News article

The Leeds Fund: Micro Grants programme

Description

The Micro Grants programme seeks to provide community grants of up to £500 that will support locally-based community activity across the city. You can apply as an individual or a small group (income of the group must be under £2,500 per year).

You will know best what is needed in your community, but examples might include developing a new community garden; personal development workshops; skill development classes or activities that teach new skills and encourage independence and inter-generational activities.

Area
You must be based in Leeds and the project activities must benefit residents of Leeds.

Amount
You can apply for grants between £100 – £500.

Closing Date

This is a rolling grant programme, so applications can be submitted at any time. At the start of each month, we will assess the applications received in the previous month and provide a response to you within the first two weeks of the month after which your application was submitted (although during busy periods this may take longer).

Fund Criteria
Fund Criteria can be found here. Please read this before applying.

An overview of the Micro Grants programme can be found here and shared with anyone who is interested in applying. For further information on The Leeds Fund please click here.

To Apply Please fill in the application form which can be found here.

The Leeds Fund: Small Grants Programme

Description

The Leeds Fund encapsulates Leeds Community Foundation’s values and vision of creating a city of opportunity for all. The Small Grants seek to provide community grants of between £500 and £2,500 that will support locally-based community activity across the city.

Current focus: Community cohesion and capacity buildingThe current round of The Leeds Fund: Small Grants is focused on community cohesion and capacity building.

Area
Organisations must be based in Leeds and be benefiting Leeds residents.

Amount
You can apply for grants of £500 – £2,500.

Closing Date
The deadline for the receipt of all applications is 6 September 2018.

We aim to inform successful applicants by the end of October 2018. Funding allocated should be spent within 12 months of receipt.

Fund Criteria
If you are interested in making an application to this programme, please click here to read the full criteria before you start. If you have any questions, please contact our friendly Grants Team on grants@leedscf.org.uk or 0113 242 2426.

To ApplyPlease download and read the criteria above. If you are happy that your project is a good fit with the criteria, then click here to complete the online application form.

Previous Rounds
The current round of The Leeds Fund: Small Grants is Round 5. Each of the four previous rounds has had a different theme, depending on local needs. Previous themes have been:
Round One – Skills Enhancement, Social Inclusion and Better Neighbours
Round Two – Strengthening Relationships
Round Three – Community Cohesion
Round Four – Happy Young Minds

Future Rounds
Please contact us if you have suggestions for future round themes for The Leeds Fund: Small Grants.

The Leeds Fund: Strategic Grants 2018: Loneliness and inclusion

Description

The Leeds Fund encapsulates Leeds Community Foundation’s values and vision of creating a city of opportunity for all and distributes small and large grants to reach communities across Leeds.

Background

We established The Leeds Fund to help bridge the gap between those in need and those with the ability to help in a targeted way. The Leeds Fund accepts contributions from individuals and companies wanting to support the city in which they live and work. By working closely and in partnership with the Third Sector and utilising our expertise as a grant maker we have an overview of needs in the city.

Loneliness and Inclusion

Our second The Leeds Fund: Strategic Grants theme is Loneliness and Inclusion with a focus on targeting deprived / less well-resourced communities and / or areas of activity. The aim is to improve the social networks and resilience of disadvantaged communities and individuals through activities such as peer support, volunteering and skill-sharing, and through partnership work with locally based organisations, including those not usually seen as working on this issue. Priority will be given to activity that directly engages people with lived experience of loneliness and inclusion in creating, developing and maintaining support networks i.e. co-production. For more information about loneliness and inclusion, see the full fund criteria here.

We are looking for expressions of interest

At these stage, we’re looking for expressions of interest from organisations with an idea to tackle loneliness and/or support inclusion.

Organisations must be able to show that their idea would address a specific need in their community. We are looking to fund practical projects that provide real, tangible impact, but we recognise that there may be an element of research required and we encourage evaluation costs to be included. We are keen to support projects which are proactive and work with other organisations to refer and signpost to enable people to access a wider range of support. We are also looking for projects that have in-built elements working towards sustainability.

Expressions of interest will help to shape our thinking around loneliness and inclusion, informing our decision making process when we come to make grants and helping to make the case for support to potential donors to the Leeds Fund.To submit an expression of interest, please click here.

Scale of projects

Ultimately, we intend to make grants of between around £10,000 and £25,000 to support locally-based community activities across the city over 18 months, with a possibility of a further extending by 6-12 month funding for successful projects.

We intend to support projects for at least 18 months to ensure a full 12 months of activity and evaluation, allowing time for projects to gather momentum.

Process and Timelines

1. Organisations with relevant ideas are invited to submit an Expression of Interest form online by clicking here. The deadline for the receipt of Expressions of Interest Forms is 12 noon on 16 August
2. Expressions of interest will help to shape our thinking about loneliness and inclusion
3. We will select expressions of interest which we believe have strong potential to tackle loneliness and/or promote inclusion, inviting organisations to access the full application form during the week commencing 27 August. The deadline for the submission of full applications will be 27 September
4. We aim to inform successful applicants early in November
5. Funding allocated should be spent within 18 months of receipt
6. Our intention is to increase the amount of money available through raising further funding to enable extension for successful projects

Fund criteria

If you are interested in making an expression of interest, please click here to read the full fund criteria before you start. If you have any questions, please contact our friendly Grants Team on grants@leedscf.org.uk or 0113 242 2426.

Submit an Expression of Interest form

Please download and read the full fund criteria. If you have an idea which you feel is a good fit with the fund criteria, then please click here to complete the online Expression of Interest form.

Previous Rounds

The first round of the Leeds Fund: Strategic Grants addressed mental health as a key priority for Leeds. Click here to find out more.

Future Rounds

Please contact us with suggestions for future round themes for The Leeds Fund: Strategic Grants

For further information on The Leeds Fund please click here.

Winter Wellbeing Community Grants Scheme

Description

Leeds Community Foundation is delighted to be running the Winter Wellbeing Community Grants Scheme, with generous support from Leeds City Council Public Health. The fund will support a range of community-based projects that help vulnerable people in Leeds who are most affected by cold weather. This includes households with young children and pregnant women as well as people with a range of physical/mental health problems, on low income, with disabilities, aged over 65 or otherwise vulnerable (see Criteria document below for full information).

We are looking for innovative ideas that support vulnerable people to prepare for and cope with cold weather. We are particularly keen for projects to address social isolation, increase resilience and that help reduce the levels of illness (and deaths) due to vulnerable people living in cold housing. We prefer to fund practical projects that provide real, tangible help as opposed to purely the onward distribution of information. The fund is particularly interested in new, innovative approaches and projects are expected to link with and actively refer to other services.

Area
Leeds Metropolitan District. Your organisation does not need to be based in Leeds but the project you apply for must benefit only residents of Leeds.

Amount

Grants of up to £2,500 are available for local community projects and up to £5,000 for citywide projects.

Closing Date
5pm on Wednesday 29th August 2018. Applicants will receive the panel’s decision by email in the first week of October. Funding must be spent and projects delivered by 31st March 2019.

Criteria
Please click here to download the full Criteria for this grants scheme (pdf).

To Apply
Please download and read the full Criteria document above. Once you have done this, click here to access the online application form.

Queries If you have any queries, please contact the Grants Team on 0113 242 2426 or grants@leedscf.org.uk
We are happy to discuss your idea with you before you apply.

Lowell Giving Community Fund

Description

This fund aims to support financial literacy and employability skills. The programme will invest in activities that seek to alleviate the underlying problems that cause challenges in these areas and prevent enjoyment of a full modern life. Grants of £5,000 up to £20,000 are available for applicants supporting people based within Leeds.

Overview

Leeds Community Foundation is proud to be working with Lowell in a new grants initiative. Lowell is a Leeds based business operating in the credit management and business services sector. As part of Lowell’s commitment to the city of Leeds, we are delighted to announce the launch of a new grants programme Lowell Giving Community Fund which aims to support financial literacy and employability skills.

The focus of the Fund is for the delivery of projects that will improve people’s personal finance capabilities (debt and financial advice/education), address issues of low educational attainment and improve learning outcomes, Improve financial literacy or employability skills and provide people with opportunities to reduce inequality, exclusion and disadvantage, including projects which increase access to employment. Click here to apply

Area

 Leeds Metropolitan District Area

Amount 

Grants of £5000 to £20,000 are available. We have a pot of £125,000 available to distribute. Applicants should have an annual income in-between £10,000-£500,000 in the most recent financial year.

Briefing Events

We are holding a briefing event for potential applications to hear more about the fund, ask questions and discuss ideas. You do not have to attend an event in order to apply but it is a good opportunity to learn more about the aims and criteria.

10:00 – 12:00pm, Thursday 2 August
Elizabeth House
13-19 Queen Street
Leeds
LS1 2TW

Click here to book your place

Award Criteria

Please read the full Award Criteria before applying to ensure that you are eligible; Click here to download the criteria document.

Closing Date

Deadline 12 noon, Thursday 30 August 2018. Decisions will be announced at the end of October.

To Apply 

Please download and read the criteria above. You can the click here to access the application form
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