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Call for EOIs: UK-wide Grant Programme

Deadline: 21-Feb-25

The Royal Countryside Fund is pleased to announce its call for UK-Wide Supporting Rural Communities Grant Program to empower rural communities to develop community-led solutions that increase their resilience and sustainability.

Their aim is to support innovative solutions that will “power up, not prop up” communities, inspiring change and encouraging economic vibrancy. Support will be focused on isolated rural areas where the activity is required due to a lack of alternative services. Projects must be community led and show that they actively listen to, understand and respond to the needs of their local community. They are also looking for community organisations that demonstrate one or more of the following characteristics:

  • Working towards a long-term vision
  • Facilitating collaboration/connectedness
  • Demonstrating innovation.

Communities are invited to bid for funding that will create tangible change. This could be a project that generates a new income stream for the local community, or the delivery of training to develop skills opportunities for young people. It could also be activities to increase community awareness and engagement in the local environment, or an initiative to bring the community together to plan for the impacts of climate change.

Themes
  • Keeping young people in the countryside
  • Powering up rural communities
  • Increasing environmental sustainability
  • Building emergency resilience in rural areas
Funding Information
  • Organisations can apply for grants of up to £25,000 over a period of 24 months.
Ineligible Activities
  • Organisation types they are unable to fund include (but are not limited to):
    • Care Farms or similar activities where the beneficiaries are drawn from a larger area than just the local community.
    • Local Authorities, including Town and Parish Councils.
    • Hospitals and Schools.
    • Private companies, sole traders and individuals.
    • Youth clubs.
    • Organisations that look to make profits and share these profits out privately – including companies limited by shares, organisations without the right asset locks, or organisations that can pay profits to directors or shareholders.
    • Organisations applying to more than one of their funds for the same project over the same period. This is because you cannot get duplicate funding for something they’re already funding you to do. It’s OK to apply to another programme if you’ve already had an unsuccessful decision though.
    • Uniformed groups such as scouts, guides and sea cadets.
    • Sports clubs and associations.
Ineligible Projects and Costs
  • Projects taking place in Cumbria and Northumberland.
  • Rent costs.
  • Village hall and community asset renovation activities.
  • Activities which involve capital work to buy or build, refurbish, extend or alter a property or other construction-related works. This includes:
    • Refurbishment
    • Retro-fitting
    • Extending buildings
    • Purchasing land or buildings
    • Creating a new building
    • Developing an external space like a community garden
  • Landscape-scale or nature recovery type projects.
  • Planning permission/building regulations.
  • Insurance costs.
  • Activities taking place in a location where the purchase/rent agreement is not complete.
  • Statutory requirements.
  • Technical energy activities where a specialist funder might be more appropriate.
  • Consumables including food, fuel or refreshments.
  • Activities that replace government funding.
  • Activities that benefit individuals, rather than the wider community.
  • Lobbying activities.
  • Things you’ve spent money on in the past and are looking to claim for now (retrospective costs).
  • The topping up of organisation reserves.
  • Activities where their contribution makes up less than 10% of the total cost of the activity.
  • Activities that aim to promote a religion (they can fund religious organisations if their activity benefits the wider community and does not include religious content).
  • Political activity/campaigning.
  • Working capital – the liquid funds available to meet your daily business expenses.
  • Activities where there may be other, more appropriate funders with a better understanding of the issue. For example, those dealing with:
Eligibility Criteria
  • This funding is available to community organisations, not individuals or private businesses. You can apply if your organisation has an income of less than £500,000 a year and is a:
    • Constituted voluntary or community organisation
    • Registered, exempt or excepted charity
    • Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
    • Not-for-profit company limited by guarantee
    • Community interest company (CIC)
    • Community benefit society
    • Co-operative society

For more information, visit The Royal Countryside Fund.