Our new small grants application process provides a single front door for all grants of this size. The aim is to make it as easy as possible to access our various funding sources. Several different pots of funding will feed into these grants and we will work behind the scenes to match applications to the fund that best fits. We have spent several months reviewing all of our grantmaking systems and practices to develop an approach that we believe best serves Devon’s voluntary and community sector. We know that applying for funding is time consuming so we want to move away from a model where groups might apply to us multiple times across the year for multiple different grant schemes.
Our grant funding is here for organisations that are tackling inequality and strengthening Devon’s communities. All applications will be assessed against the extent to which they meet these core priorities. Groups may previously have been aware of our Community Grants and this funding will now be available through the small grants application process. Our Community Foundation model means that we also hold more targeted funds which are ringfenced for particular locations, issues or groups of people. We will publish details of these funds as and when they are available. If groups know which fund they would like to apply to they can mention this in their application.
We are opening for applications with approximately £100,000 already available in our Community Grants budget for work across Devon that is focused on tackling inequality and strengthening communities. This is made possible by a number of donors.
We are expecting demand for these grants to be high. Once we have reopened and built evidence of the demand we will be working with donors to boost the funds available.
We will be running monthly drop-in Q and A sessions hosted by members of the grants team at which potential applicants can both ask questions and provide feedback on our application process. The first of these will be at 2pm on Tuesday 25th June and you can sign up here.
