Community Power

The partners we’re looking for

We want to work with 10 to 15 partner organisations with experience of improving community power. They’ll deliver activities in and with communities to increase their power, agency and control. This can be new or existing work.

And we’ll work with them as a group to develop new approaches for our funding in the future. We’ll build on the evidence of what works, sharing knowledge, enthusiasm and experience.

We’re keen to hear from smaller community groups as well as larger or national organisations. We plan to work with a mix of partners, with different types of experience.

Experience partners should have

Experience of going beyond engaging communities by doing work to increase their community power

This could include:

• locally – at various scales
• with or without significant funding from outside the community
• as an individual project, or as part of a bigger programme of work.

Experience of working in and with communities that are the most excluded and marginalised, and the least empowered

We’ll ask you to tell us about the communities you work with, and why you work with them. You could share data about the communities you’ve worked with. And tell us about your knowledge and experience of the local context.

Experience of working in communities where the conditions are currently least suited to growing community power

For example where people do not:

• have trust in each other
• feel they belong
• feel safe
• have good social connections
• have places to meet.

Values and approaches of community power are central to your work

For example, tell us about:

• how you’ve managed power dynamics with communities you support
• how you’ve improved trust and connections with communities you support
• if community power is a large part of your strategy, or your daily work. Or is something your organisation invests in
• how you’ve worked with others to deliver your work
• how you’ve shared your learning about what works to develop community power
• your commitment to equity.

By equity we mean recognising that not every community starts with the same resources. And that to make things fairer, we should support those that need it most.

What organisations can apply to be a partner

You can apply if your organisation is a:

• constituted voluntary or community organisation
• constituted group or club
• registered charity
• charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
• not-for-profit company
• community interest company (CIC)
• school (as long as your project benefits and involves the communities around the school)
• statutory body (including local authorities, town, parish and community council)
• community benefit society.

Any other funded partners also have to be one of these types of organisation.

You need at least 2 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 2 directors who are not related in any of these ways. This also applies to companies that are also registered as charities.

Who cannot apply

Who 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).

What we plan to achieve

We’ve committed to a £100 million, 10 year Community Power fund. It’ll give us a better way of working with, and funding, communities to increase community power.

Before launching the broader programme we want to work with partners on a one year development phase. It’ll run from spring 2025 to spring 2026, and have up to £1.2 million funding. Partners will run activities to improve community power in local communities. And work with us to learn from what’s worked best.

This is one of 3 partnership approaches we’re announcing in November 2024. The others are:

• Grant Holder Support
• You Decide.

Read about these in our vision for funding in England.

What community power means

By community power we mean communities being able to influence and change:

• places they live
• services they use
• decisions that affect their lives.

By communities we mean people living in the same place, whether at a neighbourhood or larger level.

Development stage: what partners will do

For this first development stage we’re offering funding of £1.2 million. We’ll fund 10 to 15 partner organisations to run new or existing work to improve community power. And we’ll work with all the partners together to learn from what they’ve done. This will shape the longer-term Community Power fund.

We’d like to fund a range of different approaches to improving community power. We’re interested in testing out innovative approaches. But we also want to fund things that you know already work. We think both are important.

The work we’ll fund could include:

• addressing barriers to community power
• supporting communities to use their power
• improving confidence and accessibility
• supporting communities to influence decisions that affect their lives
• raising awareness of other ways to use community power.

But we’re interested in any approaches that you can show increase community power.

Why we’re doing this

We want to be more than a funder

By this we mean doing more than giving out money. We want to support and involve the communities we fund in other ways too. We’ve committed to this in our new strategy, It Starts with Community.

We want to explore equity-based support for civil society organisations to achieve our missions.

We’ve set out to achieve 4 community-led missions. We’ll support communities to:

• come together – such as enabling people from all backgrounds to shape the future of their communities
• be environmentally sustainable
• help children and young people thrive – like supporting them to shape the decisions that affect them and their communities
• enable people to live healthier lives – such as increasing opportunities for community participation to shape better health services.

The work we fund to increase community power will help achieve these missions.

We know we’re not the experts

We think that increasing community power is important in achieving all of our missions. We also know we’re not the experts.

That’s why we want to work with a mix of partners. We’ll share knowledge, enthusiasm and experience. And come up with something better than if any of us did this on our own.

What you can spend the money on

As a partner we’ll fund you between £50,000 and £80,000 to deliver activities that increase community power. And to work with us and other partners to share what works best.

We can fund:

• delivery costs for running activities that increase community power
• salary costs
• transport costs and expenses
• other costs involved in working as our partner and taking part in development work. Check with us if you are not sure.

We can also fund overheads

This could include things like part of your rent or insurance. Or part of a salary for someone not directly involved in this work. Like a senior manager or an office admin worker.

For example, the delivery work could end up being a quarter of the work your organisation does. In that case, we might fund a quarter of your overheads for that time.

This is sometimes known as full cost recovery. Find out how to work out overheads in our guide to full cost recovery.

We cannot fund:

• things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now (retrospective costs)
• any other costs not related to:
  • activities that will increase community power
  • working with us and partners to develop our new Community Power fund.

If you need funding for a different kind of project

You can look at our other funding opportunities in England.

We’ll also be opening new funding in 2025 to help us achieve our new strategy.