Grants - Community Chest

Community Chest is currently closed

If you would like to be notified when it re-opens for applications please contact us on the details at the bottom of this page.

What is Community Chest?
Community Chest is the council's small grant scheme. Grants of between £100 and £5,000 are available. Priority is given to small, unfunded community and voluntary groups.

Will we be eligible?
You can download a checklist from this page to check if your group is eligible to apply to Community Chest. If you would prefer an MSWord version or a paper version please contact us.

The checklist is a guide and not a guarantee. It can only indicate if your group is likely to be eligible for a grant. Please double check you meet the criteria before applying.

What will the grant likely to fund?
The list below gives some idea of the things we are likely to fund. Even if what you want to apply for isn’t on this list we may still be able to fund it – please contact the grants team for advice (our contact details are at the bottom of this page). You can also see a list of grants funded in 2012-13 at the bottom of this page.

• Insurance
  

• Venue hire for regular meetings
  

• Venue hire for events
  

• Materials for use in your project
  

• Publicity materials, including newsletters and flyers
  

• Training
  

• Transport costs for regular meetings
  

• Volunteer expenses
  

• Sports equipment
  

• IT equipment (as long as it is reasonably priced and you can show us the need for it)
  

• Religious groups for community activities
  

• Sessional workers (those you use only when required)
  

• Salaries for fixed term staff on contracts of less than 1 year
  

• PTA or ‘Friends of…’ schools groups for wider community activities outside of school hours

What will the grant not likely to fund?
It is difficult to give a definitive list of items/work we are not likely to fund as it can depend on the application. However, the list below gives some idea of the things we are not likely to fund. Please also make sure you read the criteria before applying.

• Activities that happen or start before we confirm the grant (you should leave 3 months after the closing date to be sure)

• Day trips and overnight stays

• Items that mainly benefit individuals

• Expensive IT equipment

• On-going salaries (including salaries of permanent staff or fixed term staff on terms of 1 year or more)

• Political or religious activities

• Projects that you cannot maintain (e.g. because of high ongoing costs or the need for specialist skills)

• Projects that cannot be completed within one year

• School projects that only benefit pupils and/or take place during school hours.
  
  

When are the application deadlines?
The scheme is currently closed. If you would like to be notified when it re-opens for applications please contact us on the details at the bottom of this page.