The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund

The organisations we're funding

Our main priority is to fund organisations supporting low-income households and individuals in England.

We're funding front-line organisations that offer critical services for people and communities under severe pressure because of the increased cost of living.

To apply, organisations had to already run critical services around at least one of the following:

• food and emergency supplies – like food and baby banks or the provision of hot meals, clothes or toiletries
• emergency shelter – like night shelters or other accommodation for people experiencing homelessness
• safe spaces – like domestic abuse services and youth services
• warmth – like warm rooms and spaces
• financial and housing advice – like giving people advice because of the increased cost of living.

We’re funding organisations that are experiencing increased demand for critical services and increased costs in delivering them.

We want to help organisations meet the needs of their communities while staying financially stable.

We asked organisations that applied to tell us about the increased demand for their critical services, and the increased cost of running them. This could include more people using the services, or the same number of people needing more help.

We're funding organisations that are embedded in their communities and have strong local relationships

This includes small and medium-sized organisations that are already providing critical support services to people in their communities. By small and medium-sized organisations, we mean organisations with an annual turnover of between £10,000 and around £1 million. Smaller organisations could try our National Lottery Awards for All fund.

Larger organisations could also apply if they did both of the following:

• showed that they work closely and effectively with local communities
• filled a gap in essential local services.

Who could apply

You could apply if your organisation was a:

• registered, exempt or excepted charity (either incorporated or unincorporated)
• charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
• not-for-profit company limited by guarantee (must be a registered charity or have a not-for-profit 'asset lock' clause in its articles of association)
• community interest company (CIC)
• community benefit society
• co-operative society (must have a not-for-profit 'asset lock' clause in its society rules and be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority).

Organisations 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 we fund must have at least two directors who are not related in any of these ways. This also applies to companies that are registered as charities.

Who could not apply

We did not accept applications from:

• unincorporated associations (unless they are also a registered charity with the Charity Commission)
• organisations that have already applied for this funding
• statutory bodies (including town, parish and community councils)
• schools
• individuals
• sole traders
• one organisation applying on behalf of another or a partnership
• organisations that try 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.

The activities we're funding

We're only funding activities that support people living in England.

We're funding existing services that support low income households and individuals facing severe challenges due to the increased cost of living

These must include at least one of the following:

• food and emergency supplies – like food and baby banks or the provision of hot meals, clothes or toiletries
• emergency shelter – like night shelters or other accommodation for people experiencing homelessness
• safe spaces – like domestic abuse services and youth services
• warmth – like warm rooms and spaces
• financial and housing advice – like giving people advice because of the increased cost of living.

This could be a ‘one-stop shop’ model where people can access, for example, food, warmth and money advice services in a community setting. Or it could cover each individual service separately.

We're funding services to continue, expand or adapt

But we are not funding any new services.

We're only funding organisations that are experiencing increased demand for critical services and increased costs in delivering them

Increased demand might mean more people using the services, or the same number of people needing more help.

We're also providing some retrospective funding

We're funding future activity up to the end of March 2024. But we can also retrospectively fund costs incurred between 24 July 2023 and the date we offer funding (about 12 weeks after submitting an application).

These costs can only be for running existing critical service(s). Find out what the money can be spent on.

We know it’s unusual for funding to be available for retrospective costs. But we want to support organisations as much as we can with this funding.

We can fund:

• staff salaries for the service(s) applied for.
• volunteer costs for the service(s) applied for.
• service delivery – including any direct costs associated with delivering, expanding or adapting services such as materials, new equipment or room hire.
• very small-scale refurbishment needed to deliver the expanded or adapted service(s) applied for. For example, installing a partition in a community centre so people can access financial advice privately, or upgrading a kitchen to provide meals in a warm hub. These must be fully complete and paid for by 31 March 2024.
• improvements to systems and infrastructure needed to deliver the expanded or adapted services.
• training and development for staff and volunteers delivering the services applied for.
• organisational development and capacity building (as long as this is not the main focus).
• a share of the organisation’s overheads needed to run the services applied for. For example any fixed costs to support the running of the organisation, such as overall management, administration and support staff costs, rent and utilities.

Overhead costs - how to work them out

Organisation overheads are costs shared among the organisation’s different projects and activities. We will fund the share of organisations' overheads for the critical services we fund. We call this full cost recovery. We ask organisations we fund to allocate the share on a fair and proportionate basis. Read about how to work out overheads in our guide to full cost recovery.

We are funding expanding or adapting services, but only from the date we offer funding

For example, if we offered funding to adapt or expand a service on 1 October 2023, this part of the funding would only cover 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2024.

We can also fund retrospective costs of existing services applied for, from 24 July 2023

We can fund future activity up to the end of March 2024. But we can also retrospectively fund costs incurred between 24 July 2023 and the date we offer funding.

These costs can only be for running the existing service(s) applied for, and not for anything else.

We know it’s unusual for funding to be available for retrospective costs. But we want to support organisations as much as we can with this funding. Any payment made for retrospective costs should be shown as unrestricted funding in the organisation's accounts.

The retrospective costs we can fund are:

• existing staff costs for running the service(s) applied for
• existing volunteer costs for running the service(s) applied for
• a share of the organisation’s overheads for the service(s) applied for, including overall management, administration and support staff costs, rent and utilities.

We’ll need evidence of any retrospective costs

If we offer funding for retrospective costs, we’ll need evidence that the costs were incurred on or after 24 July 2023.

This could include:

• copies of bank statements
• payroll information
• invoices or bills.

We asked organisations to fill in a budget table

Using our budget table template (Word document, 28 KB). The template includes guidance on how to complete the table.

We could not fund:

• critical services that are not experiencing increased demand and increased costs
• brand new services. We will only fund existing, adapted or expanded services
• services being delivered outside of England
• applications that only ask for retrospective costs, without any cost for future delivery of services
• expanding or adapting existing services between 24 July 2023 and when we offered funding (but we can fund existing services in this time)
• larger building works or maintenance, or any refurbishment work that is not completed and paid for by 31 March 2024
• purchase of buildings or land
• campaigning, political or lobbying activities (we’ll only fund the delivery of direct services)
• religious activities (we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content)
• gifts or activities that make profits for private gain
• activities that petition for additional funding
• goods or services that the organisation applying has a statutory duty to provide
• giving cash direct to people experiencing hardship
• loan repayments.