People and Places: medium grants

Platfform for Change, Swansea
  1. Funding
  2. Funding programmes
  3. People and Places: medium grants

We want to fund projects that work closely with people and communities in Wales. We're looking for projects that are accessible to their community. Your project will help with the issues that matter most to your community.

By communities we mean people who share an identity, interest or experience. Or people living in the same place.

In your application, you must show how you’ll:

  • involve your community in the project development, design and delivery
  • build on the skills, experiences and strengths of your community
  • understand what organisations, activities or services are already available in your community. And show us how your work will fill the gap.
  • consider your project’s impact on the environment. For example, if you need to organise travel, you could use a minibus to cut down on pollution. Instead of everyone travelling separately by car.

Your project must also meet at least one of our missions. To help communities to:

  • come together
  • help children and young people to thrive
  • enable people to live healthier lives
  • be environmentally sustainable.

We can fund new and existing projects.

We offer funding from £20,001 to £100,000. We can support your project for up to five years. If you’re looking for funding over £100,000 visit People and Places: large grants.

You can apply for this grant to:

  • help your organisation change and adapt to challenges
  • help you plan land or building work
  • buy land, buildings, vehicles or pay for refurbishments. These are called capital costs.

See what we're hoping to fund for details and examples.

Area
Wales
Suitable for
Voluntary organisations, community organisations or public sector organisations
Funding size
£20,001 to £100,000, for up to five years
Total available
£20 million for 2024 - 2025
Application deadline

Ongoing

Apply

How to apply

To apply you must contact us for an informal chat about your idea

To arrange a chat contact us by either:

We’ll put you in contact with a funding officer in your area within five days of contacting us. You don’t need to prepare anything before this call. It will be an informal chat so we can learn more about your idea.

If you’re eligible to apply for the funding, the funding officer will send you an online application form.

If it's difficult or impossible for you to complete an online application form

You can contact us if you have any communication support needs.

We can provide other ways for you to tell us about your idea, such as:

  • an Easy Read version of the application form and guidance
  • a PDF version of the application form.

What information you need to apply

You can see a full list of questions from the application form.

In the application form we’ll ask you:

  • what you’d like to do
  • how you’re involving your community
  • how you’ll deliver your project
  • how you’ll consider your project’s impact on the environment.

To help you apply for funding

We encourage you to use the VCSE StrengthChecker tool. This free online tool can help you strengthen your organisation. It produces a report that will help you identify:

  • what your organisation or community does well
  • what it needs to develop and improve. This could include extra costs for things like training that we could fund.

You’ll be asked questions about your organisation, which takes about 40 minutes to complete. You should involve other colleagues to bring together different views from across your organisation. To complete the form, you’ll need your:

  • most recent audited accounts
  • most recent management accounts
  • staff structure
  • next year’s budgets
  • fundraising or income generation information and breakdowns.

We will not use information about where you could develop or improve from the report to decide if you get funding.

If you're applying for funding to buy a vehicle

You'll need to send us:

  • an options appraisal that shows us you’ve considered different options for travel
  • the vehicle specification
  • a budget for the vehicle that lasts until the funding ends
  • three quotes to buy a vehicle

For more information about what you'll need to send us you should read our guidance on buying a vehicle (PDF 776KB).

If you’re applying for land, building or refurbishment costs

You need to either:

  • own the land or building,
  • have a lease that cannot be ended for five years,
  • have a letter from the owner saying the land or building will be leased to you for at least five years, or
  • have an official letter from the owner or landlord that says you're allowed to do work on the building.

You should also find out if you’ll need planning permission for the work.

You must read our guidance and checklist for land, building and refurbishment projects (PDF 666KB). In the application form, we’ll ask you to complete and upload the checklist.

If you’re applying for funding to help you plan land or building work

We’ll ask you:

  • how you’ll get your project to stage four of the RIBA Plan of Work
  • what you’ll spend the money on.

Find out more about our funding for land or building work on the what we're hoping to fund page.

We ask for the contact details, home addresses and dates of birth of two different people from your organisation. We need a different email address for each person.

One person should be someone we can talk to if we have any questions about your project. The other should be a senior member of your organisation, who'll be legally responsible for the funding. Both need to live in the UK.

These two people cannot be related. Related can mean:

  • related by marriage
  • in a civil partnership with each other
  • in a long-term relationship with each other
  • related through a long term partner
  • living together at the same address
  • related by blood.

We ask for the legal name of your organisation. And its address. And what type of organisation it is.

Check these details before applying. Also check any registration numbers if you have them – like a charity number or company number. It will slow down your application if these details are not right.

We ask for details about your organisation’s accounts

We’ll ask you:

  • for details about your organisation’s finances
  • to upload your organisation’s accounts
  • to upload your 12 months projections, if your organisation is less than 15 months old.

We also ask you to read and agree to our terms and conditions

You can read the terms and conditions.

If you’re applying for land, building, vehicle or refurbishment costs

You can read the capital terms and conditions.

What happens after you apply

It normally takes at least 15 weeks from when you send us your application to find out if you’re getting funding. Here’s what happens after you apply:

  1. We’ll consider your application

    We look at your idea and carry out checks on the information you provide us. You can find out more about the checks we'll carry out on your information. We may contact you to talk about your project, or to get more information.

    If you’re applying for land, building, vehicle or refurbishment costs

    We’ll ask you to provide additional information. This could include drawings, surveys, consents and costings. We’ll ask you for these when we need them. You can find out what you'll need in our:
  2. We’ll aim to tell you our decision within 15 weeks

    If you’re not successful, we’ll tell you why.

    If you’re successful, we’ll email you with the good news.

    Then a funding officer will contact you within two weeks of receiving this email. They'll explain the contract and terms of grant. They’ll also explain how the funding will be paid, where you’ll agree to a start date for payments.

  3. You can start your project

    You can start your project as soon as you've agreed to the contract and terms of the grant.     You must start your project within six months of receiving an email with your offer letter. You should spend the funding the way you said you would in your application (unless we’ve agreed to something different first). We might check in from time to time to see how things are going. Find out more about how to manage your funding.

  4. You can share your story

    Let people know about your grant and the amazing work you're doing in your community. Sharing news about your project with your community can be a great way to keep them involved and engaged. You can find out more about how to promote your project. Your award email will also include details on how to publicise your grant and let people know about how your project is supporting people in your community.

How we use your personal data

To find out how we use your personal data, you can read our Data Protection Statement.

Who can apply

Who can apply

You can apply if your organisation is a:

  • constituted voluntary or community organisation
  • constituted group or club
  • registered charity
  • not-for-profit company
  • community interest company (CIC)
  • social enterprise
  • school (as long as your project benefits and involves the communities around the school)
  • statutory body (including local authorities, health boards, town, parish and community council)

You can apply as a partnership of organisations. Partners that will get any of the funding must be one of the types of organisations we’ve listed.

The majority of people that will benefit from the project must live in Wales.

You need at least 3 board or committee members who are not related

Related can mean:

  • related by marriage
  • in a civil partnership with each other
  • in a long-term relationship with each other
  • related through a long term partner
  • living together at the same address
  • related by blood.

All companies who apply must have at least 3 directors who are not related in any of these ways. This also applies to companies that are also registered as charities.

Who cannot apply

We cannot accept applications from:

  • individuals
  • sole traders
  • organisations based outside the UK
  • companies that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including Companies Limited by Shares)
  • organisations applying to more than one of our programmes for the same project over the same period. This is because you cannot get duplicate funding for something we're already funding you to do. It’s OK to apply to another programme if you've already had an unsuccessful decision though.

We can fund some political activity and campaigning

But only if:

  • the activity is not party political. This means that it must be about policy, practice, or legislation rather than opposing or supporting a political party
  • the activity is meant to help the cause of your organisation and benefit the public or society.

We will not fund projects where political activities are the main purpose. But we can fund projects that are mainly about campaigning.

We do not accept applications written for you by private businesses or consultants

Be careful of businesses or consultants who say they can support you with your funding applications. They might say they’re acting on the Fund’s behalf, or they’re a preferred supplier of the Fund. They could even offer to write an application for you.

We do not accept applications from these types of businesses or consultants.

But it’s ok to get help from support organisations - like your local authority or County Voluntary Council (CVC)

They may be able to give you support and advice on writing your application.

What we're hoping to fund

The projects we fund

You must show how you’ll:

  • involve your community in the project development, design and delivery
  • build on the skills, experiences and strengths of your community
  • understand what organisations, activities or services are already available in your community. And show us how your work will fill the gap.
  • consider your project’s impact on the environment. For example, if you need to organise travel, you could use a minibus to cut down on pollution. Instead of everyone travelling separately by car.

We can fund:

  • a new or existing project
  • work to help you plan a project that has land or building work
  • land, buildings, vehicles or pay for refurbishments. These are called capital costs.

Funding to help you plan land or building work

We can offer up to £50,000 to organisations that need help to meet our requirements for a capital project.

We expect projects to follow the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Plan of Work. This plan details all the stages needed for construction or design projects.

We fund projects that have completed stage four or higher in the plan. To find out more about this funding you can contact us by either:

Equality, equity, diversity and inclusion

We expect your organisation and the activities we fund to be open and accessible, to promote equalities and challenge discrimination. You can include costs to help your project be more accessible to your community in your proposed budget.

In the application form, we’ll ask you how you’ll reach underrepresented groups in your community. By underrepresented groups, we mean groups that focus on representing the needs of:

  • older people
  • disabled people
  • women
  • ethnically minoritised people
  • faith-based communities
  • LGBTQ+ people
  • rural communities.

We would like to understand your approach to equality, equity, diversity and inclusion. We might ask to see your organisation’s equalities policy as part of our assessment.

You can read more about our equality principles.

Considering your environmental impact

We want to fund organisations that consider their impact on the environment. You do not have to be a climate or environment focused organisation to apply.

In the application form, we want you to tell us about the steps you’ve taken to reduce negative impacts on the environment. Or even how you’ve had a positive impact.

This could be through things like reducing your travel, waste or energy use.

You should:

If you’ll be working with children, young people or vulnerable adults

You need to have a policy in place that explains how they’ll be safe. If you get funding you’ll need to follow our expectations on safeguarding children and adults at risk.

The NCVO website has child safeguarding advice and information services.

Your project must be delivered bilingually in English and Welsh

We want people in Wales to access the projects we fund in the language they need. You should make sure people can engage with your project in English and Welsh.

You can include costs for bilingual services in your proposed budget. For example, the cost of translating promotional material.

To help you deliver a project in English and Welsh, you should:

For more information contact the Welsh Language team by emailing welshlanguage.advice@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk. 

What you can spend the money on

What you can spend the money on

We offer funding from £20,001 to £100,000. We can support your project for up to five years.

We can fund:

  • your organisation’s overheads

    This means costs that are not directly related to the work we're funding. Like power bills, or part of a salary for an admin worker. We'll fund part of these costs so that running the project we fund does not cost you extra money. This is sometimes known as full cost recovery. Find out how to work out overheads in our guide to full cost recovery.

  • equipment
  • one-off events
  • staff costs
  • training costs
  • transport
  • utilities
  • volunteer expenses
  • professional fees to help you plan for land or building work

    We offer up to £50,000 to help you meet our requirements for a capital project. This can include getting planning permission, drawings or surveys for land or buildings. Find out more about our funding for land or building work on the what we're hoping to fund page.

  • capital costs

This means buying land, buildings, vehicles or paying for refurbishments. For more information read our:

We cannot fund:

  • retrospective costs (costs for things that have already happened, or you've already paid for)
  • alcohol
  • contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
  • paying someone else to write your application for you
  • profit-making or fundraising activities
  • VAT you can reclaim
  • religious activities (we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content)
  • statutory activities
  • activities that help children or young people with their schoolwork during school time
  • overseas travel
  • projects that take place outside of the UK
  • activities that make profits for private gain
  • cash that will be given directly to individuals.