Big Issue Invest

Grant Funding and Contingency Planning

We kicked off our Investment Support Webinar Series and wanted to provide some resources we think will be helpful to your social business

We kicked off our Investment Support Webinar Series with the Grand Funding and Contingency Planning Webinar. Linda Rutter, one of our consultants joined us and discussed one of the most pressing issues at this time, funding. In particular grant funding to help your business fair the storm. See below some resources we think will be helpful to your social business.

Sources of funding 

We discussed a few sources of funding. But the main resource we’d recommend is the Charity Excellence Framework. It has a searchable database of organisations and funds offering grants to charities affected by COVID-19. It takes two minutes to register and is completely free.

A few other grants you may find fit for purpose are:

  • Charity Bank has an excellent list of COVID-19 funds broken down by country and region.
  • Ian McLintock has posted a useful list of over 200 Funders offering grants for projects affected by COVID-19.
  • Grants Online has published a list of Coronavirus specific funds across the UK.
  • The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has produced a list of specific funds available across the UK and for many different types of organisations.
  • The Barclays Foundation is offering £100m in funding. It will be giving out half of the fund in the form of direct funding for charities, while the other half is a commitment to match employees’ donations, including senior executives in the bank pledging a third of their salary.
  • Sport England is making up to £195 million of funding available to help the sport and physical activity sector (including clubs and community organisations) through the ongoing Coronavirus crisis.
  • Community Foundations around the UK are providing Coronavirus specific funding. Visit the UK Community Foundations website to find out what your local foundation is doing.
  • The Arts Council has made £160 million of emergency funding available for those organisations and individuals who will need it during this crisis.
  • The Third Sector Resilience Fund (Scotland). Scotland’s government has created a £20m Third Sector Resilience Fund, with both grants and interest free loans available. The fund is now open for applications.
  • The Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland is keeping its small and medium grants programmes open.
  • The National Lottery Awards for Wales is prioritising applications that are COVID-19 related over the next six months.

Contingency Planning Guidance

The NCVO is a great resource for you to find all of the help you need in developing a contingency plan.

Don’t miss our webinar next week.

Investment Readiness with Alan Tudhope May 19th from 2:00pm – 2:45pm

Link to the Webinar

Learn more about our impact

When most people think about the Big Issue, they think of vendors selling the Big Issue magazines on the streets – and we are immensely proud of this. In 2022 alone, we worked with 10% more vendors and these vendors earned £3.76 million in collective income. There is much more to the work we do at the Big Issue Group, our mission is to create innovative solutions through enterprise to unlock opportunity for the 14million people in the UK living in poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
There's a letting agency actually trying to fix the housing crisis. Here’s how
Housing

There's a letting agency actually trying to fix the housing crisis. Here’s how

Local theatre company receives £104K in investment from Big Issue Invest
Big Issue Invest

Local theatre company receives £104K in investment from Big Issue Invest

ESG, Regulation and Data reporting  – should we be implementing an Impact Balance Sheet?
Big Issue Invest

ESG, Regulation and Data reporting  – should we be implementing an Impact Balance Sheet?

Milton Keynes-based community interest company receives £50K in funding from Big Issue Invest to help empower disadvantaged communities
Big Issue Invest

Milton Keynes-based community interest company receives £50K in funding from Big Issue Invest to help empower disadvantaged communities

Most Popular

Read All
How two men outran the KGB to bring Tetris to the world
1.

How two men outran the KGB to bring Tetris to the world

‘We had to turn away a man who hadn’t eaten for two days’: Liverpool café serving homeless people for free broken into twice in two weeks
2.

‘We had to turn away a man who hadn’t eaten for two days’: Liverpool café serving homeless people for free broken into twice in two weeks

Exclusive: Suella Braverman claims to have contributed to a legal textbook. The author says she didn't.
3.

Exclusive: Suella Braverman claims to have contributed to a legal textbook. The author says she didn't.

Cash Carraway on Rain Dogs: 'We always see working-class stories through a middle-class gaze'
4.

Cash Carraway on Rain Dogs: 'We always see working-class stories through a middle-class gaze'