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Welcome to our new website. You may still see some pages from our old site as we move things over.

What you can spend the money on

What we can fund

We can fund direct project costs, such as:

  • equipment
  • one-off events
  • staff costs
  • training
  • transport
  • utilities
  • volunteer expenses
  • translation costs
  • marketing and communication costs
  • evaluation costs
  • professional and legal fees
  • small land or refurbishment projects

We can also fund some indirect project costs (sometimes called overheads). This might include:

  • rent or insurance
  • part of a salary for someone not working directly on the project, such as a senior manager or admin worker

For example, if the project you’re applying for makes up half of your organisation’s work, we may fund half of your overheads. This is sometimes known as full cost recovery. You can read more in our guide to full cost recovery.

Capital costs

We can fund some capital costs, but we will not fund projects that are mainly for capital costs.

This can include buying land, refurbishing spaces or landscaping to help you run your project.

For example, to pay for greenhouses or other small shelters to run activities in.

Funding for land or refurbishment projects

If you need to pay for land or refurbishment costs, you need to either:

  • own the land or building,
  • have a lease that cannot be ended for five years,
  • have a letter from the owner saying the land or building will be leased to you for at least five years, or
  • have an official letter from the owner or landlord that says you're allowed to do work on the building

You should also find out if you’ll need planning permission for the work.

What we cannot fund

We cannot fund:

  • retrospective costs (for things that have already happened or you’ve paid for)
  • alcohol
  • contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
  • paying someone to write your application
  • fundraising activities (where you use our funding to raise more money)
  • VAT you can reclaim
  • religious activities (we can fund religious organisations if the project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content)
  • activities that statutory or public bodies are legally required to do
  • activities that help children or young people with schoolwork during school hours
  • overseas travel
  • projects that take place outside of the UK
  • activities that make profits for private gain
  • cash given directly to individuals