Grants and funding support

There are a variety of grants available to community groups and organisations providing support to their communities and individuals during the coronavirus pandemic.

If you are an individual you can find out about the help available on the financial support for individuals page. If you are a business you can find out about the help available on the financial support for businesses page.

There are also other grants and financial support available:

Grants for community organisations

• National Lottery Funding can help you to make a difference in your community. National Lottery Awards for All offers funding from £300 to £10,000 to support what matters to people and communities. We will fund organisations with great project ideas that: bring people together and build strong relationships in and across communities​
• Building Futures
  Persimmon’s Charitable Foundation has this week committed to relaunching its Building Futures scheme for 2020. As part of its sponsorship of Team GB, Persimmon will donate more than £1 million to support children in sport, health and education. They are calling on local groups which support children to apply. 
• Community Champions
  Persimmon’s Community Champions initiative has run since 2015 and gives away £64,000 every month in single donations up to the value of £1,000. So far over £3.5 million has been donated in the UK. Persimmon has decided that from April 2020 all funding will go directly to groups supporting the over 70s.
• Greggs Foundation
  Funding for emergency food parcels, hardship payments and other support to schools and community hubs.
• John Lewis & Waitrose
  Launched a £1m Community Support Fund to be distributed by Waitrose shops to local communities, and a support fund to aid staff facing additional costs as a result of the pandemic.
• Neighbourly
  Micro-grants of up to £400, to support good causes that are helping communities affected by the new Coronavirus outbreak.
• Comic Relief
  Support for organisations that it funds, both in the UK and around the world, as they adapt and respond to the massive challenges around Coronavirus (COVID-19). Some of the money that is raised through Sport Relief 2020 will go to organisations on the frontline of the response to the Coronavirus, who are able to reach some of the most vulnerable people, likely to be affected.
• Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust
  The Trust will make grants to organisations working to improve the life chances for some of the most disadvantaged children.

Grants for charities

• Big Society Capital
  Plans emergency £100m loan fund for charities. Find out more about funder updates, articles, programmes and schemes supporting charities and social enterprises with financial resilience during this period of uncertainty.
• Devon Community Foundation
  Launching a fund to help those most effected by the outbreak. They collaborate with charities and other bodies to raise and distribute money and support victims at the time of a domestic disaster.

Grants for the arts industry

• Help Musicians
  Guidance and hardship fund. Musicians are encouraged only to apply if they are suffering significant financial hardship to enable providing help quickly to those who need it the most.
• PRS For Music
  The PRS Members’ Fund and the PRS Foundation have launched the PRS Emergency relief fund with grants of up to £1000 each, depending on need for Performing Right Society (PRS) members globally. The PRS Emergency Relief Fund is open to those who: have been a PRS writer member for at least two years, have earned at least £500 of PRS royalties within the last two years, are suffering genuine hardship from loss of work due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
• Arts Council England 
  Emergency funding package and support for funded organisations and individuals. Ensuring the people and organisations that make up the arts, museums and libraries are protected during the Coronavirus crisis.
• Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund
  People facing an urgent and immediate need for financial assistance, may apply for a one-off grant of up to £500. The fund has been established with a £1m donation from Netflix for anyone impacted in the industry by shutdown.
• Make A Difference Trust
  Small pockets of financial assistance to those in theatre experiencing unexpected financial hardship due to theatre closures as a direct result of Government advice aimed at containing the spread of Coronavirus.
• Support for Theatre Professionals during Coronavirus
  A collection of funds and sources of advice or support for those in the theatre industry. Funds are available from institution specific funders and from those that support the wider industry.
• Authors Emergency Fund
  Professional authors who are resident in the UK or British subjects – including all types of writers, illustrators, literary translators, scriptwriters, poets, journalists and others.

Grants for sport and physical activity sector

• Building Futures
  Persimmon’s Charitable Foundation has this week committed to relaunching its Building Futures scheme for 2020. As part of its sponsorship of Team GB, Persimmon will donate more than £1 million to support children in sport, health and education. They are calling on local groups which support children to apply. 
• Sport England - Community Action Fund
  This new fund aims to help community sport and physical activity organisations who are experiencing short term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.​