9 November 2020
Funding for Social Enterprises in England to Create Lasting Impact and Build Resilience
Social enterprises can apply for grants to deliver their important services and grow their impact while adapting to the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.
A new £4.75 million Fund for social enterprises in England has opened for applications. Social enterprises that are substantially reliant on trading income and have an annual turnover of between £20,000 and £2.5 million can apply.
Applications are accepted from:
- Early stage social enterprises who can demonstrate potential for growth and impact and a resilient financial model.
- Established social ventures with ambitions for deep or scalable impact, or with aspirations to tackle entrenched social issues in new ways.
The Fund particularly encourages applications from social entrepreneurs who identify as Black, Asian or from a minority ethnic background, and disabled people. The aim is for 50% of the funding to reach these typically underrepresented groups.
Grants of between £10,000 and £500,000 are available and can be used for activities such as the following:
- New emerging opportunities to grow impact (eg, services that have emerged during the pandemic).
- Projects or infrastructure that will benefit social enterprises’ future resilience, recovery and growth.
- Existing services, projects or models that are performing well, with the potential to accelerate growth and impact.
The grants can be used to cover staff salaries, project activities, running costs, small-scale refurbishments, organisational development, contributions to fixed costs, investments in systems, investments in people, investments in infrastructure and/or dedicated capacity development.
The deadline for applications is 5pm on 13 November 2020.