Deadline: 10-Dec-21
Near Neighbours is offering small grants between £250 and £5,000, as seed funding for local groups and organisations who are working to bring together neighbours, developing relationships across diverse faiths and ethnicities in order to improve their communities.
Grants have offered funding to a broad range of work; environmental, social, cultural, artistic, and sporting, that furthers the programme’s aims of encouraging social interaction and social action.
These must be local initiatives, planned by and involving local diverse people, which have a specific local impact. They will look especially favourably on applications from diverse neighbourhoods and those with particular issues of deprivation and other challenges, as well as where there is the intention and likelihood of deep and lasting relationships of trust between people, in order to transform communities.
Priorities
- Where the purpose is first and foremost to bring neighbours of different faiths and ethnicities together to build trusting relationships through an activity or project.
- Projects that help local people develop leadership and organising skills.
- Projects that focus on:
- supporting vulnerable women
- supporting young people and promoting wellbeing
- integrating refugees and migrants
- reaching isolated /segregated communities
- New and innovative projects with a high local impact at the neighbourhood level.
- Projects that take place in neighbourhoods with deprivation or disadvantage.
- Proposals from minority faith communities.
- Proposals from small faith or community organisations or groups.
- Where a project shows sustainability; with relationships, sustainable change and/or further work together likely to continue naturally beyond the period of funding.
- Where it is clear what difference the activity will make to the local community.
- Proposals that are run by volunteers or have a strong volunteer base.
- Organisations which have not been given Near Neighbours funding before.
- Projects that source goods and services from businesses in the local community or use ethically sourced goods and services, such as Fairtrade refreshments.
- Proposals that pay staff the Living Wage, as set by the Living Wage Foundation.
- Where a proposal shows value for money.
Funding Information
Grants between £250 and £3,000 are available for local groups and organisations who are working to bring together neighbours, to develop relationships across diverse faiths and ethnicities in order to improve their communities.
Eligible Areas
The programme works in several key locations across England. They have Hubs in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, the Black Country, Lancashire, Leicester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Peterborough, Luton, West London, and East London.
Eligibility Criteria
A project should:
- Bring together peoples of two or more different faiths and/or ethnicities, to build friendships and developrelationships of trust.
- Work locally: They want to see people who are living very locally come together.
- Work sustainably: They want to see long term and natural relationships grow, that will last beyond the period of funding.
- Work to improve the community: They want to see people working to make their communities a better place to live.
- Involve a diverse group of people in planning and implementation: People from more than one faith group and/or ethnicity are involved in running the project.
In addition, a grant must be for:
- New or developed work: They will not support repeat or ongoing activities.
- Specific activities: Funding is given for a specific project or activity.
- Immediate activities: Grants should be claimed within three months of approval, and projects should aim to finish within six months or before the end of March 2022, whichever occurs sooner. If your area is put into lockdown, however, activities can be suspended until lockdown is lifted. They can also discuss adapting activities.
- Small initiatives: They like to fund small projects, so the overall cost of the project needs to be £15,000 or less.
- Grassroots organisations: They particularly seek to fund emerging local groups as well as charities, religious organisations and other not-for-profit organisations whose focus is on local work. They will look especially favourably on small organisations with a low annual turnover.
For more information, visit https://www.near-neighbours.org.uk/small-grants
