Funding Available – Vision Foundation
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Funding Available

We've put together a collection of funders who have COVID-19 related funds open at the moment.

Image shows an exercise session at London South Bank University.

This page was last updated on Thursday 16th July 2020

Funding Available

London Community Response Fund: London’s funders are working together to provide coordinated funding to support groups responding to the needs of communities affected by the covid-19 pandemic. The third wave of funding opened on July 1 and focusses on equality and inclusion, building strong connections with people at risk of the negative impacts of covid-19 and smaller organisations with a turnover under £1million. The Vision Foundation’s pledge of £100,000 to help charities supporting blind and partially sighted people in London is being distributed through this Fund.

Julia & Hans Rausing Trust Charity Survival Fund: The Charity Survival Fund has been set up in response to Julia and Hans’ ongoing concern about Covid-19’s economic impact on charities. This £10m Fund will provide core funding to help charities, especially small and medium sized, to offset lost income in the current financial year. The Trust’s three areas of focus are Health and Wellbeing, Welfare and Education and Arts and Culture.

East End Community Foundation: The East End Community Foundation is helping to distribute funds raised through the National Emergencies Trust, in addition to making its own funds available through an East End Emergency Fund.

National Lottery Community Fund: The Government announced a £750 million package of support for charities to ensure they can continue their work during the coronovirus outbreak. A proportion of this money is being distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund from 22 May 2020.

London Community Foundation: Funds raised through the National Emergencies Trust are being distributed by Community Foundations. The London Community Foundation is helping to distribute these funds, as well as offering funds raised from other sources.

Sport for Good Response Fund: Grants of up to €10,000 are available for sport and social impact organizations to help overcome challenges faced as a result of COVID-19. These challenges may include issues such as staff shortages, reduced income, difficulty delivering the program, lack of digital capability, or a strategy that is no longer fit for purpose.

Magic Little Grants:  Postcode Community Trust and Localgiving have teamed up to offer charities small grants of £500. The fund will be awarding over 900 grants to community projects across Great Britain that support and inspire people to participate in sports or exercise with the primary aim of improving the physical health of participants. Charities will need to sign up to become a free member of LocalGiving as part of the application process.

Yapp Charitable Trust: Registered charities that have been established for more than three years and have an expenditure of less that £40,000 each year can apply for a grant around a number of focus areas inclusive of People with physical impairments, learning difficulties or mental health challenges, the elderly and education and learning.

Youth Futures Foundation: As part of the response to Covid-19 Youth Futures Foundation have significantly increased funding available for development and impact grants to rapidly increase youth employment provision.

Crowdfunder: To help charities and volunteer groups tackle problems caused by Covid-19, Crowdfunder is making it free to fundraise on their site.

Charity Excellence Framework: A free COVID-19 funder database has been created by Charity Excellence Framework. It is searchable using multiple criteria and contains information on over 500 UK and international funders. Users need to create an account and login to access it.

Funds to Watch

Charities Aid Foundation: CAF has launched an emergency fund offering one-off grants of up to £10,000 to small charities and social enterprises that are struggling during the current crisis. Organisations with a turnover up to £1m can apply.

Sport England: Up to £195 million of funding has been made available to help the sport and physical activity sector through the ongoing coronavirus crisis. The package has a number of elements, including a £35million Community Emergency Fund.

Mind’s Coronavirus Mental Health Response Fund: Thanks to £5m support from government (the Department of Health and Social Care), grants of £20,000 or £50,000 are available for projects lasting up to 12 months. The aim is to help VCS organisations based in England continue to provide mental health services – or provide additional support.

United in Hammersmith and Fulham: Small grants of £100-1,000 are available to groups supporting Hammersmith & Fulham residents. They welcome creative project ideas that help others adjust to and live through social distancing, help people cope with anxiety and help resolve practical consequences of isolation.

Lloyds Bank Foundation’s React Fund: If you are an existing grant holder of Lloyds Bank Funding, then these grants are available to enable you to react to, recover from and renew services in the crisis. The first round of funding focusses on supporting small organisations to react to the crisis. Funds will be made available for new applicants in the Summer.

Independent Age Grants Fund: The Grants Fund comprises of four separate funding rounds with the next one opening on 17th August. In each round Independent Age are making £500,000 available and organisations can apply to receive up to £15,000 each. The focus is on smaller organisations across the UK working with older people hardest hit by the virus.

Support with Applications

We know that researching and applying to these can be time-consuming and over-whelming. If you are a sight loss charity working in London and have no more than one full-time fundraiser on staff at present, we can help you apply to trusts and foundations for funding to support your charity’s needs relating to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Please contact Dimple Ichharam, our Trusts Fundraising Manager, at dichharam@visionfoundation.org.uk for more information. Depending on your situation, we can help with:

  • Researching relevant trusts and foundations;
  • Reviewing applications you have drafted;
  • Drafting and submitting applications on your behalf.