Rural Community Needs Fund
The Rural Community Needs Fund has been established following Northamptonshire Community Foundation’s campaign to ‘Shine a Spotlight on Rural Community Needs’, in order to champion the needs of rural communities. The aim of this fund is to address urgent needs to support rural communities address issues such as access to community transport, fuel poverty, refurbishment of community building and equipment, access to wellbeing and health services, activities and education services for young people and support for older people.
Grants awards will be up to £10,000, this can be used for service delivery or for capital projects, examples include:
- Developing community networks – e.g. supporting local clubs, creating community hubs, providing community transport schemes
- Improving the health and wellbeing of socially isolated people – e.g. opportunities for older people to become more physically active, providing mental health wellbeing activities, community first responders
- Refurbishing community assets to improve community use – e.g. updating village hall kitchen facilities, developing local playgrounds
- Improving digital connectivity – e.g. installation of mobile signal boosters, run digital hubs to help develop skills and inclusion
- Building community resilience – e.g. community larders
Projects that won’t be funded include:
- Purchase of buildings or land
- Planning permission/building regulations (including design and planning consultants)
- Building projects where planning permission is not yet in place
- Projects taking place in a location where the purchase/rent agreement is not complete
Where projects involve refurbishing or building community assets, you must provide evidence that you either own the land or building, or that you have permission to carry out work from the owner and have a lease agreement for a minimum of five years.
To apply please complete an application form by Friday 5 April 2024.
A grants panel will meet in May, and you will receive an outcome in early June. Therefore, prospective projects should not start before this time.
Is my group eligible?
- Charities, CIOs, constituted community groups, companies limited by guarantee and Parish Councils in Northamptonshire can apply for funding. Applications from Parish Councils must be for non-statutory activities that have a community benefit.
- CICs can apply for funding, they must have a minimum of two unrelated Directors. Please note that as a general exclusion we do not fund social enterprises with persons with significant control (PSC)
- Your project must be based in and benefit residents of rural communities. We classify rural communities as those with a population of less than 10,000.
- You must have people volunteering to help with your activity, who are not part of your management committee
- You must have a set of written rules or constitution that your group adheres to, that contains a dissolution clause. We can help advise you on how to do this especially if you are a new group
- You must have safeguarding policies in place if relevant to your work and all groups must have an equalities policy in place
Please click here to view our Diversity Statement applicable to our grant awards.
Our funds and programmes are working towards the 10 UNSDGs we have adopted into our charitable activities. For more information please click here.
Rural Community Needs Fund
The aim of this fund is to address urgent needs to support rural communities address issues such as access to community transport, fuel poverty, refurbishment of community building and equipment, access to wellbeing and health services, activities and education services for young people and support for older people.
Deadline: 05/04/2024
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £10,000
Project Type: Rural needs
Anchor Community Connection Fund
The Anchor Community Connection Fund has been established to support local organisations, causes or programmes which bring people together to share food and strengthen community connections.
Deadline: Rolling programme
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £3,000
Project Type: Connecting communities
Warm this Winter Fund
The Warm this Winter Fund will offer individual grants of up to £2,000 for Northamptonshire-based projects that focus on protecting and helping older people who are vulnerable during the winter months.
Deadline: 29/02/2024
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £2000
Project Type: Wellbeing
Cecil Pettit Legacy Fund
Cecil Pettit was one of the founding members of Ability Northants, a charity dedicated to enriching the lives of people living with disabilities.
Following his passing in 2000, a legacy fund was established to carry on Cecil Pettit's good work. This fund is managed and facilitated by Northamptonshire Community Foundation, with the aim to fund projects supporting people living with disabilities.
Deadline: 19/02/2024
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £4,000
Project Type: Health & Wellbeing
The Compton Fund
The Compton Fund wish to support arts, culture and heritage projects across Northamptonshire. The fund will offer awards between £500 and £5000.
Projects will be considered across a range of arts, culture and heritage based projects.
Deadline: 01/03/2024
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £500 - £5,000
Project Type: Arts, Culture & Heritage
Friends of the Foundation Fund
Friends of the Foundation was launched in May 2010 and its aim is to bring like-minded businesses and individuals together into a ‘circle of giving’. Each member of the initiative donates a regular amount each year and part of this donation was used to launch the Friends of the Foundation Fund.
Deadline: 06/11/2023
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £5,000
Project Type: General
St. Giles Charitable Trust Fund
St Giles Charitable Trust is working towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1: No Poverty.
We are calling on projects to apply to the St Giles Charitable Trust for up to £5000 for targeted activity addressing poverty in Northampton.
Deadline: 30/10/2023
Location: Northampton
Grant Amount: £5000
Project Type: No Poverty
The High Sheriff's Initiative Fund
The High Sheriff's Initiative encourages the development of projects which bring people closer to their communities to create a more cohesive society. It seeks to help communities and people within Northamptonshire realise their potential, creating stronger and safer communities and reducing crime and anti-social behaviour. The programme will make awards of up to £3,000.
Deadline: 30/06/2023
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £3,000
The Avon Fund for Women & Girls
The Avon fund for Women and Girls is managed by Northamptonshire Community Foundation on behalf of Avon Cosmetics Ltd. In 2023 the Avon Fund for Women and Girls will have a focused commitment to funding up to three projects that address UN SDG 5: Gender Equality focusing particularly on address violence against women and girls (VAWG) and helping women and girls rebuild and recover their lives after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deadline: 26/06/2023
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £3,000
Project Type: General
Constance Travis Community Endowment Fund
Northamptonshire Community Foundation is delighted to launch the Constance Travis Community Endowment Fund, awarding grants from £3,500 to £10,000. This fund aims to support direct services provided by the voluntary and community sector.
Deadline: 04/08/2023
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £10,000
Project Type: General
Poverty Hurts Fund
Northamptonshire Community Foundation has launched the Poverty Hurts Fund to help tackle increasing poverty and the impact of the current cost of living crisis for some of our most vulnerable local residents and those already experiencing financial distress. It aims to ensure that people who have been impacted by poverty can access support from local organisations.
Deadline: Rolling programme
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £3,000
Project Type: Poverty
High Sheriff's Initiative Fund
The High Sheriff Initiative encourages the development of projects which bring people closer to their communities to create a more cohesive society. It seeks to help communities and people within Northamptonshire realise their potential, creating stronger and safer communities and reducing crime and anti-social behaviour.
Deadline: 10/06/2022
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £5,000
Project Type: General
Northamptonshire Creative Climate Action Fund
Northamptonshire Community Foundation is delighted to launch the Northamptonshire Creative Climate Action Fund funding programme to provide a large and impactful grant award of up to £50,000 for up to three local projects for activity to support creative projects that build awareness around climate change and encourage people to make behavioural changes to protect the environment in Northamptonshire.
Deadline: 20/03/2023
Location: Northamptonshire
Grant Amount: £50,000
Project Type: Arts, Culture & Heritage