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

The projects we fund

The projects we fund for People and Communities 

We fund projects that work to make positive changes in their community – whether that’s a community living in the same area, or people with similar interests or life experiences.

We're supporting projects that: 

  1. help people make changes to improve their lives 

  1. help communities build on their strengths and share things they’ve learned 

We're also supporting organisations to change and adapt to new and future challenges, including the current cost-of-living crisis. 

We're funding projects that are: 

Community-led 

We believe that people understand what's needed in their communities better than anyone. So it’s important to us that you involve your community in the design, development and delivery of the activities you’re planning. 

You might want to ask yourself: 

  • Have I spoken to the people in my community? 

  • Have the people in my community told me what they need and what’s important to them? 

  • Have I listened to them and used what they’ve said to create my project? 

Strengths-based 

We’d like to support people and communities to build on the knowledge, skills and experience they already have, to make the changes they want. 

You might want to ask yourself: 

  • What’s already working in my community? 

  • How will my project add to these positive things that are already working? 

  • How will my project make the most of any resources that are already helping my community? 

Connected 

We want to know that you’ve a good understanding of other activities and services in your community. We’d like to see how you’ll compliment these. So you can add value to what’s already there. 

You might want to ask yourself: 

  • Have I spoken to other groups in the area that are doing something similar to my project? 

  • Have I thought about how we can all help each other? 

Land and building projects 

If your project will include land or buildings, you should read our Land and Buildings guidance (PDF 221KB). 

Environmental impact 

We encourage and support all projects and communities to consider their environmental impact when designing their projects. 

For example, if your project requires a vehicle to help support your community, we expect you to have considered whether an electric or hybrid option is a viable alternative to petrol or diesel. Electric or hybrid vehicles will help reduce your projects carbon footprint, but it can also save you money on fuel, tax, and servicing. 

If your project involves a building we expect you to consider how you can reduce its environmental impact and therefore its running costs. 

This could include: 

  • choosing to use more sustainable, environmentally friendly or recycled materials as much as possible 

  • conserving water by ‘harvesting’ rainwater (it is free after all) with water butts or reusing ‘grey’ water (the water from sinks, showers, washing machines, etc.) to flush toilets 

  • reducing the amount of energy your building needs by installing energy efficient lighting and low energy appliances. Or even consider generating your own energy by installing solar panels 

  • reducing the amount of heat your building making sure your building is a well-insulated as possible or consider more efficient alternatives to oil or gas such as infra-red heating, heat pumps or biomass boilers 

  • considering what will happen to all the waste that will be generated from your building project and commit to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible