset, a technology, a performance, fund research, or otherwise experiment in any way that supports the treatment mental health. The emphasis will be on innovation – using new methods, channels, technology, ideas or approaches to reach out and effect change. Ideas should typically fit into one of the following categories:

Destigmatising mental health
Reducing barriers to mental health care
Improving mental wellbeing

Note the grants are for project-based activities that demonstrate clear innovation. They will not be made to fund ongoing operational expenses or salaries.

Masonic Charitable Foundation - Children and Later Life Programmes

Following a period of closure to review its grants processes, the Foundation has reopened its Small and Large Grants applications on a rolling basis.

This announcement relates to grants in two main areas:

Creating the best start in life for disadvantaged children and young people
Reducing isolation and loneliness for older people.

Charities registered with the Charity Commission can apply as long as their beneficiaries are in England.

The Foundation offers large grants starting from £10,000 up to around £60,000, and small grants of between £1,000 and £5,000.

Organisations with an income of less than £500,000 can apply for a small grant covering core funding, while those with an income exceeding £500,000 can apply for a large grant covering project and delivery costs.

Final decisions are expected in around two to three months for small grant applications, and around three to four months for large grants.

Applications are now accepted at any time.

City Bridge Foundation Small Grants

City Bridge Foundation, previously City Bridge Trust, has reopened the programme after a five-month hiatus and an extensive review, and is now taking applications from constituted voluntary organisations as well as registered charities.

Grants are now on offer not just for environmental projects and those benefitting older people and disabled people, but also for projects aimed at LGBTQIA+ communities and refugees, migrants and asylum seekers.

The foundation has raised the bar for small organisations to those with an income of up to £200,000 a year, rather than £100,000, while the maximum grant limit has doubled to £20,000, or up to 50% of an organisation’s income.

Deadline: Applications accepted on a rolling basis