Partnerships

We can fund a partnership (both new partnerships, and one that’s already been set up) as long as they're led by an eligible organisation. They can be made up of the types of organisations we’ve listed below.

You can apply if you’re a:

• voluntary and community organisation
• registered, exempt or excepted charity
• charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
• not-for-profit company limited by guarantee - you must be a registered charity OR have a not-for-profit 'asset lock' clause in your articles of association
• community interest company (CIC)
• school
• statutory body (including local authorities, town, parish or community council)
• community benefit society
• a co-operative society - you must have a not-for-profit 'asset lock' clause in your society rules and also be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

If you’re an unincorporated group

It might be appropriate for you to incorporate. We suggest you explore this and consider the implications for your organisation.

We cannot accept applications from:

• individuals
• sole traders
• organisations based outside the UK
• anyone who’s applying for another organisation
• organisations that look to make profits and share these profits out privately - including companies limited by shares, organisations without the right asset locks, or organisations that can pay profits to directors or shareholders.

Board or committee members

It’s really important that organisations that apply have at least two people on their board or committee who are not related.

By related, we mean:

• married to each other
• in a civil partnership with each other
• in a long-term relationship with each other
• living together at the same address
• related by blood.

If you’re not sure if you can apply

Contact us.

The projects we fund

When organisations work in partnership, they help communities to thrive - by focusing on the bigger picture, rather than just what their organisation can do on its own.

We’re looking for partnerships where everyone takes responsibility to work toward their shared goals together, while offering their own insights and perspectives. We call this 'generous leadership'.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still with us, we'll continue to support people and communities most adversely impacted by COVID-19. We can support you and your partners to:

• continue to deliver activity together, whether you're responding to the immediate crisis or supporting recovery activity
• change, share and adapt, becoming stronger together in order to respond to new and future challenges.

In order to support communities to thrive, we aim to:

• build strong relationships in and across communities
• improve the places and spaces that matter to communities
• help more people to reach their potential, by supporting them at the earliest possible stage.

You can expect us to be flexible and responsive to your community’s needs:

• whether you need long- or shorter-term funding

• whether your request is for a particular activity or to create more fundamental change
• whether the funding is to support a single organisation or to bring organisations together.

The different types of partnership we fund:

• cross-sector partnerships
• local place-based collaboration
• local and national organisations working together around a particular theme.

We're also looking for projects to be people-led, strengths-based and connected

We firmly believe that when people are in the lead, communities thrive – we want your funding proposal to demonstrate this clearly.

People understand what’s needed in their communities better than anyone, especially during these unprecedented times. We want to support projects that:

• involve people and communities from the start 
• build on people’s strengths  
• are connected in their community.

Involving people and communities from the start (or 'people-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?
• What can I do to find out what’s important to people in my community during COVID-19? For example, online surveys, virtual meetings, telephone calls, conversations with helper agencies and engaging with stakeholders.
• Who's involved in delivering my project? Think about encouraging people who benefit from your project to get more involved in running your organisation and making decisions. For example, they could become trustees or volunteers, or you could find ways to employ them.

This short video explains it. It might be helpful when you’re putting your application together.

Building on people's strengths (or '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?
• 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?

Connected in their community (or '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?

If your project works with children, young people or vulnerable adults

You need to have a policy in place that explains how they'll be safe. And we might ask to see this policy, if we decide to give you funding. The NSPCC have lots of helpful advice about setting up and following good child safeguarding policies.

Equalities, diversity and inclusion:

• We want to know your organisation’s approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.
• We expect your organisation and the activities we fund to be open and accessible, to promote equalities and challenge discrimination.
• We would like to understand your approach to equalities, from accessibility to participation and decision making. So we might ask to see your organisation’s equalities policy as part of our assessment.

You can read more about our equality principles.

Environment

We all have a responsibility to protect the environment for future generations. This includes the communities and projects we support. You can find out more about how to reduce your environmental impact.

We also expect you to be satisfied that your partners have the relevant safeguarding, equality and environmental policies and procedures in place too.

We can fund:

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

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
• political activities
• things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now
• loan repayments
• the topping up of organisation reserves.

If you're ready to start your proposal

Apply online Continue online application