Neath Port Talbot Council for Voluntary Service

Heritage Lottery Fund: changes to small grants programmes

From April 2012, the maximum grant limit for Your Heritage applications is increasing form £50,000 to £100,000.

The maximum grant limit for Young Roots applications is also increasing from £25,000 to £50,000. Young Roots projects can last up to two years (up from 18 months) and the age range widened to include young people from 11 – 25 years old (previously started at 13 years old).

Also from April 2012, HLF will make decisions on Your Heritage and Young Roots applications at bi-monthly meetings. A full list on submission deadlines and decision meetings can be found on the website. 

As always, if you have an idea for a heritage project HLF encourages seeking pre-application advice using the on-line portal

Comic Relief has launched a new grants programme: Managing Money Better. The programme is particularly focused on addressing the many ways in which people over 65 are often disadvantaged due to complexities in understanding financial matters, are often exposed to the dangers of financial abuse, and the difficulties involved in making ends meet while coping with rising prices. The programme will be open for applications from 16 January 2012, with a closing date of 17 February. There will also be a second cycle in April 2012. If you would like to discuss the programme, please contact anyone in the Older People grants team on 0207 820 2000 or visit the Comic Relief website.

Source: WCVA Members E-Briefing

The Big Lottery Fund is making £5 million available to support completely new ideas or approaches that haven’t been tried anywhere else in the UK. BIG is committed to bringing about real improvements to communities most in need but recognises that existing ways of meeting need do not always work and that some needs are new with no ways of addressing them.

Big Lottery Fund will make grants of between £20,000 and £1 million to fund projects that test new ways of tackling emerging and existing social problems. The closing date for round 2 stage one application is 2.00pm on 23 February 2012.

For further information about the BIG Innovation programme please visit the Big Lottery website.

The Participation Unit based at Save the Children UK is pleased to announce that they are inviting submissions of tenders for contracts under the Reach the Heights Programme. Reach the Heights is a Welsh Government initiative aimed at reducing the number of young people in Wales aged 11 – 19 years who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or who are at risk of being so in the future. The projects are funded by the European Social Fund (ESF).

They aim to contract the delivery of a range of programmes of participatory workshops and projects for young people aged 11 -18 years old in Wales who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or young people who are at risk of becoming NEET in the future aimed at supporting them to have a voice in decisions affecting their lives and making a change in their community. The contracts will be awarded through a process of open procurement. Organisations and individuals interested in delivering the work are invited to submit bids for the funding.

The notification has gone on to the sell2wales website. The appropriate paperwork is available to download from the Participation Workers Wales website.

Remember the funding is for organisations that work with young people not in education, employment and training (NEET) and at risk of becoming NEET aged 11 -18 years old living in the 15 counties within the Convergence areas of Wales.

Enterprising Communities is a project that will provide practical support to Third Sector organisations to help them become more sustainable, generate new income and successfully bid to deliver public services.  The project is funded by the Welsh Government and European Structural Funds (European Regional Development Fund) managed by WCVA and delivered locally by Wales’ network of County Voluntary Councils.

Through Enterprising Communities Officers based across Convergence areas, the project will provide organisations with information and advice on funding, organisational management and volunteer development as well as offering expertise around financial sustainability.

For more information contact Katherine Simmons on 01639 631246 or KatherineS@nptcvs.org.uk

Following a review, the Welsh Government has re-opened the Sharing Treasures scheme. This year, CyMAL and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) are working together to run the scheme.

The Sharing Treasures scheme was set up with the following aims:

• To assist local museums, archives and libraries across Wales to establish partnerships with National institutions.
• To facilitate the loan of items from National collections.
• To deliver a range of exhibitions and other services from the National institution at a local level.

Projects seeking funding through the scheme should address all of these aims.

A total of £200,000 will be available in 2012-13. Applicants can apply for a grant of between £3,000 and £50,000. Grants are to be used to fund costs associated with:

• activities which help people to learn about the national collections on loan;
• enabling museums, libraries and archives to reach new audiences for the national collections on loan including creation of opportunities for people to contribute to the project;
• skills development for both staff and volunteers;
• capital improvements to display spaces to meet Government Indemnity Scheme (GIS) standards;
• exhibition costs in display spaces that already meet GIS standards;
• equipment for smaller venues eg secure display cases; and
• touring exhibitions for display in GIS standard spaces.

Museum bodies located in Wales are eligible to apply for grant aid through Sharing Treasures.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 31 March 2012. 

See website for further information.

Welsh tourism businesses that are considering upgrading their facilities over the winter months may be eligible for short-term funding through this new initiative.

Building for 2012 is a fast-track programme which forms part of the Welsh Government’s Tourism Investment Support Scheme (TISS). It will support micro, small and medium-sized tourism businesses that are investing in capital expenditure improvements during the winter months in order to raise quality standards in preparation for 2012.

Grants of up to £25,000 will be provided, up to a maximum of 40% of eligible costs. This is a higher intervention rate for a limited period, with the usual rate for TISS support being approximately 25%. The minimum support is £5,000. However, larger projects that meet eligibility rules will not be excluded.

In order to apply, interested parties are required to complete an introductory questionnaire. If successful, the Welsh Government will then ask the applicant to complete an application form. Decisions are expected to be made within 10 working days.

For further details, interested parties should contact the Welsh Government by emailing tiss@wales.gsi.gov.uk or calling 0845 010 8020.

To qualify for funding, projects must be able to be delivered by 31 March 2012.

The Welsh Government has launched a new £15 million programme, the Wales Economic Growth Fund, designed to help businesses through the prevailing economic downturn.

The initiative is a short-term, fast-track fund for Welsh businesses, providing immediate access to non-repayable capital funding for investments that will create and retain employment opportunities.

A total of £15 million is available through the programme. The minimum funding level is £100,000.

Eligible expenditure can include new investment in capital assets (machinery, computer equipment, buildings etc). Intellectual property bought from a third party, professional fees and other one off costs related to the investment may also be eligible.

Revenue costs associated with the capital investment are also eligible.

Companies that have projects planned to improve productivity and create and maintain jobs may be eligible for support.

Applications will open on 12 December 2011 with a closing date of 31 January 2012.

For further information see website. 

A £6m investment fund to help community organisations create local enterprise was announced on Tuesday 29th November 2011 by Deputy Minister for European Programmes, Alun Davies. The Communities Investment Fund will provide finance of up to £250,000, primarily through flexible loans, to local organisations and social enterprises. The fund will invest in organisations to develop trading activities by supporting the purchase or improvement of buildings, equipment and other community business ideas. It will also offer finance to charities to support them in delivering public services such as healthcare and employment programmes. Managed by WCVA, the fund is backed with Welsh Government funding including £3m from the European Regional Development Fund. It will create 100 jobs as social and community enterprises involved are able to extend their services and new ones are set up.  In total the fund will help set up 30 new enterprises, support a further 75 existing enterprises and encourage them to become more sustainable by providing an alternative to grant based support. For more information about the Communities Investment Fund and an application pack, contact the WCVA Helpdesk on 0800 2888 329 or email cif@wcva.org.uk.

Funded by Channel 4 Education in partnership with Barclays Bank, the Stake is a new competition providing young people in the UK the opportunity to exploit their business and enterprising skills in order to win funding that can be used towards community or business ideas that will make a difference. The Stake aims to show young people that business and social enterprise can be creative, fun, challenging and that good ideas and passion can be rewarded. The initiative enables the wider public to decide how a total of £100,000 will be spent. A maximum of six winners will be given up to £20,000 (minimum of £1,000), along with support from Barclays’ mentors and youth engagement agency, Livity, to make their ideas become a reality between January and March 2012. The money can be used to fund a variety of projects; for example a start-up business, a new school skate ramp or a one-off event. Anyone aged between 16 and 21 years of age can submit ideas about how they would spend a share of the money. To submit an entry, the participant must be resident in the United Kingdom.

The deadline for the receipt of nominations is 23 December 2011.

for further information see The Stake website.