Sources of funding
There are many different and varied sources of funding available to support projects in your school. The following list is not designed to be fully comprehensive but to provide an introduction to the kind of funding on offer from a wide range of bodies and trusts.
Public funding
Awards for All Scotland
0845 600 2040
scotland@awardsforall.org.uk
Awards for All Scotland offers small grants to small community groups involved in projects that bring people in the community together in a wide range of different activities.
Groups that can apply must fulfil the following criteria:
- be a non-profit group based in Scotland
- need between £500 and £10,000
- can spend the grant within one year
- have a constitution or set of rules which they have adopted
- have a bank or building society account in the name of their group
- have annual accounts or statements of income and expenditure.
Big Lottery Fund
0870 2 40 23 91
enquiries.scotland@biglotteryfund.org.uk
The Big Lottery Fund was formed by the merger of the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund. The Big Lottery Fund provides funding for a wide range of organisations including voluntary and community organisations, local authorities, health bodies, schools and other education bodies, and private sector organisations.
Funding for voluntary and community organisations is provided through the open programme and the aims and outcomes of projects are likely to be broad. Organisations will normally develop their own ideas for funding and should apply for a grant by submitting an application form.
Sportscotland
0131 317 7200
library@sportscotland.org.uk
sportscotland is the national body for sports development and distributes funding from the National Lottery and the Scottish Executive. Recently the Scottish Executive has increased funding for sport and the Big Lottery Fund is directing support towards school-based sports facilities and activities programmes.
sportscotland works with various partners, including local authorities and sport governing bodies, to distribute funding and there are also a small number of schemes that encourage direct application from members of the public such as Sportsmatch and Awards for All.
Scottish Arts Council
0845 603 6000
help.desk@scottisharts.org.uk
The Scottish Arts Council is the main distributor of public funding for the arts in Scotland. The grants on offer come from the National Lottery Fund and Scottish Executive funding.
There are various grants available to support organisations with the following:
- arts projects
- capital projects (buildings, equipment and artists' work in public places)
- organisational development
- research and development.
Heritage Lottery Fund
0131 225 9450
enquire@hlf.org.uk
The Heritage Lottery Fund provides grants to support work designed to care for the country's heritage and to help encourage people to experience it.
Projects that help to increase people's understanding and enjoyment of the country's heritage are supported, including those that:
- are designed to increase learning about our heritage, for people of all ages and backgrounds
- aim to widen participation, especially from people who have not been involved in heritage before, and disadvantaged groups
- increase popular involvement in recording and conserving heritage
- involve volunteers and the local community in our heritage.
Strathclyde European Partnership Ltd
0141 572 4400
sep@wsep.co.uk
Funds from the European Regional Development Fund or European Social Fund are available to support projects that cover one or more of the following themes:
- economic development
- job creation
- training
- environmental works
- addressing barriers to participation.
In order to apply for European Funds you first have to be an eligible organisation. Eligible organisations are:
- in the public sector
- voluntary or charitable
- organisations which directly or indirectly receive over 50 per cent of core funds from the public sector
- joint ventures (public/private partnerships).
Scottish Objective 3 Programme
0141 582 0401
enquiries@objective3.org
The Scottish Objective 3 Programme is a significant source of European funding which helps disadvantaged groups in the community who, for a variety of reasons, are excluded both economically and socially. The strategic aim of Objective 3 is to support economic growth in Scotland.
The fund is split into five priorities and under each there are different measures targeting different beneficiary groups or different types of activity.
- Priority One - Raising Employability
- Priority Two - Addressing Social Exclusion
- Priority Three - Life Long Learning
- Priority Four - Towards a Competitive Economy
- Priority Five - Addressing Gender Imbalance
Voluntary Issues Unit (Scottish Executive)
0131 244 3649
viu@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
The Scottish Executive offers funding via a number of grant schemes:
- for activities that promote Scottish Executive objectives
- to support capacity building within organisations on the basis of agreed outputs
- to fund core management, administrative and relevant training costs where an organisation has a continuing role in the delivery of particular policy objectives
- for national infrastructure organisations and associated local networks to promote the growth and effectiveness of voluntary and community organisations
- on a time-limited basis, for innovative projects where the Scottish Executive has a particular interest in taking forward an experimental approach.
Scottish Natural Heritage
01463 725000
enquiries@snh.gov.uk
Scottish Natural Heritage offers different types of grants including support for improving school grounds and community projects focusing on the local natural heritage.
Improvements to school grounds can be funded directly through the School Grounds Grants Scheme or indirectly through block grants to local school grounds partnerships, which award grants on behalf of SNH and other funders. They also provide support to Scotland's school grounds charity, Grounds for Learning.
The Community Grant Scheme offers support to social groups, local representative groups and common interest groups to help people take a more active role in enjoying and managing natural heritage in their local area.
Private funding
The Allen Lane Foundation
01904 613223
info@allenlane.org.uk
The Allen Lane Foundation offers grants to support a variety of work including:
- the provision of advice, information and advocacy
- community development
- neighbourhood mediation, conflict resolution and alternatives to violence
- research and education aimed at changing public attitudes or policy
- social welfare aimed at making a long-term difference and empowering users.
The foundation has priority groups for funding which include:
- refugees and asylum-seekers
- people from black and ethnic minority communities
- those experiencing mental health problems
- those experiencing violence or abuse
- offenders and ex-offenders
- gay, lesbian or bi-sexual people
- travellers
- older people.
BBC Children in Need
pudsey@bbc.co.uk
BBC Children in Need provides grants to organisations working with disadvantaged children under the age of 18 including the following situations:
- illness, distress, abuse or neglect
- any kind of disability
- behavioural or psychological problems
- living in poverty or situations of deprivation.
Applications should demonstrate how the project will change the lives of children for the better and should be entirely focused on children.
Camelot Foundation
020 7828 6085
info@camelotfoundation.org.uk
The Camelot Foundation runs the Transforming Lives programme, which can provide grants for small to medium sized organisations that:
- work with its priority groups, which are:
- young parents or those at risk of becoming young parents
- young asylum seekers
- young people with mental health problems
- young disabled people
- have imaginative ideas for engaging young people in community life
- share our values and commitment to change.
It also runs the 4front Awards, which aim to develop skills and recognise the leadership potential of young people in its priority groups, and the Strategic Change programmes, which provide the opportunity for the foundation to concentrate on particular issues within its broad field of interest.
Carnegie Trust
01383 721445
The Carnegie UK Trust's Young People's Grants Programme aims to support and promote young people's participation in decision making. It is directly linked with the work of the Carnegie Young People Initiative which promotes the involvement of young people in the key decisions that affect their lives by influencing policy and practice.
The grants programme seeks to support projects that pilot new ways of increasing young people's participation in decision making and applications should satisfy most of the following criteria:
- participation
- social and educational development
- empowerment
- inclusion
- sustainability
- innovation.
Charities Aid Foundation
01732 520000
grants@cafonline.org
The Charities Aid Foundation Grant Programme aims to support the development of small to medium sized charitable organisations by improving finances, governance and management.
The following funds are available:
- support for training or consultancy needs
- fast track fund
- consultancy fund
- support for immediate needs
- critical assistance fund
- partnership with CAF
- collaborative fund
- access fund.
Comic Relief
020 7820 5555
red@comicrelief.com
Comic Relief offer small grants of under £5,000 and main grants for amounts over that. Grants are made to organisations to help tackle a variety of issues and assist disadvantaged groups.
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
020 7297 4700
info@esmeefairbairn.org.uk
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation makes grants in four programme areas:
- Arts and Heritage
- Education
- Environment
- Social Development.
The Education programme covers two broad areas of interest: new approaches to education; and hard-to-reach learners. The Environment programme aims to support work that improves the quality of public spaces and helps local food networks and organic or less intensive farming. The Social Development programme aims to improve the lives of people and communities facing disadvantage.
Gannochy Trust
Kincarrathie House Drive
Pitcullen Crescent
Perth
PH2 7HX
01738 620653
The Gannochy Trust provides grants which can be up to £200,000 to groups that are registered as charities. It supports a variety of projects and organisations under the following general themes:
- health
- education
- social welfare
- recreation
- arts.
J. Paul Getty Jr Charitable Trust
020 7486 1859
The trust aims to support projects that help alleviate poverty and favours small community and local projects which make good use of volunteers. It provides grants under the following themes:
- social welfare
- arts
- conservation
- environment.
HBOS Foundation
0845 673 2005
The HBOS Foundation can provide support under the following themes:
- money advice and financial literacy, for example organisations promoting financial awareness and money advice
- social inclusion, for example projects that bring people back into the community such as the disabled, the elderly and ethnic minorities
- lifelong learning, enhancing learning opportunities across all age groups and sectors.
Lankelly Foundation
01235 820044
The Lankelly Foundation offers support to a variety of organisations and projects. Its current funding priorities are:
- elderly
- families and children
- homelessness
- mental health
- neighbourhood work
- penal affairs
- physical and learning disabilities
- young people.
In addition, a sum of money is set aside each year to be distributed in small grants to summer playschemes.
Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland
0870 902 1201
enquiries@fundingthefuture.org.uk
The Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland provides grants under a number of different programmes with most of them being allocated through the Standard Grant Scheme, which supports local community organisations.
It also offers support through the Capacity Building programme, which offers charities support with their infrastructure. The foundation also works with the Scottish Executive and Atlantic Philanthropies on the Partnership Drugs Initiative, which supports children living with parents with an addiction.
Nationwide Foundation
01793 655113
the.foundation@nationwide.co.uk
The Nationwide Foundation provides a range of grant support under the following headings:
- Rural communities, for example community-based learning; befriending schemes
- Volunteering programmes, for example involving disadvantaged people in volunteering opportunities; training, further education and employment for volunteers; projects working for the benefit of disadvantaged groups.
The Robertson Trust
0141 221 3151
admin@therobertsontrust.org.uk
The current priority areas for funding by the Robertson Trust are:
- Care, for example supporting those with disabilities or mental health problems
- Drug prevention and treatment, including projects working with children at risk of misusing drugs
- Education, including capital developments at educational establishments, particularly where community use is encouraged; projects for young people with special needs; and informal community-based education activities such as youth training and home-school links.
Scottish Churches Community Trust
0141 336 3766
admin@scct.org.uk
The Scottish Churches Community Trust is an inter-church initiative in Scotland. Rooted in Christian principles, it seeks to relieve poverty by providing grants, resources and support for local work with disadvantaged people which addresses spiritual, social and economic needs.
The trust is a partnership between most of the churches in Scotland. Current members are:
- Baptist Union
- Congregational Federation
- Church of Scotland
- Methodist Church
- Religious Society of Friends
- Roman Catholic Church
- Scottish Episcopal Church
- United Free Church
- United Reformed Church.
Scottish Community Foundation
0131 524 0300 or 0141 225 6670
smartgiving@scottishcommunityfoundation.com
The Scottish Community Foundation offers one-off Community Grants of up to £5000 to assist charities and groups in improving the quality of life and life chances in Scotland. Grants are awarded particularly in circumstances where funding is hard to find and where it can have a significant impact in enabling groups to fulfil their own objectives. Grants are made to groups across a wide spectrum of social welfare and community development activities.
Henry Smith Charity
020 7320 6884
The Henry Smith Charity provides funding through a variety of programmes including the Special List, for one-off grants, the General List, an annual award for up to three years and Small Grants for organisations with an income of up to £100,000.
It supports projects working in the following areas:
- Young people, including those at risk and living in areas of deprivation
- Drugs and alcohol, including those at risk of developing misuse problems
- Community service projects that offer support in areas of considerable deprivation
- Family services working to support families at risk
- Holidays for children from areas of considerable deprivation or with a disability.
Tesco Charity Trust
01992 646768
Tesco Charity Trust runs the Community Awards Scheme, which offers one-off grants of between £1500 and £5000. These are allocated in two rounds of funding as follows:
- organisations supporting children's welfare and children's educational projects, including special needs schools (January deadline)
- organisations supporting elderly people and people with disabilities (June deadline).
Age Concern Scotland
0845 833 9315
enquiries@acscot.org.uk
Age Concern Scotland may be able to provide funding for cross-generational projects and runs a variety of programmes offering grants ranging from less than £500 up to £5000.
Enterprising Solutions
020 7793 2319
award@socialenterprise.org.uk
Enterprising Solutions offers a £10,000 prize and four runner-up prizes of £5000 in a competition to recognise the work of social enterprises. Applications are invited from all enterprises regardless of size.
Applicants must show how their enterprising solution is innovative in meeting social needs, have at least a three-year track record of financing 50 per cent of their work through enterprise, and provide evidence of a commitment to social justice.
Forward Scotland
0141 222 5600
enquiries@forward-scotland.org.uk
Forward Scotland runs a small grants scheme offering funding of up to £1000 to groups to pursue an environmental project with wider social or economic benefits. The grants can be provided for preparatory work for large projects, such as feasibility studies, community capacity building, consultation exercises and publicity.
Groundswell UK
020 7737 5500
info@groundswell.org.uk
Groundswell UK's Small Grant Award Scheme provides grants for projects that are run by homeless and ex-homeless people, and those that actively involve homeless people in decision making. Awards will be made for innovative, community-based projects that empower homeless and ex-homeless people.
Community Food and Health (Scotland)
0141 226 5261
cfh@scotconsumer.org.uk
The Community Food and Health (Scotland), formerly called the Scottish Community Diet Project, small grants scheme offers financial support for new and existing food initiatives.
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations
0800 169 0022
directgrants@scvo.org.uk
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations can provide information and advice on sources of funding. The Money pages of its website has lots of links and contact details of grant providers.
Social Investment Scotland
0131 558 7706
david.herd@socialinvestmentscotland.com
Social Investment Scotland provides a range of loan finance to social economy organisations which:
- are unable to raise funding, either in total or in part, from normal commercial sources such as banks
- have a clear social purpose which will make a real difference to the communities in which they operate
- can demonstrate that the social impact is likely to be long lasting.
Support in kind
BT Community Connections
0845 600 7030
info@btcommunityconnections.com
BT Community Connections offers an award package consisting of a computer, software and a year's free internet access to community groups.
Each package is worth around £1300 and contains:
- an NEC multimedia computer
- one year's free internet connection through BT Yahoo! Anytime
- software provided by Microsoft Community Affairs including Microsoft® Office.
In Kind Direct
020 7714 3930
info@inkinddirect.org
In Kind Direct is a clearing house for unwanted goods from the corporate sector. It publishes a catalogue with available goods each month and offers a huge variety of goods from computers to clothing at discounted prices.
The B&Q You Can Do It Community Awards provide projects with materials worth £5000 to help transform their facilities and premises. The awards are offered on an annual basis to local community organisations for DIY projects that will make a real difference to local people.
