Chiefdragon’s Weblog

Community Foundation for Merseyside are pleased to announce a new three-year grants programme for small, grass-roots community and voluntary groups with an annual turnover of less than £20,000 in Sefton, Knowsley, Halton, St Helens and Wirral.  Your local CVS is available to support your group in making an application (see contact details below).

Purpose:
This grants programme is aimed at sustaining and developing small, grass-roots organisations with an annual turnover of less than £20,000 who have been active in their local community since at least December 2006.

Grassroots Grants can be used for anything that increases or develops the capacity of small voluntary and community groups, enabling them to continue or expand their work including advocacy, community voice and service provision for local people.

Projects should aim to meet local priorities, in particular those that have been agreed within Local Area Agreement targets for each borough.  Speak to your local advice agency (see contact details below) for support on this.

Examples of what can be funded are: -

• The purchase of equipment
• The costs of putting on a local event or workshop
• Staff costs to enable the employment of sessional workers
• Training for volunteers
• Activities that meet an identified need in the local community
• Contribution to rent costs related to activities/service delivery

In order to be eligible for a Grassroots Grant, groups must:

• be a not-for-profit voluntary or community group, active in their local community for not less than 12 months prior to 31 December 2007
• have an evidenced income of less than £20,000 per annum, taken as an average turnover for the last three financial years (or over the life of the group if it is less than three years old), and net of any grants received through the Grassroots Grants programme 
• be volunteer led (i.e. with largely volunteer based output) 
• be connected with and/or meeting the needs of the local community 
• have a governing document that has as a minimum the name, aim/purpose, objects, a dissolution clause for the organisation, a list of Trustees/Committee members, and Trustees’/Committee members’ signatures

Area: this scheme covers St. Helens, Sefton, Wirral, Halton, Knowsley.  A similar fund has been established for Liverpool, though this is managed by Liverpool CVS (www.lcvs.org.uk, 0151 236 7728)

Grant Range: £5,000 max. – organisations can only receive this amount within the three year programme – it could, however, be broken over a number of small grants (e.g. £1,000, £2,000 and £2,000 grants).

Overall Budget: £1,547,721.78

How to Apply: Download application pack from links below.  Alternatively, in the short term, you can obtain an application pack from the Community Foundation for Merseyside by contacting them direct (see details below).  A downloadable application pack will soon be available on their website (www.cfmerseyside.org.uk).  Details of local support agencies that can advise on applying to the Grass Roots Fund are outlined below.

Application Form: www.mfip.org.uk/docs2/grassrootsapplicationform.doc
Guidelines: www.mfip.org.uk/docs2/grassrootsguidelines.pdf