Funding

LOTTERY MILLIONS TO HELP COMMUNITIES BLOOM FOR DIAMOND JUBILEE

 

The Big Lottery Fund in partnership with ITV, and with the approval of Buckingham Palace, is marking the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a special roll-out of 60 Lottery grants.

 

The £60,000 Jubilee People’s Millions awards are being made to go to new projects next year that will inspire or improve local communities.

 

The Jubilee People’s Millions launches today (Friday 26 Nov). ITV news presenters Mark Austin and Mary Nightingale showed their support at Buckingham Palace with previous People’s Millions winners.

 

Community groups across the UK are being invited to bid for a share of the £3.6 million from the Big Lottery Fund good cause pot. Finalists will be showcased on ITV regional news when the public will vote and decide which projects receive the Lottery Diamond Jubilee funding.   

 

Speaking outside Buckingham Palace, ITV News Presenter, Mary Nightingale said: “This is a great way to help mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and for communities to come together to help benefit local people.” 

 

ITV News Presenter Mark Austin added: “2012 will be a very special year and we hope that The Jubilee People’s Millions will inspire people right across the UK to think about how they could use Lottery funding for the benefit of people in their area.”

 

Anna Southall, Vice Chair of the Big Lottery Fund, said: “The Jubilee People’s Millions is a fantastic opportunity to call on the strength of British community spirit to create projects that make a real difference.”

 

 “We want to encourage as many people as possible to think about what they could do with £60,000 of Lottery money in their local area with the benefits being reaped during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year.”

 

Details of how to apply can be found on www.biglotteryfund.org.uk or by phoning 0845 10 20 30. Groups have until 4 February 2011 to get their entries in. The projects that receive the most votes will be awarded the funding next summer (2011), in order to be up and running in time for the Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee year, 2012.

 

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Regional Briefing Sessions for Transition Fund

The Cabinet Office has launched a new £100million Transition Fund to help the charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises that are affected by  public spending cuts to make necessary adjustments so that they can continue to play an important part in public service reform and the Big Society Agenda.

 

The Transition Fund will help civil society organisations which deliver high quality public services to be more resilient, agile and able to take opportunities presented by a changing funding environment.

 

The Office for Civil Society has appointed BIG Fund (non-Lottery funding operation of the Big Lottery Fund) to administer the fund. We are holding briefing events in the West Midlands on December 10 for civil society organisations which meet the criteria below and are interested in applying to the Transition Fund.

 

Please forward this invitation on to charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises which meet the criteria and may be interested in applying to the fund.

 

The briefing events are open to charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises which meet the following criteria:

1.    Civil society organisations with an income of between £50,000 and £10 million

2.    At least 60% of your income is from taxpayer funded sources

3.    You must spend at least 50% of your taxpayer funded income on service provision in at least one of the following areas – health and social care; homelessness; education and training; offender rehabilitation; welfare to work/ employment services; children and families; debt counselling and legal advice

4.    Your free reserves must not be more than six months

5.    You face significant cuts; you will experience cuts of least 30% of your taxpayer funded income in 2011/12, as compared to your most recent set of signed annual accounts

6.    The minimum grant size is £12.5k and grants will meet no more than half your taxpayer funded income. This means that you will have lost at least £25k

7.    The majority of the grant expenditure will be on change activities

8.    You are delivering the majority of your services in England.

 

Further eligibility information is available from our website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/funding-uk?fromsearch=-uk

To register for the event, please  email transitionwm@bigfund.org.uk  by Monday 6^th December, 5.pm with your name, phone number, organisation, address and any access requirements. Please also choose which two hour session you are able to attend. We expect demand to be high for these events and there are a limited number of places in each session, so please indicate all of the dates and times you are available.

• 10 December at 10am until 12.pm  - Birmingham
• 10 December at 1.30pm until 3.30pm  - Birmingham

Due to space constraints, registration is limited to one person per organisation. Spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

 

If you are unable to attend a briefing session, all of the information you need on eligibility and applying is available on our website here:

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/funding-uk?fromsearch=-uk

 

After the regional briefing sessions we will also upload all of the information from the events including the presentation to the website.

 

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Extra Funding for Existing Staffordshire Aiming High Providers

Greggs Foundation

The Greggs Foundation, has a regional grants programme across England, Scotland and Wales administered by volunteers from its shops, bakeries and offices.

 

Small grants can be given to local not for profit organisations that help people in need in their local area. In addition, the Foundation prioritises:

• People with caring responsibilities
• People with disabilities
• Homeless people
• Older people.

Greggs will also provide Greggs (bakery) products for community events and activities.

 

You can apply be letter, which should be not more than two sides of A4.

Full details, including exclusions, are on the website here

 

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