The Leeds Fund: Strategic Grants to Support Resilience

The Strategic Grants administered by Leeds Community Foundation will address resilience for Third Sector Organisations: meaning they are interested in how their funding can support the development of Community Organisations themselves; rather than a specific project or group of people.

During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, LCF took the decision to fund both ongoing delivery and emergency support, but also to pilot a form of funding that covered the core costs of Community Organisations to try and help them thrive in the longer-term. They have utilised the learning from this pilot and have designed these grants using feedback from the organisations that received pilot grants: as well as by taking account of sector survey feedback over the last six months.

This fund therefore is designed to cover the core costs of Community Organisations and encourage strategic development work alongside daily delivery. In developing The Leeds Fund in this way, they hope that it gives our sector the best chance of both delivering effectively – and surviving – in the years ahead.

Grant Size: up to £30,000 over 2 years (£15,000 per year)

Closing date: 12 February 2021 at 12 noon

To Apply

Click here for the online application.

If you require more information about this fund please contact Leeds Community Foundation on 0113 242 2426 or email grants@leedscf.org.uk

Who can apply?

Charities, social enterprises or other charitable organisations from the third sector that:

• Are registered with the Charity Commission or Companies House
• Have an annual income in your last accounts between £75k and £300k per annum*
• Are delivering work that meets needs and has a clear impact on our communities (evidenced by whatever you already collect: this could be impact data, case studies or testimonies of people who benefit from your work)
• Want to learn and adapt to become a more stable and resilient organisation in the long-term and to work with other community organisations to do the same with buy-in to this programme from trustees as well as staff and volunteers
• Are based in and delivering the majority of your work in Leeds
• Have been operating for at least 2 years
• Have at least one paid member of staff who can commit a proportion of their time to the strategic development work this programme will fund (we will want to know who this person is, and have regular contact with them: but they can be hired once your application is successful).
• Have a management committee/board of directors/trustees of at least three unrelated people
• Have a bank account under the name of the group with at least two unrelated signatories (if your organisation doesn’t have its own bank account, but does meet all of the other criteria, please contact us to discuss how we can work around this)

*However, we recognise that since April 2020, many community organisations have seen a significant decrease or a significant increase in income as a result of the pandemic, and that the picture in your last annual accounts or in your current management accounts may not fairly reflect what your position is likely to be in the two years ahead. We will take this into account in considering what impact a grant of this size could make on your resilience. In the specific circumstances where organisations have received additional income related to Covid-19 response that has taken them over the £300k upper income limit, we will consider applications on a case by case basis.

Find out more – visit the Leeds Community Foundation website

Leeds Community Foundation