Deadline: 12-Jun-2024
The London Community Foundation is inviting applications for the Elephant & Castle Community fund to build on the strengths of local people, celebrate the rich cultural diversity of the area, and support the people who are most in need at this time of change.
The Elephant & Castle Community Fund was set up in 2012 with a donation from Lendlease to support the local Elephant & Castle community during the regeneration of the area. Since then, the fund has continued thanks to generous donations from both Southwark Council and Lendlease and more recently Get Living.
Themes
- Applications must address at least one of the following themes
- Further education, skill building, training and entrepreneurship: Helping residents to increase their educational attainment, develop skills, access training and gain employment. They are keen to support projects that create pathways to employment, volunteering, and work experience, and encourage socially enterprising activities which are of benefit to the community. They are also keen to see applications for digital training for residents who are currently digitally excluded.
- Arts and culture: Promoting engagement in arts and cultural activities, in particular, those that celebrate the diversity of the area and improve the local environment.
- Young people: Engaging and improving the lives of young people in the area, providing youth activities and supporting young residents to reach their potential.
- Wellbeing: Promoting wellbeing, helping people to connect with others and addressing what are known as the Five Ways to Wellbeing. These are: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give. – activities that individuals can do in their everyday lives to increase their wellbeing. Please visit https://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work/taking-care-of-yourself/five-ways-to-wellbeing/ for more information. Applications on food insecurity and obesity will also be considered under this theme.
- Environment: Increasing access to green spaces and improving the local environment within the Elephant and Castle Opportunity Area, with particular emphasis on projects where residents are involved in making the improvements themselves. They are also interested in proposals that respond to the climate emergency to achieve emission reduction.
- The theme of the environment has been underrepresented in previous applications. They are therefore keen to hear from organisations looking to deliver work on environment issues and building partnerships to benefits the environment.
Funding Information
- Organisations can apply for grants between £3,000-£12,000 to be spent within 12 months of the grant award date for projects that support residents of the Elephant and Castle Opportunity Area.
- One grant of up to £20,000 may be awarded to one organisation to deliver a project within 24 months of the grant award date. The grant will be released in two instalments: £10,000 in year 1 and £10,000 in year 2. This will go to a project which is able to demonstrate progression over the two years and clear outcomes. Organisations will be provided the opportunity to register interest for this multi-year grant when completing the application. In addition, the fund will offer capacity building sessions to all successful organisations.
Location
- Projects must be of benefit to people who live, work or study in the Elephant & Castle Opportunity Area.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Legal Structures
- There must be a signed governing document in place appropriate to the legal structure which includes an asset lock (or equivalent clause), and the purpose of all funded activities must be charitable (not for profit):
- The organisation must not have two years of net current liabilities within the two most recent completed financial years o
- Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
- Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG) — may also be registered as a charity or a Community Interest Company Limited by Guarantee (CICLG)
- Trust
- Unincorporated Association
- Community Benefit Societies (CBS). Ideally, the CBS will also be registered as charitable with HMRC, however this is not essential.
- There must be a signed governing document in place appropriate to the legal structure which includes an asset lock (or equivalent clause), and the purpose of all funded activities must be charitable (not for profit):
- Governance
- You must have at least three unrelated members legally responsible for the governance of the organisation; Trustees/Directors/Management Committee as appropriate to your structure. Please note that this refers to the highest level of governance, a Management Committee that sits below a board of Trustees (e.g. charities, CIOs) or Directors (CLG or CICLG) does not count towards this.
- Bank account
- You must have a bank account in the same name as the organisation you are applying for, with a minimum of two unrelated signatories.
- Safeguarding
- You must have a safeguarding policy in place that has been reviewed in the last 12 months and meets the requirements as listed in the safeguarding checklist.
- Previous LCF funding
- All conditions from any previous The London Community Foundation grants must be completed and there can be no current outstanding monitoring at the time of application.
- Registration
- If your organisation’s income for charitable purposes is more than £5k at the point of application, you must submit an application to register to The Charity Commission or the relevant regulator (e.g. Companies House, CIC regulator or Financial Conduct Authority). If the LCF grant will take your organisation’s income over £5k, please visit this website for guidance on setting up a charity, including information on legal structures.
Ineligible
- The following types of organisation are not eligible:
- Companies limited by Shares (including CIC limited by shares)
- Statutory organisations, such as local authorities
- NHS bodies
- Co-operative societies
For more information, visit The London Community Foundation.