What you can spend the money on

What we can fund

We can fund:

• direct costs to deliver activities in your community – such as project staff, materials, equipment, room hire, volunteer expenses and project evaluations
• organisational development – such as business planning, testing new ways of working, staff training and development, developing governance and leadership, tech or IT purchases or upgrades, developing and sharing impact and learning, and increasing capacity to support collaboration and partnership working
• core or fixed costs to support the day-to-day running of your organisation – such as core salaries, rent, utilities, equipment
• purchasing, refurbishing or developing of land and buildings

We can fund some political activity and campaigning

But only if:

• the activity is not party political. This means that it must be about policy, practice, or legislation rather than opposing or supporting a political party.
• the activity is meant to help the cause of your organisation and benefit the public or society.

We will not fund projects where political activities are the main purpose. But we can fund projects that are mainly about campaigning.

If you want to buy a vehicle

We’ll ask you to look into the best option for your project and the planet. You’ll only have to do this if we want to take your proposal further.

As well as environmental issues, you should consider the advantages and disadvantages of different travel options for the project and your organisation. These could include:

• walking
• cycles or scooters to purchase or hire
• bus or tram tickets
• vehicle sharing, car clubs or community transport
• lease or hire of a vehicle
• purchase of used petrol or diesel vehicle (as long as they meet the emissions standards of Euro 6 for diesel or Euro 4 for petrol engines)
• fuel conversion of an older vehicle to alternative fuels such as LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or used cooking oil
• purchase of an electric or hybrid vehicle

What we cannot fund

We cannot fund:

• activities that make profits for private gain
• religious activities (but we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content)
• activities that replace government funding (for example, we can only fund school activities that happen outside of normal teaching hours)
• activities that benefit individuals, rather than the wider community
• projects where political activities are the main purpose, or that support or oppose a specific political party
• lobbying activities
• things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now (retrospective costs)
• loan repayments
• the topping up of organisation reserves