12 Aug 2008 - Grassroots Grants Programme

Of interest to Voluntary and Community Organisations

The Community Council of Shropshire has been selected to manage the Grassroots Grants Programme for Shropshire which will be of benefit to any small voluntary and community group who meet the criteria.

Community Council of Shropshire will be ready to issue application forms from 15th August 2008 and people can ring up and register an interest any time from now on.  There will also be a downloadable version of the form on the Community Council website from the 15th August.   Contact number is
01743 360641 and the website is www.shropshire-rcc.org.uk

Eligibility: 

This funding is for small organisations in Shropshire with an average turnover of £20K per annum over the last 3 years,   Targeted at quite embryonic groups to help to them grow, the maximum grant is £5K which
can be paid as one lump sum but can be via up to 3 small grants over 3 years.  Funding can be capital or revenue and  both new work and existing work are eligible.  the focus of the funding is to help small groups to grow and become more sustainable - there will be no greater priority given for "innovation" .

The item below sets out the detail of this national programme and the weblink gives you more information about the fund itself and the organisations involved in delivering it county wide.  However, for funding
applications you must contact the Community Council of Shropshire via the methods detailed above.

Of interest to Voluntary and Community Organisations
Local funders across England have been selected to give out grants as smallas £250 to grassroots third sector organisations as part of theGovernment’s £130m Grassroots Grants programme.

Eligibility
Grant funding is available to Local Funders for the 149 top tier local authorities in England. The amount of capital endowment made available will be allocated at top-tier local authority level on a per capita basis.
Local Authorities cannot be considered for the role of local funder as the aim is to build the capacity of Third Sector funders.  In addition, the small grants are for small voluntary and community sector organisations,
and not for Local Authorities. Grassroots Grants is designed to complement existing local grant schemes, including those run by Local Authorities.

What For?
63 local funders have been selected to distribute grants and set up
endowments, and 57 have officially accepted.


Local funders will distribute grants to small community and voluntary groups in both urban and rural settings across England – with the potential to reach out to new projects and communities that have not previously
received funding.

Grassroots Grants aim is to strengthen the community sector.

At a local level grassroots grants will support local community based
activity in small voluntary and community groups through the small grants
programme, whilst also building the capacity of local funding partners and
sustaining small grant giving through the endowment programme.

The programme will be divided into two parts:
      a small grants fund for community organisations;
      and a groundbreaking endowments programme to enable local foundations
      to generate additional donations from the private sector on a matched
      basis and invest them in endowments, thereby building their capacity
      to provide long-term funding for frontline community organisations.
The endowments programme will enable local funders to generate additional
donations on a matched basis, invest them and build their capacity to
provide long term funding for small community and voluntary organisations.


Each Local Funder will be expected to meet endowment match challenge
targets before receiving capital grants. The Local Funder must then invest
the capital grants as non-expendable endowment to generate income that is
used for funding small grants in the match challenge area.

How Much?
£130 million  for 2008-2011
The total fund value includes £50m for community owned endownment and £80m
for the small grants programme

Small grants will be awarded up to £5,000


More Information
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/news/news_stories/080721_grg.aspx


A list of the local funders providing the small grants and the endowment
funds can be found at
http://www.cdf.org.uk/bfora/systems/xmlviewer/default.asp?arg=DS_CDF_TECHART_23/_page.xsl/27&xsl_argx=3