Fifteen grants of £920 are available to grassroots voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the city of Manchester, which support communities most affected by the cost of living crisis. These grants are specifically to help cover the cost of volunteering. The Eric Wright Charitable Trust has provided the funding.
You can find more detail about this programme in the grants guidance here as well as in the application form here
The grant application deadline is 12 midday on Thursday 16 November 2023. We will notify all applicants of the selection panel’s decisions by week commencing Monday 4 December.
For successful applicants we will need to carry out standard due diligence checks. On completion of the checks, we will pay the grants as soon as possible in December. Grant holders must have spent all funding and submitted a completed monitoring form no later than 31 August 2024 – make sure you plan for this.
IMPORTANT: KEY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Please only apply if your organisation:
- Is a grassroots VCSE organisation with an annual turnover less than £100,000 (if your application is successful we will need to confirm this as part of due diligence checks)
- Mainly supports communities of people most affected by social inequalities and who struggle the most financially, e.g. people who:
- Use food banks
- Are older or are very young
- Are long-term unemployed or have experienced worklessness
- Are from Black, Asian or other minoritised ethnic communities
- Have chronic long-term health issues
- Are disabled
- Are homeless
- Are refugees
- Is going to include in their application activities solely to be delivered within the city of Manchester
- Has its main premises within the city of Manchester (these organisations will be prioritised by the selection panel; groups based in other parts of Greater Manchester that are applying for work they do within the city will be a lower priority for consideration due to funding limitations)
- Will be able to use the entire grant by 31 August 2024
- Is looking for funding to support volunteering costs such as:
- Volunteers’ out-of-pocket expenses for travel, transport, refreshments and meals
- Provision of volunteers’ refreshments / free meals at your premises
- Individual volunteers’ accessibility needs
- Care of volunteers’ dependents
Note: organisational coordination costs related to volunteering are of lower priority for this funding and are unlikely to be supported. E.g. staffing, recruitment (such as DBS checks, advertising, induction materials), training, protective clothing or equipment, celebration/motivational activities, overheads, etc.