Regional Growth Fund

The Regional Growth Fund is a discretionary £1.4 billion Fund that was to initially operate for three years between 2011 and 2014.  However the chancellor announced in November 2011  that “the Government will increase the Regional Growth Fund for England by £1 billion, and extend it into 2014–15, to provide ongoing support to grow the private sector in areas currently dependent on the public sector.” The Fund’s aim is to stimulate enterprise by supporting projects and programmes with significant potential for creating long-term private sector led economic growth and employment; and helping areas and communities that are currently dependent on the public sector make the transition to sustainable private sector-led growth and prosperity.

The Fund encourages private sector enterprise, including social enterprise, to create opportunities for people and places to adjust to reductions in public spending, and enable private sector investors, business, the public sector and communities to come together with an overall.

Who Qualifies?

Bids will be accepted from private bodies and public private partnerships across England on a challenge basis. We envisage bidding partnerships that include a combination of private sector players, SMEs and social enterprises coming together with public partners. In particular it is expected that Local Enterprise Partnerships will both bid to the Fund and play a role in coordinating bids across areas and communities.

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Comic Relief – UK Grants

Comic Relief’s current programmes include: Mental Health, Domestic and Sexual Abuse, Refugee and Asylum Seeking Women, Sport for Change, Local Communities, Older People.

They can pay for all or some of your project costs, but they encourage you to get some of your funding from other sources if you can. There is no minimum or maximum grant in most of our programmes, but where there are limits, these are clearly stated in the programme guidelines. Their grants on average vary between £25,000 and £40,000 per year, and rarely exceed this upper limit.
They receive many more applications than they are able to fund and they usually only support work which fits their current priorities, so before you apply for funding, please read through all the Essential Information below and on their website carefully.

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Arts Council – Artists’ international development fund

The programme offers early stage development opportunities for individual freelance and self employed artists based in England to spend time building links with artists, organisations and/or creative producers in another country.

aims for the programme:

They have developed the Artists’ international development fund to help them achieve their aims within goal 1 of our 10-year framework Achieving great art for everyone: talent and artistic excellence are thriving and celebrated. They want artists to be open to international perspectives and to expand their horizons. You can find out more about this in the Arts Council Plan 2011-15.

The British Council and the Arts Council want the programme to produce:

• a cadre of artists and creative practitioners in the UK (and also globally) who have experienced the benefits of international working between the UK and other countries and are advocates for it among their peers
• an increase in the amount of international collaboration among artists between the UK and other countries across the arts and creative industries
• artistic development for artists

Artists are able to apply for small grants (minimum of £1,000 up to £5,000). You can only apply to the Artists’ international development programme once in any financial year.

If you are interested in applying for the fund, visit the eligibility and how to apply pages.

Application Form: via an online application process on the website. Guidelines can be downloaded form the website also.

Deadline:   Round One: Thursday 31 May 2012, Round Two: Friday 5 October 2012., Round Three: Friday 1 February 2013

Contact: 0845 300 6200 or enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk.

W: www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/grant-programmes/artists-international-development-fund/

Growth and Innovation Fund

This Growth and Innovation Fund, which will be delivered in partnership by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), invites proposals from employer organisations such as Sector Skills Councils, professional bodies and trade associations. The programme prospectus outlines three types of project where GIF funding and employer investment can be brought together:

• Best Market Solutions: which will invest in the best innovative ideas to drive enterprise and remove skills barriers to growth, including through the introduction of new voluntary professional standards and voluntary training levies.
• National Skills Academies: expanding the successful network of National Skills Academies, which already exist in 16 sectors such as environmental technology, railway engineering and retail.
• Joint Investment Programme: bringing together employer and public investment in specific training projects which improve business productivity and growth, or address skills gaps and shortages.

GIF will invest in a range of projects to raise skills levels and support growth. The Government is not being prescriptive on the value of applications; however, the selection criteria include looking at the scale and impact of proposals and how well proposed solutions meet priority needs identified by bidders in their sectoral analysis of what can unlock growth potential. For that reason, applications with a very small value will not generally be accepted.

GIF is open for business all year round.  Applicants are free to submit their applications to GIF at any time.   The GIF Board will meet regularly during the year to make its short listing and investment decisions.  However, please note that GIF can only deal with one application from each organisation at any one time.

Application Form: Complete the eligibility checker on the website to access the application form.

Deadlines: In 2012 the GIF Board will meet to consider applications on the following dates:

August 2012 (closing date for Outline Proposal 10am 31st May 2012)

Late November 2012 (closing date for Outline Proposal applications to be confirmed)

Outline Proposal applications must be submitted by the closing date in brackets in order to be considered.  Any applications received after this time will be reviewed at the next board meeting. Once an application is approved, applicants will be told the date for submission of full proposal applications. The eligibility checker and detailed guidance on the application process is available from the website.

Contact: GIF.questions@ukces.org.uk

W: www.ukces.org.uk/gif

A B Charitable trust

The A B Charitable Trust (ABCT) is an independent, UK based grant-making organisation founded in 1990 that is concerned with promoting and defending human dignity.

ABCT supports charities that defend human rights, such as freedom from torture and arbitrary imprisonment, and promote respect for individuals whatever their circumstances.

The Trust is particularly interested in charities that work with vulnerable, marginalised and excluded people in society, with a focus on:

• refugees and victims of torture
• prisoners
• older people
• people with mental health problems

Medium sized grants available. If you do not work in these particular fields, but meet our wider criteria, you may be able to apply for a small grant of up to £5,000.

Application Form: Apply on-line via website

Deadline: July 2012 Trustee Meeting the deadline is 25 May 2012.

Contact: The A B Charitable Trust, Monmouth House, 87-93 Westbourne Grove, London W2 4UL Tel: 020 7313 8070 Fax: 020 7313 9607 Email: mail@abcharitabletrust.org.uk

W: www.abcharitabletrust.org.uk

Henry Moore Foundation

The Henry Moore Foundation supports a wide variety of arts projects through its grants programme. Grants are awarded quarterly.

The Henry Moore Foundation awards grants in six categories: New Projects; Collections; Research and Development; Fellowships for artists; Conferences, lectures and publications; Post-doctoral research fellowships.

The Foundation’s grants programme is focussed on specific objectives. It is
the Trustees’ policy to support all aspects of the arts in which Henry Moore
himself was engaged, e.g. sculpture, drawing and print-making.

The Foundation supports organisations, institutions, museums and galleries in the United Kingdom.

For further application criteria and how to apply please visit:-

http://www.henry-moore.org/grants/applying-for-a-grant1/make-an-application

The grants committee meet quarterly and the deadlines for 2012 are:-

4 April 2012 (24 February 2012)

3 July 2012 (23 May 2012)

16 October 2012 (7 September 2012)

23 January 2013 (28 November 2012)
Applications should be received BEFORE the deadline date (which is noted in brackets above).

Wessex Youth Trust

The Wessex Youth Trust supports organisations and projects that work with young people. A wide range of activity is supported by the Trust, with the next deadline on the 1st of May.

The Wessex Trust was established shortly before the wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones, and was funded with proceeds from media coverage of their wedding. Since its inception the charity has undertaken a fundraising project to continue its work in the longer term. The Trust is particularly keen to fund smaller charities, especially those with limited financial resources.

For information and application guidelines, click here.

Concertina Trust

The Concertina Trust aims to help organisations and projects that work with elderly people in the UK and Wales.

The Trust’s website says: Concertina makes grants to charitable bodies which provide musical entertainment and related activities for the elderly. This not only brightens up their lives, but also provides a therapeutic benefit to their health and well-being. Simon Baynes, founder of the Concertina Charitable Trust (pictured above right), says, “I have always thought that we owe a debt of gratitude to the generation which has handed down this great nation to us. Yet so many of the elderly lead … Continue Reading

Ford Britain Trust

Working with our local communities to sow the seeds of change.

Ford are committed to supporting the communities they work and live in. That’s why they created the Ford Britain Trust in April 1975 to help fund the education and advancement of our neighbours.

They pay special attention to projects focusing on education, environment, children, the disabled, youth activities and projects that provide clear benefits to the local communities close to our UK locations. The Ford Britain Trust particularly encourages applications from Ford employees, but is open to all, provided that the qualifying organisations meet our selection criteria.

There are two types of grants to apply for:

• Small grants for amounts up to £250, available four times each year.
• Large grants for amounts over £250 and usually up to a maximum of £3,000. Large grants are considered by the Trustees twice a year.

The approaching deadlines for :-

Small grants is 1st March 2012 and
Large grants is 4th May 2012

If you have any questions about making your application, please contact them Email: fbtrust@ford.com Tel:  01277 252551

Ford Britain Trust, Room 1/445, c/o Ford Motor Company Limited, Eagle Way, Brentwood, Essex CM13 3BW

Website: http://www.ford.co.uk/AboutFord/CorporateSocialResponsibility/FordBritainTrust

Joseph Rowntree Foundation – Places and Local Labour Markets

This call is for proposals for a research project which aims to explore the relationship between living in particular places, poverty outcomes and ethnicity by gaining a more in-depth understanding of why it is the case that:

• Some areas produce better outcomes for ethnic minority groups in general;
• Some areas produce poor outcomes for ethnic minority groups in general;
• Some ethnic minority groups (and groups within them) have different outcomes in different places.

The research will unpick variations in the structure of opportunities within local labour markets, examine the role of local social networks and take a range of other factors into account, including: how local services are organised, the changing economic context, the migration history of different groups, local political structures and issues around housing and mobility. Application Form: Apply via online registration and application form.  Application guidelines available to downloadfrom website. Deadline: 11 April 2012 at 23:59.

Contact: Joseph Rowntree Foundation (Head Office), The Homestead,
40 Water End, York, YO30 6WP, email: beth.hurrell@jrf.org.uk   Tel: 01904 629241

W: http://www.jrf.org.uk/funding/calls-for-proposal/housing-poverty-review