Grants of £5,000 – £20,000 for BAME-led organisations to help more BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) organisations and groups apply for National Emergencies Trust coronavirus crisis funding.

The UK Community Foundations (UKCF) has launched this new fund to support Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups who have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis.

The funding is intended to support BAME-led groups and organisations that can, in turn, help other BAME organisations to access their local Community Foundation and secure National Emergencies Trust (NET) funds from them.

An initial £250,000 is being made available with more funds anticipated on a rolling basis. Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 over a maximum of three months are available.  Up to 20% of core costs can be funded.

The funding is to be used for the following (not an exhaustive list):

• Awareness-raising via marketing and communications.
• Mentoring/supporting of groups through the local Community Foundation application process.
• Support with monitoring and reporting.
• Provision of micro grants to enable applications for NET funding through community foundations.
• Building relationships to help community foundations identify and address barriers to funding BAME-led organisations and communities.

Who Can Apply

BAME-led organisations can apply. This includes a range of not-for-profit organisations such as registered charities, faith groups which are exempted from charity registration, and uniformed groups. For the purposes of this fund, a BAME-led organisation is defined under the following terms issued by the Race Equalities Funders Alliance:

The organisation’s mission and purpose is to benefit BAME communities.

The majority of the leadership (ie, at least half of the senior team and the Trustee board) are from the BAME community(ies) that it serves.

There are no deadlines. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. For further information and application form plus contact if you wish to speak to the fund go to  https://www.ukcommunityfoundations.org/news-article/bame-infra-fund?dm_i=1OSC,6Y2AZ,CFOVZ1,RXXTZ,1

If you would like to discuss your potential bid with a staff member of Leeds Community Foundation please e-mail Steph Taylor (Programme Director at LCF) and she will get back to you: steph@leedscf.org.uk

Voluntary Action Leeds