The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund
This funding is for organisations that support people and communities under severe pressure because of the increased cost of living.
By community we mean people living in the same local area.
Our main priority is to fund organisations supporting low-income households and individuals.
You can apply for between £10,000 and £75,000. If you need £10,000 or less you could try our National Lottery Awards for All fund.
To apply your organisation must already run critical services around at least one of the following:
- food and emergency supplies – like food and baby banks or the provision of hot meals, clothes or toiletries
- emergency shelter – like night shelters or other accommodation for people experiencing homelessness
- safe spaces – like domestic abuse services and youth services
- warmth – like warm rooms and spaces
- financial and housing advice – like giving people advice because of the increased cost of living.
Your organisation must also be facing both
- increased demand for these critical services
and
- increased costs of delivering these critical services
We’re more likely to fund small and medium-sized front-line organisations
With an annual turnover of between £10,000 and around £1 million.
Larger organisations can also apply if they do both of the following:
- show that they work closely and effectively with local communities
- fill a gap in essential local services.
You can get funding to pay for:
- costs of delivering, expanding or adapting your existing critical service(s) from the date you are funded until 31 March 2024. The date you are funded will be around 12 weeks from the time you submitted your application.
- retrospective costs of running the existing critical service(s) you’re applying for between 24 July 2023 and the date you are funded.
To find out more read the section What you can spend the money on.
We want to support a range of critical services that reach as many local communities and groups of people as possible. This will be one of the things we think about when deciding which applications to fund.
The deadline for applications is 16 October 2023 at 12 noon
We’ll start funding organisations in October 2023, and finish in January 2024. If you get funding you must spend it by 31 March 2024.AreaEnglandSuitable forVoluntary or community organisationsApplication deadline
16 October 2023 at 12 noon
For more information and to apply please click here.