The Fore: Apply for Funding

Registration closes: 13th December 2023 (midday)

The Fore aims to fund and support small charities that make a big impact. 

Unrestricted grants are offered to help applicants become more efficient, particularly for small organisations working with marginalised groups that are led by people in the community that may have found it hard to access trust and foundation funding in the past.

Available funding is up to £30,000 (over one to three years).

The grant programme is open to:

The Fore will run three funding rounds each year – Spring, Summer and Autumn. 

Registration for Spring 2024 Funding opens 6th December 2023 (midday)

Registration closes 13th December 2023 (midday)

To visit website for more information, and to apply, click here.

easyfundraising’s Advent Calendar!

Back by popular demand, easyfundraising’s Advent Calendar returns to bring some festive cheer. Open the Advent windows from 1 – 24 December for daily chances to win £100 for your organisation, charity, or CIC. Plus, every window opened is an automatic entry to win the big Christmas Day prize of £5,000!

To take part, sign your organisation up here: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/nel-sector-support/

Did you know easyfundraising isn’t just for Christmas? It’s a year-round fundraising solution for your organisation. Through easyfundraising, 8000 retailers including eBay, John Lewis, Tesco, M&S, Trainline and many more will donate money to your organisation when your supporters shop with them.

VocTech Activate grant fund

Applications Open: 02 January 2024
Applications closes: 31 January 2024

Value: £30,000 and £60,000 for projects lasting up to 12 months.

The VocTech Trust supports the use of technology to improve adult vocational learning and skills.

The VocTech Activate 2024 grant programme will support and enable the development of early ideas for digital tools and approaches that can potentially assist people in gaining skills for work.

Funding applications are opened to Individuals, organisations, and partnerships. All applicants, however, are encouraged to attend a grant workshop before applying for the fund.

To find out more, and to register a place on the workshop please click here.

The Power of Music Fund – Supporting people living with dementia through music

Closing date: 22 December 2023

The Power of Music Fund is managed by the National Academy for Social Prescribing.  Research suggests that music can offer significant social, emotional and cognitive benefits for people living with dementia. 

Two types of grants offered are: 

  • Small grants of either £1,000 or £2,000 per year for hyper local music provision are available on a multiyear basis.  
  • We will offer one grant of £500,000 over 3 years to a centre of excellence.

The small grants we will help to:

  • Deliver funds to grassroots projects as part of social prescribing, especially in parts of the country where the needs are greatest, to cover basic costs such as room hire and travel. 
  • Provide support for people living with dementia and their families, improving their physical and mental wellbeing and creating moments of joy and connection through music. 
  • Connect the work of grassroots groups to the health system, improving access to activities and strengthening community connection. 

Through the Centre of Excellence the NASP will:

  • Create a robust, transferable and scalable business case, with economic analysis, to enable local health systems to invest in new models of community support for dementia utilising music and maximising local community assets at a place-based level. 
  • See a step change in the approach taken by the new NHS Integrated Care Partnerships in their approach to dementia; a transferable, scalable model to embed music as a fundamental element in key care pathways including community provision and support at primary care. To achieve clarity on the risks, challenges, critical success factors and opportunities, especially cost savings.  
  • Foster effective collaboration at local system/ place level between community assets supporting people with dementia, NHS dementia and primary care, and Integrated Care Partnerships (which include universities, social care, and other relevant partners) to drive improvements in care and support for people with dementia building on the Power of Music.

For more information, or to apply, click here.

GCHQ Christmas Challenge: for 11-18-year-olds

Register before: 14 December 2023

Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), is running another annual special festive Christmas Challenge for 11-18-year-olds on 14 December. This is an opportunity for students to put their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills to the test in a series of puzzles, which is being coordinated for the day on 14 December.

Registrations are invited from:

• schools,
• colleges and
• educational institutions.

Members of the public however, will still be able to take part and download the challenge from the GCHQ website on Thursday 14 December.

Click here to visit website where you can download a registration pack which will provide more details about the Challenge.

The Weston Charity Awards

Application closes: 10 January 2024

If you lead a charity working in the fields of Community, Environment, Welfare, or Youth, and based in the North or Midlands of England, or Wales, you could be eligible for a package of support worth just over £22,000. Unrestricted grants of £6,500 are available for up to 22 ambitious charities through the Weston Charity Awards.

Alongside grants, winning applicants also receive:

• free access to the Pilotlight 360 programme (a ten-month package of leadership coaching worth an estimated £16,000).
• collaborative opportunities and events through Pilotlight’s network of UK charities
• two peer-to-peer support sessions with other award winners to share best practice.
• a celebratory event for all award-winners on conclusion of the programme
• the enhanced profile associated with receiving this award grant for excellence.

Who is eligible to apply for an award?

To be eligible to apply, your charity must have:

  • A registered charity number
  • At least one paid full-time member of staff in a leadership position
  • Delivered a service for at least two years
  • Income of less than £5 million per year
  • Provide direct services to beneficiaries or take practical action on the environment
  • A degree of financial stability that enables full engagement in the programme
  • A majority of activity or beneficiaries based in the North or Midlands of England or Wales. To check that your area is eligible to apply to the Awards, take a look at our full location list here.
  • A willingness to meet in person for four out of ten meetings (three in London and one at your charity’s location).

Your charity must also be working to alleviate disadvantage in one or more of the following fields:

  • Community: This includes volunteering work, practical projects to improve an area, running community centres and providing a range of services for their local community, especially for those who may be vulnerable or in need.
  • Environment: This includes practical action around sustainable land use and fishing, renewable energy, recycling schemes, biodiversity, species preservation, marine life, education, climate change science and conservation.
  • Welfare: This includes helping adults experiencing exclusion, social or economic hardship; people experiencing homelessness; people who are at risk of offending or reoffending; and charities supporting older people or people with disabilities.
  • Youth: This includes providing services to children and young people up to the age of 25, such as offering advice and guidance, work experience, training and coaching. Schools are not eligible to apply to the Awards.

Visit website for more information, click here.

Smokefree generation consultation – reminder

Deadline: 6 December 2023

The UK Government proposes to take action to protect future generations from the harms of smoking, and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) would like your views.

The consultation asks questions in 3 areas for which new legislation would be needed, which are:

  1. Creating a smokefree generation: consulting on the smokefree generation policy and its scope.
  2. Tackling youth vaping: consulting on several options to ensure we take the most appropriate and impactful steps, building on England’s analysis of the youth vaping call for evidence.
  3. Enforcement: consulting on the proposal to introduce new powers for local authorities in England and Wales to issue fixed penalty notices to enforce age of sale legislation of tobacco products and vapes.

Read Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation.

Click here for the survey.