COVID-19 funding over £10,000 for partnerships – including Coronavirus Community Support Fund

Awarding emergency funding to organisations in England
We're distributing government funding alongside National Lottery funding, to support organisations to continue to deliver services to people and communities affected by COVID-19. We can also help organisations overcome any acute financial difficulties they face as a result of the pandemic.

We will also provide funding for organisations that work together with a shared set of goals for activities so that you can support those affected by the crisis. You can also apply for funding if your organisations are struggling financially because of the impact of COVID-19.

Read about the types of projects and organisations we’re prioritising.

The COVID-19 emergency fund is changing
If you’re planning to apply for the Government allocation of funding to the Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF), you must apply by 12 noon on 17 August 2020, when this fund will close. After that date, other funding options will be available but eligibility is changing.

The amount of funding and length of funding
We’re looking to award funding to cover six months of expenditure. We expect most funding will be between £10,000 and £100,000. But we will consider larger awards or longer timeframes, particularly for organisations working across more than one area of England, on a case-by-case basis.

Beyond this response we will have National Lottery funding available for longer-term rebuild and recovery. We are reviewing the situation on an on-going basis and will keep you up-to-date as our plans develop.

Area: England
Funding size: £10,000 to £100,000
Application deadline: Ongoing, although eligibility is changing after 17 August 2020

Apply

We only have a limited amount of funding to award

There will be high demand for this funding, and we will have to make some tough choices. We expect the fund to be heavily oversubscribed and anticipate only being able to support a proportion of applications.

So please only ask for what you need to support communities for up to 6 months and please bear with us as our funding teams respond to this demand. Make sure you also check who can and cannot apply before filling out the application form.

We will assess applications in the order they’re submitted. We know you need funding quickly.

We’ll monitor demand closely and update you on any steps we might need to take to help manage the number of applications we get. So that we can get funding out to communities as quickly as possible.

Find out more about the types of projects and organisations we’re prioritising.

The application below is the same for both government and our funding
The application you need to fill in is the same whether your funding comes from the Government or from us. So you don't need to tell us which pot of funding you want to go for.

The National Lottery Community Fund and HM Government logos

If you can't apply for National Lottery funding, so specifically need the government funding
If you're a group that's looking for government funding, because you can't accept funding from The National Lottery, please tell us in your application.

If your proposal is eligible, we might ask for extra information after you send your proposal to us

After you send your COVID-19 project proposal, we might get in touch to ask about who will benefit from your project and how COVID-19 has affected your financial position and whether you will run out of money. Don’t worry, it’s okay to tell us if you’re struggling financially during the crisis – we’re only asking for this information so we can work out how best to support you.

How do you expect COVID-19 to affect your plans for the next 6 months? For example:
1. What difference is it making to your income and spending?
2. Do you expect to be able to generate enough income to cover your costs?
3. If not, how much additional income do you think you’ll need to cover costs?
4. Are you worried that you might run out of cash? If so, when might that happen?
5. How much cash or unrestricted reserves do you have that you could draw on if needed? How many months operating costs should that cover?
What actions are you taking to mitigate the effect of COVID-19? For example, applying to furlough any staff through the Government Job Retention Scheme.

To help you answer these questions, we’ll provide you with a simple table for you to complete with some key financial information.

If you're requesting more than £50,000, we'll ask you to submit an up to date cashflow forecast or budget.

There are two ways to tell us about your proposal

1. You can tell us about your COVID-19 proposal online

Our online form makes it easier for you to tell us about your funding proposals.

Start your proposal Continue your proposal

If you have any communication needs
Please contact us for help if completing a form is difficult or impossible for you. We’re happy to talk about other ways for you to tell us about your funding proposal.

2. If you don’t want to use our online form - you can email or send us a video instead

Here's what to tell us in your email or video:

the name of your project
where it'll take place
what you'd like to do - how has demand for your services changed?
how your work will involve your community
how your project fits with local activities
who will benefit from your project - how have they been affected by COVID-19?
what difference your project will make - how will it mitigate the impact of COVID-19?
how much money you need
how long you need the money for.

Here's where to send your email or video:

Region	Email
North East & Cumbria Covering Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, Middlesbrough, Darlington, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland and Cumbria	NEandCumbriateam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
North West Covering Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside	Northwestteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
Yorkshire and the Humber Covering North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire	YorksandHumberteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
South West Covering Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire, Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Swindon, Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, Devon, Torbay, Plymouth, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly	Southwestteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
London, South East and East of England Covering Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Bedfordshire, Peterbrough, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk	Londonandsoutheastteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
East and West Midlands Covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except North and North East Lincolnshire), Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire	Midlandsteam@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

If you’re not sure how to tell us about your funding proposal
Contact us.

You can look at our Data Protection Statement to see how we use the personal data you give us, and look at this privacy notice to see how we use this data if you apply for emergency Government funding.

We ask you to read and agree to our terms and conditions
If your funding comes from the Government, you can read the terms and conditions here. Or you can watch this video to get the terms and conditions in British Sign Language (BSL).

If your funding comes from us, here are the terms and conditions you need to read.

Here's what will happen next, if we decide to fund you

You need to sign an agreement before we pay your funding
After being awarded funding, you and your partners have to sign an agreement that tells us:

how you'll work together
everyone's roles and responsibilities
your commitment to working together.

You can use our Partnerships Agreement template (if you want to)
Or you can create your own partnerships agreement. The template is helpful if you have one lead partner — who gets all of the funding and passes some of it on to the other partners. But our template is for guidance only and we can’t give you legal advice. So, make sure to get your own legal advice before signing any agreement if you’re unsure.

If all of your partners will get their funding directly from us
Tell your local funding officer when you contact them about your project idea. So we can support you to run a project like this.

We'll also get in touch with you near the end of your funding and ask you about your progress, including:

how many people you reached
how many volunteers you worked with
what you did
what difference the funding has made.

Who can and cannot apply

You can only apply once for COVID-19 emergency funding in England, either for less than £10,000, over £10,000 or over £10,000 for partnerships. So please make sure that you’re applying for what you need.

Your partnership can apply if you already have existing grants with The National Lottery Community Fund. If you've already got COVID-19 funding through Partnerships, you'll need to tell us how the funding you're applying for now is different from that.

We also encourage organisations to apply who are led by people with lived experience.

We cannot accept applications from:

organisations that have already applied to us for COVID-19 funding, including the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, since 22 May
organisations that have already applied to the Coronavirus Community Support Fund and been told they were unsuccessful
statutory bodies (including town, parish and community councils)
schools
individuals
sole traders
organisations based outside the UK
anyone who’s applying for another organisation
organisations that look to make profits and share these profits out privately. This includes organisations without the right asset locks. Or organisations that can pay profits to directors or shareholders – this might mean some CICs limited by shares
organisations that don’t have at least two people on their board or committee who aren’t married, in a long-term relationship, living together at the same address, or related by blood.

What partnerships we can fund:

We can fund a partnership (both new partnerships, and one that’s already been set up) as long as they're led by a voluntary or community organisation, this includes:

a registered charity or charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
a not for profit company including companies limited by guarantee and Community Interest Companies with two or more directors (see the bullet points below for CICs we can’t fund).

If you’re not sure if you can apply
Contact us.

The COVID-19 emergency fund is changing

If you’re planning to apply for the Government allocation of funding to the Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF), you must apply by 12 noon on 17 August 2020. The fund will close on this date.

After this, you can still apply for emergency National Lottery funded grants in England to help your community through COVID-19. We will be focusing on funding for organisations supporting people and communities who experience disproportionate challenge and difficulty as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, specifically for user-led equality groups supporting:

black, Asian, minority ethnic and refugee (BAMER) communities
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer + (LGBTQ+) communities
disabled people.

This is for six months’ emergency funding, for small and medium organisations and for between £10,000 and £100,000.

We are also working with specialist partners to reach specific groups as quickly as we can.

Beyond the emergency response, National Lottery funding to support communities in England will be available, and we’ll keep you updated on our funding as it develops.

The projects we fund

When organisations work in partnership, they help communities to thrive - by focusing on the bigger picture, rather than just what their organisation can do on its own.

We’re looking for partnerships where everyone takes responsibility to work toward their shared goals together, while offering their own insights and perspectives. We call this 'generous leadership'.

We like to see projects that can test new approaches to issues in the community. And projects that are committed to equalities and the environment.

There are different types of partnership:

cross-sector partnerships
local place-based collaboration
local and national organisations working together around a particular theme.

We can help if you're struggling financially because of COVID-19
We know that COVID-19 has affected lots of organisations' finances. We can help you make up for some of the losses, so you can keep helping your community through the pandemic and continue to support them after.

What types of projects we’re prioritising

We want to support projects and organisations playing a vital role in helping their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will prioritise:

Organisations supporting people and communities who experience disproportionate challenge and difficulty as a result of the Covid-19 crisis
This category includes, for instance, organisations supporting older people, disabled people (including people with long-term health conditions) and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, all of whom are facing specific challenges during the current crisis. It also includes organisations who provide advice and support to those pushed in crisis as a result of the pandemic. This category also includes those organisations supporting people and their families with end of life care.
Organisations providing services and support for vulnerable people, for which there will be increased demand as a result of the COVID-19 crisis
This category includes, for instance, organisations supporting people and families who face financial hardship as a result of the pandemic. It also includes organisations working to prevent domestic abuse and violence against protected groups, those working with homeless people and those supporting vulnerable children and young people. Finally, we also know that there is increased demand for mental health support and support to mitigate the increased challenges of loneliness and isolation.
Organisations which connect communities and support communities to work together to respond to Covid-19
This category includes organisations supporting local community activity, including volunteering, and community organising. It also includes organisations supporting community and sector infrastructure, including public information. We know there is increased demand for support with the development of digital, data and technology capabilities. Finally, we want to support building capacity and infrastructure of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and other marginalised communities to ensure they are in a better position after the initial emergency response.

As far as possible, we're also looking for organisations to be people-led, strengths-based and connected

People-led

We believe that people understand what's needed in their communities better than anyone. So it’s important to us that you involve your community in the design, development and delivery of the activities you’re planning.

You might want to ask yourself:

Have I spoken to the people in my community?
Have the people in my community told me what they need and what's important to them?
Have I listened to them and used what they've said to create my project?

This short video explains it well. It might be helpful when you’re putting your application together.

Strengths-based

We’d like to support people and communities to build on the knowledge, skills and experience they already have, to make the changes they want.

You might want to ask yourself:

What’s already working in my community?
How will my project add to these positive things that are already working?
How will my project make the most of any resources that are already helping my community?

Connected

We want to know that you’ve a good understanding of other activities and services in your community. We’d like to see how you’ll compliment these. So you can add value to what’s already there.

You might want to ask yourself:

Have I spoken to other groups in the area that are doing something similar to my project?
Have I thought about how we can all help each other?

If your project works with children, young people or vulnerable adults

You need to have a policy in place that explains how they'll be safe. And we might ask to see this policy, if we decide to give you funding. The NSPCC have lots of helpful advice about setting up and following good child safeguarding policies. NCVO also host a number of safeguarding resources. If we do fund your organisation, you must comply with our safeguarding policy.

What you can spend the money on

We can fund:

investments in your systems
investments in your people
investments in your infrastructure
dedicated capacity development
staff salaries
project activities
running costs
small-scale refurbishment
equipment
organisational development
contributions to fixed costs.

We can't fund:

activities that make profits for private gain
campaigning activities (this fund is to support the delivery of direct services for vulnerable people)
religious activities (but we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and doesn’t include religious content)
political or lobbying activities
things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now
loan repayments.

If you're ready to tell us about your funding proposal

Start your proposal Continue your proposal