Herefordshire Funding Opportunities Update July 2016 Useful Contacts

The Care & Wellbeing Fund

Purpose: This Fund was established to develop and scale community-based services to improve health and wellbeing across the country, particularly for those suffering from long term conditions such as cancer. This is a new means of investing in and scaling community care, and aims to create services that allow people dealing with long term health conditions to access the services they need, when and where they need them. The Fund has four key priorities:

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  Community based care
  
• 
  Integrated care
  
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  Better use of  informal resources
  
• 
  Prevention and wellbeing
  

The Fund is managed by Social Finance, a non-profit with a strong track record of delivering innovative programmes in the health and social care space.

Who can apply: The fund, which is available to charities and asset-locked social enterprises, will be administered by Social Finance, with support from the Health Foundation, a charity which supports the development of better healthcare. 
Project Example: The fund's first investment is of £350,000 into a new programme tackling loneliness in Worcestershire. The intervention will be offered to 3,000 people and will be delivered by Age UK Herefordshire and Worcestershire, together with local voluntary and community organisations. 

Church Projects

Funding for community focused projects - Hereford Diocesan Partnership Fund

Purpose: This money has been allocated by the Church of England for use by Dioceses to fund “parish mission initiatives”. Hereford Diocese would like to encourage parishes to develop creative and innovative ways of forging closer links with other parish groups and organisations. The funding is available for:
• Projects that demonstrate a partnership approach, especially with the wider community

• Projects that cannot be funded easily or totally from other sources.

• Projects that demonstrate the church’s commitment to the wider community.
Preference will be given to:
• Projects that focus on training and development skills

• Work with young people

• Preparatory work for developing further ideas, such as pilot projects, pump priming, consultations or feasibility studies

• Where appropriate, other sources of funds have also been used and the diocesan contribution forms part of the overall package

Who can apply: Any Church or faith based group.
Amount available: The contribution from central funds is limited, so the maximum contribution that can be given to any parish will be £2000.
Deadline: A Funds panel sits four times a year to consider applications and you will be given a speedy response to your application. Please contact Joanne Gibbon for details of deadlines.
Further information: These are guidelines only, if you have an innovative idea please feel free to discuss it with Joanne Gibbon on 01584 871089 by email: [e-mail]
Conservation of decorative features and monuments in Places of Worship
Purpose: The Morris Fund was formed in 1939 following a bequest to the Society from May Morris, the younger daughter of William and Jane Morris. Smaller programmes of work concerned with the conservation of decorative or non-structural features, for example:

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  stained glass windows
  
• 
  sculpture
  
• 
  furniture
  
• 
  monuments and tombs
  
• 
  wall paintings
  

The decorative feature, monument, etc. must be dated before 1896 (the date of William Morris’s death). Applications for features dated after 1896, even if they are in churches dated before 1896, are not eligible.

Who can apply: Grants are awarded to churches, chapels and other places of worship in the United Kingdom for the conservation of decorative features and monuments, but not structural repairs.
Deadlines: 31st March (applicants notified by 31 May) & 31st August (applicants notified by 30 November)
Amount Available: Grants of between £500-£3,000
Church repair grants

Purpose: The National Church Trust Repair Grants programme offers grants towards the cost of urgent and essential structural repair projects. Projects must have an estimated cost of at least £100,000 (including VAT and fees) to qualify. 

Who can apply: Places of worship of any denomination and age can apply. We will consider applications from listed and unlisted Christian places of worship across the UK. However, in 2016 we are interested in seeing applications from our priority areas - North East England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as from Baptist and Presbyterian churches.

Amount available: Standard grants of up to £10,000 with a small number of grants at £40,000 and above. 

Deadline: The closing date for applications is the 16^th September 2016, although it is recommended that you submit your application as soon as you are able.

Project Viability and Project Development Grants for Church Projects

Purpose: The National Churches Trust will shortly be opening a Project Viability and Project Development grant programme. This programme will offer grants to support churches to become more sustainable through the diagnosis of issues affecting the church, by testing the viability of proposed solutions to improve sustainability, and through development of guiding policies and plans that will be implemented through an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund or other large church heritage funders.

Amount available: The programme will offer awards of between £3,000 and £10,000.

Deadline: This a limited pilot programme, due to open in June 2016. The deadline will be 12th September 2016. Decisions will be made in December 2016.

Further information: For further details, please contact Catherine Townsend at the National Churches Trust.