Grants for organisations - Barnwood Trust

Grants for organisations

As part of the development of Unlocking Opportunities, our ten-year investment plan we have reviewed the way we make grants and allocate funding to organisations.

Grants of less than £750 for organisations

Grants for holidays and play schemes are available to organisations with a demonstrable track record of providing holidays, trips or play schemes for Gloucestershire people with a disability. These grants are fast-tracked – and have a dedicated application form (see right).

Small grants (under £750) to organisations already known to the Trust are unchanged. The application process for these grants will also remain the same – application form and instructions for applying, see right.

Grants for up to £750 for village halls to make adaptations for people with disabilities are still available. These must meet the eligibility criteria agreed with Gloucestershire Rural Community Council.  Please apply to Barbara Pond at GRCC for details email bpond@grcc.org.uk or call 01452 528491.

Grants for organisations in excess of £750

We no longer award open application grants for sums over £750. For the foreseeable future, the Trust will be making funding available to communities across Gloucestershire on a proactive, not a reactive, basis. This means that the Trust will be seeking to fund specific types of activity, not responding to requests from organisations.

The Trust will make funding available in the future in a number of different ways:

• We will fund the capacity of organisations to participate as partners in our new community animation programme (click here for more information on our ten-year investment plan). The programme, to be run by BasicNeeds, will be recruiting local organisations, initially from within rural communities and market towns, to form partnerships with them to animate local communities and people with disabilities and mental health problems. Funding will be made available to cover the costs of these organisations to work as partners.
  
  
• Within the community animation programme there will also be seed funds for community-based projects involving people with disabilities and mental health problems.  As communities develop initiatives and ideas for supporting people with disabilities and mental health problems to take charge of their own lives, seed funds will be available to enable these initiatives to get off the ground. Within the community animation team there will also be support (financial and non-financial) for communities in developing fundraising and social enterprise skills to enable individuals, groups and organisations to develop business plans and fundraising strategies and applications to enable initiatives to become sustainable.
  
  
• Barnwood Trust will also be making matched-funding grants available for other community-based initiatives that develop through our new policy and influencing programme. In collaboration with alliances of Gloucestershire-based organisations the Trust will identify issues that would benefit from funding to develop creative solutions. Application processes will be set up at that time.
  
  

How organisations in Gloucestershire can apply for this funding

• Partners in the community animation programme will be sought by our community animation team once it has been established, by the autumn of 2011. The team will act reactively by responding to expressions of interest in participating in the community animation programme from organisations across Gloucestershire. It will also act proactively by talking to organisations in areas where there is interest in participating. Once partner organisations have been identified, funding to cover their costs in participating will be agreed with them on a contractual basis. Information about the partnerships will appear on this website in late summer 2011.
  
  
• Seed funds for community-based projects will be allocated in response to applications which emerge from within communities as they and the community animation team engage together. There will not be an open application process for these funds. It is anticipated that these opportunities will begin to arise during 2012, and we will update this website to keep you informed.
  
  
• Matched-funding grants for other community-based initiatives will be made available as issues requiring creative solutions are identified, alliances created to address them and funding needs identified. The conditions for these grants to begin are unlikely to be met until sometime in 2012. It is envisaged that it will take that amount of time to form alliances and identify if funding is needed to develop creative solutions, and how matched-funding could best be achieved. We will update this website to keep you appraised of these opportunities during 2012.
  
  

For how long will this type of funding continue?

Unlocking Opportunities, Barnwood Trust’s community-based initiative, is a ten-year plan. These funding streams are likely to remain available across that ten-year period. However as this is a community-based initiative, the Trust will also be monitoring carefully to see how the initiative develops and, if changes to these funding streams are required, it will make them.

How can organisations engage in this work and become eligible for funding?

Please get in touch with Barnwood Trust’s Chief Executive Dr Sally Byng by email sally.byng@barnwoodtrust.org or by calling 01452 613616 if:

• your organisation is interested in becoming a partner in the community animation programme
• you are interested in finding out more about the seed funds for community-based projects which will be available through the community animation programme
• you are interested in the programme and the potential for community-based projects enabling people with disabilities and mental health problems to take charge of their own lives – but do not think you want to be a partner
• your organisation is interested in getting involved in engaging with Barnwood Trust to form countywide alliances to find creative solutions to systemic issues affecting the ability of people with disabilities and mental health problems to take charge of their own lives
• you are interested in talking with the Trust about how it makes funds available in the future.

Any questions?

Please contact us if you have any queries. 

You can reach Gail Rodway, our Grants Manager on 01452 611292 or email gail.rodway@barnwoodtrust.org

We will do all we can to help.