Covid-19: Funding opportunities

If you need third sector support, please reach out to us via phone at 0300 303 4141 or email at support@argylltsi.org.uk. 

There is a multi-agency Caring for People Helpline,which can offer help with Financial; Business; Health; Education; Registration; Social, Domestic and Medical Homecare Needs and volunteering. Call 01546 605524, from 9am to 5pm, Mon-Fri; a 24hr online help form is also available. If you have other options, please leave this line open for vulnerable people. More info on the helpline can be found here. Note that this number is NOT for health concerns related to the virus; for those you should refer to the NHS website here.
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​The Argyll & Bute Council have also added a "Help for Communities" page, which is part of their dedicated​ ​​​COVID-19 section.

If there is anything you think should be added to this page--or have any other questions or concerns--please contact our Office Manager, Lauren Martin, at laurenmartin@argylltsi.org.uk.
This page is specifically for funding opportunities for third sector organisations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. For information on supporting staff, individuals, and businesses, please go to our "Economic" section.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
Please note that TSI is here to help organisations with applications. Call 0300 303 4141 or email us at support@argylltsi.org.uk
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  • £5 Million Funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in Response to CoronavirusIn response to the coronavirus crisis, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is making at least £5 million available in funding for its second phase of support. The Trust has agreed that during May to December 2020 the funding should be used for a range of purposes: Stabilise, Sustain, Contribute, Challenge and Envision. New funding opportunities will include: emergency grants for current grantees who are facing immediate financial crisis, 12-month grant extensions for current grantees with ongoing projects, grant increases to enable current grantees to meet costs associated with adapting activities in order to sustain work. A Covid-19 Initiatives Fund will be launched over the summer which is open to grantees and non-grantees to support new initiatives which build support for systemic change. Full details will be published on the website.
    https://www.jrct.org.uk/new-funding-opportunities

  • Small Business Grant Scheme Properties occupied by charities can now apply for the £10,000 Small Business Grant Scheme to help with pressures caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19)pandemic. For more information on how to apply click here.
  • The Third Sector Resilience Fund (TSRF) is a £20m emergency fund for charities, community groups, social enterprises and voluntary organisations working in Scotland. The fund supports organisations that already deliver services and products but find themselves in financial difficulties directly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The primary intention of the fund is to help third sector organisations to stabilise and manage cash flows over this difficult period.
    The Fund is delivered by Firstport, Social Investment Scotland and Corra Foundation and provides grants up to £75,000. In addition, there is up to a further £5m available in fully flexible, 0% interest loans starting at £50,000. The fund is complemented by specialist business advice from Just Enterprise to help grant recipients maximise the impact of the financial support. As of 17th April 2020, 447 organisations have been supported through the TSRF, along with an estimated 6,000 jobs saved as a result. A list of organisations that have been awarded funding up to 15 April 2020 is available on Firstport’s website.To find out if your organisation could be successful in gaining support from this fund please use the eligibility checker. This will filter you through to the correct route for your organisation to apply. 
    Phase 2 of the Third Sector Resilience Fund
    Due to the overwhelming demand for the TSRF, the Scottish Government has announced a second phase to the fund and pledged additional funding. 
    For Phase 2 of the Third Sector Resilience Fund, the guidance and criteria have been adapted to maximise the number of third sector organisations that benefit from it: 
  • Applicants must be at risk of or unable to cover essential costs within 12 weeks from the date of application. 
  • The maximum grant amount awarded will be £75,000. 
  • Funding requests must be for a three month period (previously four months) 
  • Eligible costs will be mostly limited to overheads and essential staff (administrative for example) who cannot be furloughed.                                                                                                                                                                                          ​Please visit the FAQs section for more detailed information. All grant applications requesting £50,000 or more will be considered for a loan, a grant or a blended approach (part grant, part loan) We strongly encourage potential applicants to read the fund’s guidance notes and FAQs prior to starting an application.  If organisations are unclear whether they meet the revised criteria or would benefit from support to understand their financial position and likely funding requirements, they are advised to contact Just Enterprise, who can work with them to better articulate their funding needs.In order to apply to TSRF, organisations must complete a short eligibility checker to assess their suitability for the fund. Based on the answers provided, interested applicants will be directed to the correct application form depending on their needs or signposted to other sources of relevant funding/support. ​Eligibility checker
  • In response to the coronavirus, the UK Government has announced £6 million in funding for Armed Forces charities and community interest companies who are delivering services to veterans, Armed Forces families, and others from the Armed Forces community. Through the Covid-19 Impact Programme for Armed Forces Communities grants of up to £60,000 are available to help organisations continue to provide much needed support in key areas such as mental and physical health, support to the elderly, domestic violence, bereavement, and employment. This can cover costs such as staff time, costs of delivering services online or remotely, and reasonable overheads. Grants of up to £125,000 or more in exceptional circumstances are available. Applications can be made at any time until the 29th May 2020. https://covenantfund.org.uk/your-application/
  • Youth Scotland’s Action Fund has been established to help youth groups and youth workers meet the needs of young people in response to the Covid-19 Coronavirus. It is a Micro Grant fund that is being supported by The STV Children's Appeal and The Robertson Trust. The maximum amount available per application is £500. Find out more here - https://youthscotland.org.uk/programmes/youth-scotland-action-fund
  • Martin Lewis has created a £1 million fund for charities who are involved in Covid-19 related projects and will make grants of £5,000 - £20,000 available to small charities, or local arms of bigger charities, across the UK to help with specific UK coronavirus-related poverty relief projects. More info is here: https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/03/i-m-making-p1m-available-to-fund-urgent-small-charity-coronaviru/
  • The National Emergency Trust has launched a dedicated, co-ordinated fundraising campaign across the UK that will then flow to local communities. More info is here: https://nationalemergenciestrust.org.uk/coronavirus/. 
  • Creative Scotland has launched three funding programmes designed to provide further support to sustain the country’s creative community during the COVID-19 outbreak. Info can be found here: https://www.creativescotland.com/what-we-do/latest-news/archive/2020/03/covid-19-impact-funds
  • GRANT CURRENTLY PAUSED Charities Aid Foundation is offering emergency grants for smaller organisations: https://www.cafonline.org/charities/grantmaking/caf-coronavirus-emergency-fund
  • The National Lottery are awarding smaller pots of money, between £300 and £10,000. They will prioritise applications from organisations that will support people at high risk, will see an increased demand in this period, or that have high potential to support communities with the impact of COVID-19. The application form requires you to insert a project date 12 weeks in the future but they know that COVID-19 applications may need to start sooner. They will be flexible with the project start date and it can be earlier than the date stated on the form. For more information visit here, tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/scotland
  • During the current health crisis Buttle UK is focusing their Chances for Children grants on: Maintaining educational activity and stimulus within the home environment; establishing and or maintaining internet access and electronic communications; and household essentials. More info here: https://www.buttleuk.org/news/buttle-uks-covid-19-response and here: https://www.buttleuk.org/need-support
  • SSEN is offering £3,000 grants to support community, parish and town councils in their network areas.
  • The Tesco Bags of Help COVID-19 Communities Fund is open for not-for-profit community groups to apply for an emergency £500 grant to support their work with vulnerable groups in the local community. It will support groups who are doing things differently, or doing new things to support those needing help at this time.
    There is a simple online application form, and awards will be made weekly.
    For more details please visit https://tescobagsofhelp.org.uk/grant-schemes/tesco-cv-fund/
    The Community Enabler team at greenspace scotland can help you apply https://www.greenspacescotland.org.uk/tesco-bags-of-help-covid19-communities-fund  
  • The Scottish Government will be making additional funding available, including a £50 million Wellbeing Fund to help charities and others who require additional capacity to work with at-risk people who may be worst affected by the crisis; and a £40 million Supporting Communities Fund to support the community efforts at a local level which will be vital. The £50 million Wellbeing Fund is part of a £350 million package announced by the Scottish Government to support those most affected by the pandemic, and enable a swift response according to local need. Of this, £10 million has been allocated for immediate priorities and £7 million committed to support around 2000 charities through small grants. This leaves £33 million of the Wellbeing Fund now open to bids from third sector organisations. The Scottish Government is working with Corra, Inspiring Scotland, the STV Appeal and SCVO to allocate the funding. They will be assisted by Scotland’s network of Third Sector Interfaces (TSIs).  More information on this can be found here: https://scvo.org.uk/support/coronavirus/funding/for-organisations/wellbeing-fund   PLEASE NOTE: Wellbeing Fund Round 2 now CLOSED.
  • GRANT PAUSED CURRENTLY Crisis has established an emergency grants fund to support local groups who are financially affected by additional demands on their resources and who have expanded their provision to meet the current needs of those experiencing homelessness across the UK. There are 2 options available, Up to £5,000 grant application form or Up to £50,000 grant application form. Once the relevant form is completed, return to bestpractice@crisis.org.uk . For more info visit https://www.crisis.org.uk/get-involved/in-this-together/emergency-grants-fund/
  • The Creative Breaks funding programme is open now with £600,000 available to third sector organisations for short breaks projects for carers and the people they care for. Grants are for one year (October 2020 – September 2021). Apply here: www.sharedcarescotland.org.uk/creativebreaks
  • Faith in Community Scotland Covid-19 Rapid Response Fund. The William Grant Foundation, Faith in Community Scotland and the National Lottery Community Fund have set up an initial fund of £100,000. Grants of a few hundred pounds will support faith groups to provide immediate support for individuals and families.
    Deadline: apply as soon as possible.
    How to apply: https://www.faithincommunity.scot/covid19info
  • The Charity Excellence Framework has published a COVID-19 funder toolkit. The toolkit aims to help charity trustees and management committees to increase their social impact and secure more charitable funding during this difficult time. Download the COVID-19 Funder Toolkit by clicking this link: www.charityexcellence.co.uk - scroll down the home page to find links to all its COVID-19 Funder and Response Toolkits.
  • The Yorkshire Building Society’s Charitable Foundation has launched a Coronavirus Response Fund to support registered charities that are helping local communities affected by the coronavirus. Applications can be made at any time and will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis. For more info follow the link below.
    https://www.ybs.co.uk/your-society/charitable-foundation/index.html
  • FareShare's Surplus with Purpose is a £3 million Fund that provides funding of up to £50,000 to food businesses in the UK to offset the costs of sending good quality surplus food to good causes, helping the people most in need. The fund is open to companies seeking to unlock new or hard to reach surplus (or ‘waste’) food, as well as those that haven’t previously worked with FareShare. The funding can be used to cover the additional staff costs needed for packing and sorting edible surplus food, or in building, implementing and managing new processes. It could also cover packaging and transportation costs, or lost income from the sale of surplus to animal feed or anaerobic digestion.
    Funding applications can be submitted at any time. For more infor click here.     https://fareshare.org.uk/giving-food/
  • The Bank of Scotland Foundation’s Reach Programme will re-open for applications on the 11th May 2020. Grants of between £5,000 and £30,000 will be available to charities that can demonstrate they address disadvantage and social exclusion to ensure that the most vulnerable people are supported and provide them with opportunity and equality. 
    The programme operates on a monthly deadline basis and the nextdeadline for applications is 12pm on 8th June 2020.     https://bankofscotlandfoundation.org/funding-programmes/reach​
  • In response to the coronavirus, Hope for the Young have launched a Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund to support vulnerable young refugees or asylum seekers up to 30 years of age who are in need of immediate financial support. Grants of up to £250 will be available for up to twelve weeks and will be allocated on a case by case basis to help relieve social isolation and financial hardship. Hope for the Young aims to respond to all applications within one week of receipt to discuss the application further.   Contact : pamela@hopefortheyoung.org.uk .
  • In response to the coronavirus, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has created a £50 million Heritage Emergency Fund as part of a support package to help safeguard heritage sites and organisations. Grants of between £3,000 and £50,000 are available to not-for-profit organisations to ensure stability and longer-term recovery by covering unavoidable, essential costs which cannot be met for up to four months. To be eligible, organisations must be a current or previous recipient of a grant from the Heritage Fund, and be an owner, manager or representative of heritage, or have delivered participatory heritage activity. The deadline for applications is the 30th June 2020.
  • BBC Children in Need Covid-19 Response Grants In response to the coronavirus, BBC Children in Need are temporarily pausing their current grant programmes to launch two new Covid-19 Response Grants to enable organisations to continue to support disadvantaged children and young people aged 18 years and under. The funding will be open to current grantees and new applicants to help them to respond and adapt to the short, medium and longer-term impact of the coronavirus. The COVID-19 Response Programmes are as follows: from the 18th May 2020 current BBC Children in Need grant-holders will be able to apply for funding of up to £5,000 over a six-month period through the Covid-19 2020 Booster Grants Programme. From the 8th June registered not-for-profit organisations will be able to apply to the Covid-19 Large Grants programme for funding of up to £80,000 over an 18-month period.  Click here for more information.
  • Government Unlocks £150 Million from Dormant Accounts for Coronavirus Response (UK)                                        The UK Government has announced £150 million of funding is to be released from dormant bank and building society accounts to help charities, social enterprises and vulnerable individuals impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The release of £71 million from the government’s dormant assets scheme will be accelerated alongside £79 million already recouped that will be made available to help charities’ coronavirus response and recovery. Of the £150 million fund: £10m will be provided for the Youth Futures Foundation to help organisations that help unemployed and disadvantaged young people find employment, £45m will go to Big Society Capital for emergency loans, £65m is earmarked for Fair4Finance to help credit providers increased access to affordable credit for vulnerable people and £30m to Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, who will support social enterprises helping people in vulnerable circumstances. Click here for more information
  • Funding to Help Charities Deliver Better Services Through Technology (UK)                                                                    The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Comic Relief have announced a new early stage strand to their joint Tech for Good programme to help charities and not-for-profit organisations deliver better services for their communities through technology. The £230,000 Explore programme will provide grant funding of £5,000 for individual organisations or £7,500 for collaborations. Support will include access to an online curriculum, one-to-one support calls, and virtual community meet-ups.                                                                                                                                                                            UK Charities and not-for-profit organisations with annual income of between £75,000 and £10 million are eligible to apply. Organisations must align to one of Comic Relief’s core themes: Children Survive & Thrive, Fighting for Gender Justice, A Safe Place to Be or Global Mental Health Matters.                                                                                                       Applications addressing challenges related to disability outside of the themes specified above are also welcome, acknowledging the critical potential of digital technology in tackling this issue.
    The deadline for applications is 12pm on the 22nd June 2020
    Application Form
  • Independent Age Grants Fund (UK)                                                                                                                                    Independent Age, which promotes independent living amongst older people has launched a £2 million Independent Age Grants Fund to help smaller charities across the UK working with older people hardest hit by the Coronavirus. Initially, Independent Age will begin by supporting work with two groups of older people, who can too easily miss out: Older people living in particularly complex and challenging situations.  This can include older people that may have no network of family, friends or community to call on; have a disability or long-term health condition; be caring for a dependent adult with learning disabilities or dementia or be facing other circumstances that make it harder to manage at this challenging time; Older people in danger of being out of sight and out of mind.  Independent Age are looking to help organisations connecting with older people who are very isolated and most at risk of missing out on the help available from government or charities that serve a very wide client group. They may be part of an isolated, neglected or very poor community, be facing stigma or discrimination or have needs which make it hard for them to access services, perhaps because they are homeless, live with HIV or are hidden from view in an abusive relationship. To be eligible to apply the applicant organisation must be registered as a charity with The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).  Applicant organisations must have at least one paid member of staff (part-time is fine) and an annual income of £1 million or less (averaged across the last three financial years).                  The applicant organisation must be already working with older people in one or both of the two priority areas above.  Organisations that do not specialise in work with older people are welcome to apply – but you must already be providing services for older people as part of their work.                                                                                                           Charities are able to apply for grants of up to £15,000. The first closing date will be at 9am on the 4th June 2020. Apply here.
  • Funding to Get Vulnerable People Online During the Covid-19 Pandemic (Scotland)                                                      In response to the coronavirus, the Scottish Government has announced a new £5 million programme to offer internet connection, training and support, and laptops or tablets to vulnerable people who are not already online. Through the Connecting Scotland Programme 9000 people who are considered to be clinically high risk, and at risk of isolation and loneliness will be provided with a device with a mobile internet package.  For six months they will be paired with a ‘digital champion’ so they can access support and services, and connect with friends and family during the crisis, after which longer term support will be evaluated.                                                                                                          Local authorities and the third sector will identify those in need and will distribute equipment, and provide training and support. For more information, click here.
  • CP Supporting Communities Fund | Open for Applications                                                                                                        Last week we opened our Supporting Communities Fund to applications from community organisations and individuals in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park in response to COVID-19.  We have been really encouraged by the response with applications from community food banks, reimbursement for volunteers fuel costs and expenses incurred for setting up digital platforms as communities move away from standard printing methods.                                                                                                                                                                                          Our micro grant scheme is a quick and simple application process which aims to alleviate the impact of the current pandemic across three main areas;
  • Organisational expenses
  • Enduring digital inclusion
  • Alleviating immediate individual need.
  • Application form and guidance - https://bit.ly/3cVrNvN

    Please contact Anne Sobey our Development Manager if you have any questions or would like to discuss your application beforehand (all treated in confidence):
    T: (Landline) 01389 722 134 | (Mobile) 07761 446 62
    E: anne.sobey@lochlomond-trossachs.org

GOVERNMENT RELIEF AND SUPPORT MEASURES:
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE:
  • Just Enterprise is working with partners across Scotland to support social enterprises during this crisis: https://justenterprise.org/covid-19/
  • Social Enterprise Scotland have created a resources page regarding financial and other support specifically in relation to Coronavirus Covid-19. Social Enterprise Scotland remains open for business and have asked that any members with specific concerns on Covid-19 and the impact on their business to contact duncan.thorp@socialenterprise.scot. The page is here: https://socialenterprise.scot/resources/covid-19-and-social-enterprise/ 
  • SENSCOT has a COVID-19 resource page here: https://senscot.net/covid-19-resources/
  • Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland's Social Entrepreneurs Programme is accepting applications via telephone or online during the Covid-19 crisis. This year's programme is aimed at various stages of entrepreneurship, and offers; a learning programme; a grant of up to £7k; mentoring; and a peer support network.  More here: https://socialfirms.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e7b22dc21972448958ad6bede&id=d675d1c111&e=56a044f011. The deadline is 30th April. 
  • Scottish Communities Finance is offering interest-free loans of £3-5k to SEN members as part of its SEN Bond offer from last year. The SEN Bridging Loan, with a five day turn-around, is available for all organisations that are looking for money to bridge the gap between spending money and waiting for grant money or other forms of income. 
  • SOCIAL INVESTEMENT SCOTLAND want you to know that they remain open for business! - The SIS team have been successfully working from home for the last month or so. We are in contact with our customers, investors and stakeholders and are as close to full operations as can be reasonably expected. More info here.

RESPONSES FROM FUNDERS:
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON FINANCES AND FUNDING
Many organisations are offering guidance and information on how to navigate financials and funding during this difficult time.