£4 million fund to help charities and community groups in England that are working to reduce loneliness, by helping them build connections across their communities.
Microgrants of between £300 and £2,500 are available to small, local organisations (with an annual income of £50,000 or less), so that they can bring people and communities together.
This first round will be open for applications from 5th to the 26th January 2021.
Successful applicants for this round of funding must have spent the money and finished their project by 31 March 2021.
The second round of funding will be provided by The National Lottery Community Fund and will launch in the summer of 2021.
The purpose of the grant:
To strengthen and develop small and micro organisations that connect communities together and reduce loneliness. Including:
• Helping to bring people together in safe and secure ways – including by covering the costs of technologies and equipment.
• Funding to help strengthen organisations and their services through, for example, training and development.
Funding can be used for:
• staff salaries
• volunteer expenses
• management costs
• monitoring and evaluation
• overheads
• general project costs
• small-scale equipment
• small-scale venue improvements.
It cannot fund:
• capital costs such as large pieces of equipment, vehicles or the large-scale refurbishment of venues
• activities where a profit will be distributed for private gain
• retrospective costs (costs incurred/committed before your funding has been confirmed)
• items which will only benefit an individual or family
• religious activity (although we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content)
• statutory activities
For further details and how to apply go to:
http://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/local-connections-fund