What we’re looking to fund
With this funding, we want to help strengthen communities and improve lives across England.
Our funding is available to all communities. But our priority is the places, people and communities that need it most.
Our priorities
We’re most likely to fund projects that:
- support places, people or communities experiencing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
- support people and communities to shape the decisions that affect their lives
Your project must also help achieve one of our missions. We can fund existing work and new projects.
By ‘project’, we mean the work you want us to fund.
Supporting places, people or communities experiencing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
Where and who your project will support
We want to support communities that are under the most pressure, particularly people who find it hardest to access support.
We’ll prioritise:
- places with higher levels of poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
- communities that are least set up to support people
- projects or organisations that work with people experiencing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
If your project focuses on a particular area, tell us where. We’ll look at background statistics to understand the level of need. This helps us direct more funding to the places, people and communities that need it most.
If your project supports a community that is not based in one location, such as people who share an identity, background or experience, we’ll consider:
- what challenges they face across England
- whether they are being treated less fairly or excluded from support
If your project works in multiple areas or aims to reach people across all of England, we’ll also look at:
- why you chose those places
- how your project meets our priorities in each one
- how it responds to local needs or helps make things fairer
- how you’ll work with local voluntary and community organisations
We will only fund projects that explain why they’re working in different areas and have clearly involved their communities across these areas in developing the project.
How your project will support people
We want to support projects that reach people who need it the most. You’ll need to show:
- who your project is for
- how you’ll reach them
- how you’ll remove barriers that might stop them taking part
Your experience and approach
We’re also interested in your experience. Tell us how you’ve worked with people who face challenges and how your project builds on that.
Supporting people and communities to shape the decisions that affect their lives
We want the people and communities who will benefit from your project to be involved in shaping it. We want you to involve your community in designing, delivering and managing your project in a clear and active way.
Who leads or runs the organisation
We’re more likely to fund organisations that are run or led by people with lived experience of the issues the project focuses on. This could include staff, trustees or volunteers.
How your community influences what matters to them
Show us how your project will give your community real power to shape the things that matter to them. This might involve:
- helping improve the services they use
- having a say in decisions, plans and public services that affect their lives
Making it work for the people who need it most
We know this kind of work is not always easy. We can fund you to approach it in a way that works for your community.
We’re especially interested in projects that support communities that are currently least empowered. These are often the same communities already facing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination. That’s where this kind of work can make the biggest difference.
This could include people who face discrimination or disadvantage because of:
- living in an area of high poverty
- having a disability
- their gender, sexuality or race
- a combination of many things
Your project must help achieve one of our missions
Your project must help achieve one of these missions. It’s fine if it helps achieve more, but it will not improve your chances of getting funded.
Come together
We’re looking for projects that help people build connections and strengthen their communities. You need to show how your project will:
- provide inclusive places, spaces and activities (either physical or virtual), especially for communities where people are least able to come together
Help children and young people thrive
We’re looking for projects that support children and young people to feel safe, grow in confidence, and have a say in their lives. You need to show how your project will:
- develop positive social and emotional skills
- provide safe spaces and relationships they can trust
- involve them, and their families, in the decisions that affect their lives
- help prevent issues before they happen
Be healthier
We’re looking for projects that address health inequalities and support people and help prevent poor health. You need to show how your project will:
- support people most affected by health inequalities
- help prevent health issues before they happen
- support people who experience poor health through factors such as poverty, lack of education, limited job opportunities, harm and barriers to support
We’re also interested in projects that give people who’ve experienced health inequalities a say in how the health system works.
Be environmentally sustainable
We’re looking for projects that help communities take action on climate and nature. Your project should meet one of the following:
- empower people to engage with climate issues and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate
- support communities to take part in activities to make a positive environmental impact, like reducing carbon emissions or creating space for wildlife
- help communities to have access to nature, by increasing the amount and quality of natural space for wildlife. Meaning that people can experience nature around them, and that more varieties of wildlife can thrive