Grant Holder Support

Lead partner: what we’re looking for

We’re looking for a lead partner organisation. You’ll work with us to set up a partnership including a range of specialists and community or civil society organisations. Together, we’ll deliver and learn from the development stage of the Grant Holder Support package. And share learning about what works best.

Find out more about what we expect the lead partner to do in what we want to achieve.

Experience the lead partner needs

We’ll expect your organisation to have:

• experience of working with or leading partners on shared projects
• links with other partners you want to involve.

We’re particularly interested in hearing from partners that:

• have experience in supporting civil society organisations, but that may not have received funding from us before
• have experience working with people, places and communities who experience the most poverty, disadvantage and discrimination.

What types of organisation can be a partner

The lead partner must be a:

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

Any other funded partners must also 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

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 want to achieve

We want to increase the knowledge, skills and resilience of civil society organisations. To do this we’ll offer a £150 million package of funding and support to address the most common challenges that communities face.

We’re offering funding of £2.1 million for this development stage, from spring 2025 to spring 2026. The partners we bring in will use this funding to deliver support to some of our grant holders. And others that need support most. They’ll identify and develop the support package that communities need.

We want the support we offer to be equitable. By this 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.

So we’ll focus our longer-term investment on those working with people facing the greatest challenges. Specifically people, places and communities who experience the most disadvantage, discrimination and poverty.

To do this effectively, we want to support both existing grant holders and those that have not had our funding. We’ll support existing and developing organisations too.

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

• Community Power
• You Decide.

Read about these in our vision for funding in England.

Development stage: what the lead partner will do

As lead partner you’ll deliver support to grant holders and other organisations that need it most. By bringing together a partnership of suitable organisations.

To do this you’ll:

• bring together a range of community, civil society and infrastructure organisations. Particularly organisations that represent communities who experience poverty, disadvantage and discrimination
• bring in other partners that have specialist knowledge. Like organisations who help others to reduce their environmental impact, or increase inclusion. Or who can help others benefit from using data or digital approaches better
• involve both emerging and established civil society organisations. For example, organisations that have been around a long time and those that are new or not mainstream.

This could include a mix of funded and non-funded partners. For example we’d expect to fund any community organisations taking part. And we’d not expect to fund organisations like other large funders. But they could still be a useful non-funded partner to include.

Any funded partners have to be one of the types of eligible organisation listed in who can apply.

You’ll need clear ideas around who to involve in the partnership. But you do not need the formal partnership in place to apply. We’ll work with you to build the partnership, and may suggest some suitable partners.

If we give you funding we expect you and all partners to follow our safeguarding expectations. And our approach to equity, diversity and inclusion.

The development process might include workshops and community engagement sessions. You’ll work to find out what existing and future customers need, and what support would help them. And to identify what matters most to communities. Then use this to provide appropriate support in this first stage.

Why we’re doing this

We want to do more than give out money

Communities have told us that they need more than financial support. So 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. We believe this will help to achieve the missions we set out in our strategy.

We know we’re not the experts

So we’ll work with partners to give communities the support they need. We need the experience and skills of a range of partners to develop our new approach. We think this will create a bigger and longer-term impact from our funding.

How the funding works

In total we’ve committed £150 million to our Grant Holder Support package until 2030.

For this development stage we’re offering funding of £2.1 million. We’ll give this funding to your organisation, as the lead partner. We’ll then work with you to bring other partners in to deliver and develop this stage of the Grant Holder Support package together.

Of the £2.1 million, £200,000 is allocated to fund your work as lead partner. The remaining £1.9 million funding for is for the other partner organisations taking part in the development stage.

What you can spend the money on

We can fund:

• delivery of support to grant holders and civil society organisations
• salary costs
• transport costs and expenses
• the costs for other members of the partnership to take part.
• other costs involved in working as our partner. 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, being the lead partner 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:
  • delivering support to grant holders and civil society organisations
  • working with us and partners to develop our new Grant Holder Support package.

If you need funding for a community project

Our Grant Holder Support package will not offer this kind of funding immediately. But 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.