Engage Update - Funding Focus - 15 February

Grants to Support Work which Tackles Financial Problem and Improves Living Standards
Grants of up to £200,000 are available to charities, voluntary organisations, think tanks, campaigning groups, research bodies, and universities for strategic work aimed at enhancing the living standards and personal finances of those on low-to-middle incomes. The funding is offered through the Aberdeen Financial Fairness Trust's grant programme, which seeks proposals focused on policy, research, and advocacy in areas such as income, spending, and assets, including wages, pensions, taxation, gambling, borrowing and repayment problems, and savings. The programme awards between 15 and 20 grants annually, giving priority to initiatives aimed at younger generations. The deadline for grant applications is 1PM on 05 June 2023. Find out more

Grants to Help Museums Become More Resilient (Scotland)
Organisations in Scotland that are running accredited Museums can apply for grants of between £15,000 and £60,000 for projects that will help them to become more resilient. Museum Galleries Scotland’s Museum Development Fund will provide funding for activities which produce positive outcomes for collections, audiences, workforce and sustainability. Projects should focus on re-engaging with communities, developing digital capacity, workforce capacity and resilience, and responding to the climate emergency. Expressions of interest need to be submitted by 23 May 2023 with the application deadline of 30 May 2023. Find out more

Funding to Help the Museum & Gallery Sector Recover from the Coronavirus Pandemic (Scotland)
To help the museum and gallery sector recover from the Coronavirus pandemic, Museums Galleries Scotland has launched a new funding round of their Small Grants Fund. The funding will support accredited museums with grants of up to £15,000 to help them build resilience, re-engage with audiences, cover critical repairs and maintenance (including collections management work), and become more environmentally sustainable. Museums working towards accreditation can apply for grants of up to £5,000. Funding could be used to cover costs such as staff and volunteer training; new exhibitions or events; improving digital access; urgent repairs to buildings and facilities; and upgrading heating or lighting to more energy efficient systems. Partnership applications are welcome. The deadline for submitting an expression of interest is 5pm on 29 March 2023. Organisations successful at this stage have until 5pm on 05 April 2023 to submit a full application. Find out more

Funding for Projects that Strengthen Local Communities
Grants of up to £5,000 are available for local projects that help strengthen communities across England, Scotland and Wales. The Delamere Dairy Foundation will provide support for charities, community groups, social enterprises and other not-for-profit organisations delivering projects that benefit communities through the advancement of agriculture and environmental protection, by improving the lives of young people and education, and relieving financial hardship and sickness. Applications will be considered at panel meetings, which will be held regularly. The next closing date is the 31 August 2023. Find out more

Grants of up to £25,000 Available to Improve Community Buildings & Outdoor Spaces
The Asda Foundation is offering £500,000 in funding through its Investing in Spaces and Places Grant programme for grassroots organisations to improve community spaces and places across the UK. The grant, ranging from £5,000 to £25,000, will cover costs such as building repairs, development, and outdoor upgrades for properties owned or leased by community organisations. Funding will be granted on a regional basis and can cover 25% to 75% of total project costs. Interested organisations should contact their local Asda store's Community Champion to discuss their project and nominations will be made by the Champion by 19 March 2023. Find out more

Grants to Provide Warm Spaces for Older People
Charities, community groups and other not-for-profit organisations can apply for grants of £750 to provide warm spaces for older people across the UK. The funding will help forty volunteer-led organisations to cover venue rental/heating bills, to ensure they can continue to offer regular spaces for older people to come together, connect, and take part in activities such as lunch clubs, coffee mornings, or memory cafes. Priority will be given to grassroots groups with annual income of up to £100,000, and less than 6 months of free reserves. The funding is made available by the McCarthy Stone Foundation through their Winter Warm Spaces Support Grants Programme which closes to applications at the end of February 2023. Find out more

Renfrewshire Recovery Change Fund
In response to a key recommendation from Renfrewshire's Alcohol and Drugs Commission, the Recovery Change Fund supports the development of local groups and organisations which provide social connection and support recovery for people affected by drugs and alcohol in Renfrewshire. It supports initiatives that will make a positive impact on individuals, families, and communities affected by alcohol and/or drug use.
It also provides opportunities to support piloting new ideas and projects related to mental health, recovery, stigma, and social isolation. These ideas and projects could inform future service design in Renfrewshire. Future sustainability is a particular focus for the fund.
Click here to find out more
 

Digital Xtra Fund 2023/24 now open
The Digital Xtra fund was created in 2016, aimed at supporting young people with extra curricular computing and digital technology initiaitves. It has helped nearly 45,000 young people to use tech. Eligible organisations can apply for up to £5000 to deliver their project, which can include areas such as coding, computational thinking, games design, data science and cyber security and help inspire Scotland’s next generation of digital makers, leaders and technologists. Click this link here to go to the website and find out more: https://www.digitalxtrafund.scot/apply/

Climate Engagement Lab – 2023 open call for innovation partnership
Climate Outreach is looking for a new innovation partner organisation to reach and motivate specific audiences in the UK.  The Climate Engagement Lab is looking to support an existing project that is engaging people who are concerned about politics and climate change, but aren’t generally part of the climate conversation and are deeply and instinctively distrustful that ‘elites’ will do much to help. Through the partnership, they will provide free support for a group that's engaging working class communities on climate or climate-adjacent (i.e. transport, energy, food) projects. The chosen partner will get support to apply evidence-backed insights to their project, along with up to £3,000 to cover the costs of participation. To find out more, visit the Climate Outreach website: climateoutreach.org/lab-partnerships-call-23

Charities can Apply for Grants of up to £50,000 per Year to Help Socially Excluded and Disadvantaged People (Scotland)
Registered charities can apply for grants of £10,000 to £50,000 per year over 2 to 5 years for projects that support socially disadvantaged and excluded individuals. The funding is being made available through the Bank of Scotland Foundation – Invest programme. Eligible charities must have an annual income between £50,000 and £1 million, be registered in Scotland, and have three years of annual returns checked by the OSCR. The next funding round will open on the 27 February 2023, and close for applications at noon on the 06 March 2023. Charities can apply for funding for project costs, core costs, or capital costs. Find out more 

Woodward Charitable Trust - Children's Summer Playscheme Grants
Summary: Funding for summer playschemes for children between the ages of 5-16 years. Preference is given to small local playschemes, those that involve a large number of children, those catering for children from disadvantaged backgrounds or have a disability.
Date re-opened: 13th February 2023 Next deadline: 6th April 2023. Find out more

Support for people in Turkey and Syria

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) have launched the Turkey and Syria appeal.
 
We are seeing reports of local groups gathering items to send to people in Turkey and Syria. As you know well, donated goods are not usually the best solution (huge effort to sort out what is useable, difficult to export, potentially unsafe for inexperienced people doing deliveries into dangerous areas, unclear routes to deliver goods, changing needs, environmental impact of dumped goods etc) – this is explained more here Donating and managing goods | Ready Scotland

The following are lines from the Ready.Scot/Humanitarian, please share this information through your communication networks/alert systems.

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) today have launched an appeal to support people in Turkey and Syria. This brings together 15 leading aid charities from across the UK to raise funds quickly and efficiently.

Money is normally the most useful donation you can make, particularly when giving to charities with experience of operating in crisis zones. As well as enabling aid organisations to get essential aid to people directly in crises zones, it will also help the people fleeing conflict and danger to get exactly what they need, when they need it, no matter where they are and will support the local economy. This is particularly the case in a fast moving humanitarian crisis.

The needs in a humanitarian crisis are constantly shifting, and donated goods are not usually the best solution. It can take a lot of resources to manage, sort, and dispose of unneeded items in countries which are providing emergency support. But if your community has already gathered items, and now find that you can’t distribute them as you had first intended, you may want to consider alternative ways to distribute the items so they are used in a positive way. Find out more at Donating and managing goods | Ready Scotland

Advice is available on Ready.Scot/Humanitarian to help people provide humanitarian support by making donations and volunteering in a safe and effective way.