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COVID-19 Funding Streams

Criteria & Eligibility

About Our Funds

Our Main and Small Grants programmes are for not-for-profit organisations applying for grants of up to three years. Check the information below to see if your project should apply.

Before you apply, make sure you:

All of our grants are for organisations who:

Our Main grants are for organisations who:

  • Are registered with the appropriate regulatory body, such as your nation’s Charity Commission or Companies House

Should I apply?

We only fund organisations who can tell us why they are best placed to deliver their work. This means applicants must be able to tell us about:

  • Their well-established links with young people
  • The skills and expertise they have for the work they are requesting funding for
  • Their track record delivering the work they are requesting funding for. This is especially important for applicants for our Main Grants Programme
  • How they work alongside other organisations in their local community

If you cannot tell us about all these things, we do not recommend applying for funding. It is highly likely that your application will be unsuccessful.

You must also meet our Minimum Standards for Grantmaking. Please check these before you apply. Not meeting minimum standards is a very common reason for being declined.

What if I already have a grant?

We accept applications from new applicants, and organisations which already have a BBC Children in Need grant; however, you are unable to hold more than one active grant from the same programme at any one time.  For example, if you already have a Main Grant, you would not be able to apply for another Main Grant unless it started after your current grant has finished. You can apply for further funding in the final year of your current grant.

If you have recently been declined for a grant, please check your decision letter to see if you have been given an “cannot reapply until” date.

We want to fund organisations which are best placed to make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people. As always there is great demand for our funding, and we want to make sure our funding reaches the whole of the UK. We do allow organisations to hold more than one grant with us but we aren’t always able to offer multiple grants to the same organisation. If you are currently a grant holder or have been funded recently this will be taken into account when we make our funding decisions.

You are eligible to apply if you hold a Next Steps or an Inspiring Futures grant, but your new application must be for different work.

We give grants for:

Children and young people aged 18 years and under experiencing disadvantage through:

  1. Illness, distress, abuse or neglect.
  2. Any kind of disability.
  3. Behavioural or psychological difficulties.
  4. Living in poverty or situations of deprivation.

The work we fund make differences in children’s lives that help prevent or overcome the effects of the disadvantages they face. Funded organisations achieve these differences by either working directly with children or seeking to improve their social and physical environments.

We don’t give grants:

  • For work which statutory bodies (such as schools or local authorities) have a duty to fund.
  • To educational institutions including schools, universities, pupil referral units. The only exception is special schools. Please see our A–Z Guidance.
  • To local government, prisons or NHS bodies.
  • For capital or building projects.
  • For projects which promote religion.
  • To fund trips or projects abroad.
  • For medical treatment or research.
  • For pregnancy testing or advice, information or counselling on pregnancy choices.
  • For awareness-raising work, except where it is targeted at those children or young people most at risk.
  • For bursaries, sponsored places, fees or equivalent.
  • For holidays where there is little or no project involvement.
  • For political activity or, to party political organisations or for direct lobbying.
  • To individuals.
  • To be passed on to other organisations.
  • For general appeals or endowment funds.
  • To help with budget shortfalls or debt repayments.
  • To projects where the grant expenditure is due to start before the grant award date (retrospective funding).
  • To projects unable to start within 12 months of the grant award date.
  • For unspecified expenditure.

What can we apply for?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have temporarily broadened the types of applications we accept. We are currently offering funding that can be used more flexibly than usual. We encourage applications for:

  • Project delivery (Including staffing and salary costs)
  • Creative solutions to deliver much needed services
  • Organisational costs to support stability and adaptation. (Including the day-to-day running costs of an organisation as opposed to specific project costs)

All applications will have to show how this funding will make a difference to children and young people’s lives during this crisis.

Your application is not limited to one specific project and a request can be made for organisational running costs. We are committed to supporting voluntary groups with these types of grants.

What can’t we apply for?

Whilst this fund is designed to be as flexible as possible, we are unable to consider applications for the following:

  • Capital/Building costs
  • Fixed equipment (e.g. boilers, lighting etc.)
  • Vehicles
  • Statutory costs or work which statutory bodies (such as schools or local authorities) have a duty to fund.
  • Non-Fixed equipment totalling over £20,000 (e.g. play/sensory equipment)
  • Work delivered outside the UK
  • Work with young people over the age of 18 years.
  • Retrospective funding, where the grant expenditure is due to start before the grant award date
  • Costs for which you have already received funding for (duplication)
  • Contributions to your reserves
  • Staff redundancy or re-deployment costs
  • Repayment of loans or debts
  • Investments
  • Pension liabilities and/or contributions to a large number of staff’s pension
  • Feasibility studies or scoping work
  • Projects which promote religion (However we can still fund religious organisations)
  • Trips or projects abroad
  • Medical treatment or research
  • Pregnancy testing or advice, information or counselling on pregnancy choices.
  • Awareness-raising work, except where it is targeted at those children or young people most at risk.
  • Bursaries, sponsored places, fees or equivalent.
  • Political activity or, to party political organisations or for direct lobbying.
  • Individuals
  • For the grant to be passed on to other organisations.
  • General appeals or endowment funds.
  • Small Grants Only – Work which directly addresses the effects of child sexual exploitation or is focused on addressing this issue (We can support this work through our Main Grants Programme)

What happens after we apply?

After you submit your application you will receive an email confirming that we have received it. This email will give you more information about what happens next.

Our Grant Making Teams then use a standardised process to decide which applications will progress to the next stage, considering amongst other things:

  • the volume of applications;
  • the budget available;
  • a balanced portfolio at a local level;

We will then check applications against our eligibility criteria and minimum standards for grant making before progressing to the assessment stage.

If you are invited to assessment stage, an assessor will contact you to arrange a telephone call. The assessor will ask you questions about your application and your organisation’s safeguarding in more detail.

Your application will then be considered by the Grant Making Committee in your region or nation, who will advise our Impact Committee and Trustees whether or not a grant is recommended.

Once the final decisions have been made, you will be informed of the decision by email. You can find information on when you can expect to hear a decision in the email confirming that we received your project application.

What if I have any questions?

If you have any questions, please contact us on 0345 609 0015 or by emailing [email protected] and we’ll do our best to help. We want the process to work really well for you. As it’s new, we’ll be learning and improving as we go. Please let us know if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

Small Grants 2021 – Up to £10,000 per year (CLOSED)

(Currently closed for new applications – Please check back in future for updates)

Key Information:

  • Grants may be up to 3 years in length
  • Organisations can apply for up to (and including) £10,000 per year.
  • We are unable to fund work supporting young people who have experienced Child Sexual Exploitation through our Small Grants Programme. If you are looking to apply for this type of work, please see our Main Grants.
  • Organisations may only apply for a Main Grants or a Small grant in this round, not both.

How much can I apply for?

Eligible organisations will be able to apply for up to £10,000 per year. Organisations will not be able to apply for more than £30,000 in total. If you want to apply for more than this, please see our Main Grants Programme.

How do we apply?

All applications must be submitted via our Online Portal. Once you have logged in, you will be able to complete and submit your application for the Small Grants programme.

Before applying, we strongly recommend you read our Small Grants Application Form Guidance.

We expect that this fund will be over-subscribed and only a proportion of applications will be successful. We also know that you need funding quickly.

When will we hear back?

We expect to make all decisions on Small Grants by mid-February 2022.

If your application is successful you will receive an email informing you of the decision. This email will give you more information on what happens next and the terms and conditions of your grant. There may be some additional conditions on your grant:

  • Changes that need to be made or things you will have to tell us before we can award you the funds.
  • We expect all organisations to start spending their grant by January 2023.

Main Grants 2021 - Over £10,000 per year (CLOSED)

(Currently closed for new applications – Please check back in future for updates)

Key Information:

  • The deadline for the current round is 11.30am, August 23rd, 2021
  • Grants may be up to 3 years in length
  • Organisations can apply for £10,001 or more, per year
  • You can not apply for more than £40,000 per year
  • We are highly unlikely to award above £100k in total
  • Organisations may only apply for a Main Grants or a Small grant in this round, not both.

How much can I apply for?

Applications can be for £10,001 or more, per year. You can not apply for more than £40,000 per year. We expect the average grant size to be around 30k per year. If you are applying for three years of funding, we are unlikely to award more than £100,000 in total. We expect most awards to be less than this and proportional to the size and capacity of the organisation. Please only ask for what you need to support children and young people at this time. If you want to apply for less than this, please see our Small Grants Programme.

How do we apply?

All applications must be submitted via our online portal. Once you have logged in, you will be able to complete and submit your application for the Main Grants programme.

Before applying, we strongly recommend you read our Main Grants Application Form Guidance.

We expect that this fund will be over-subscribed and only a proportion of applications will be successful. We also know that you need funding quickly.

When will we hear back?

We expect to make all decisions on Main Grants by the end of January 2022.

However, it is difficult for us to know exactly how many applications we will receive. We will get in touch with applicants if we need additional time.

If your application is successful you will receive an email informing you of the decision. This email will give you more information on what happens next and the terms and conditions of your grant. There may be some additional conditions on your grant:

  • Changes that need to be made or things you will have to tell us before we can award you the funds.
  • We expect all organisations to start spending their grant by January 2023.

Emergency Essentials +

We are expanding the work currently delivered through our Emergency Essentials programme. This programme supports individual children and young people living with severe poverty, a lack of the basic facilities which most of us take for granted and additional pressures such as domestic violence, disability or poor health in the family.

Who Can apply?

This fund is open to any families with children who are living with financial, health and social difficulties.

What can we apply for?

The programme provides items that meet children’s most basic needs such as a bed to sleep in, a cooker to give them a hot meal, clothing (in a crisis) and other items and services that are critical to children’s wellbeing.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, we have expanded our funding criteria for this grant scheme to include a broader range of basic essentials.

How do we apply?

Emergency Essentials is currently delivered by Family Fund Business Services. Although these grants are designed for families, applications must come through a registered referral agency. Individuals cannot apply directly. For more information, please visit the Emergency Essentials webpage.

When will we hear back?

Emergency Essentials is a rapid response fund. We aim to make all decisions on applications within three weeks.

Cymraeg/Welsh

Am y dudalen Cymraeg cliciwch yma.

 

Accessibility

We want everyone to be able to apply for our funding.  We’re committed to being as accessible as possible, wherever we can. If you need help please contact us on 0345 609 0015 or by emailing [email protected]. This help might include arranging a translator or requesting guidance in other formats

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