Foundation’s Round Up of Covid-19 & Resilience Resources December 2021
As the year draws to a close, we wanted to give you a head start on looking for funding and other resources to support you or your organisation.
While 2021 has been a brighter year, we know there are still many uncertainties and fears ahead with the new Omicron variant, and the Foundation for Future London wants to support your fundraising journey to make the boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets a more resilient and healthy place to live, work, study and play.
We have gathered just a few key funding streams, training programmes and opportunities to support people and organisations working in the arts, cultural, community and innovation sectors in East London. Here are 19 opportunities to check out. The first deadline on the list is 17 December so make sure to take a look now and apply.
The majority of our Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund Year 2 community schemes are now closed, although applications are still being accepted for our Capital Grant Scheme. Be quick as it’s ‘first come first serve’.
We will announce our 2022 grants next year, so please check out our Grants page and make sure to sign up to our newsletter.
Where to look for funding & other resources in 2022
Mayor of London Culture and Community Spaces at Risk resources
Newham Council Council grantfinder
Funding and other opportunities
Arts Council England –Developing Your Creative Practice
DYCP supports individual cultural and creative practitioners who want to take time to focus on their creative development. Artists/practitioners can apply for £2k-10k to support research and development opportunities, building new networks, creating new work. Round 13 will open for applications at 12pm (midday) 22 February 2022. The deadline for applications will be 12pm (midday) 15 March 2022. Please note that the scheme is highly competitive and reading the guidance is strongly recommended for eligibility and advice on applying.
Arts Council England – Lets Create Jubilee Fund
Arts Council England — Project Grants
National Lottery Project Grants is their open access programme for arts, libraries and museums projects. The fund supports thousands of individual artists, community and cultural organisations. They invest public money from government and the National Lottery to make sure everyone’s creativity is given the chance to flourish and we all have access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences. They believe that great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. They’re looking for organisations, artists, events, initiatives and others to apply for our funding and help us achieve our strategy, Let’s Create.
Individuals and organsiations can apply for £30,000 and under or over £30,000. If you are applying for £30,000 or under, you will receive a decision in 8 weeks. If you are applying for over £30,000 a decision will take 12 weeks. A highly competitive fund, we advise reading te guidance carefully. There is no deadline to apply.
DCMS — Culture Recovery Fund Round 3: Emergency Resource Support
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Culture Recovery Fund: Emergency Resource Support has re-opened for applications. The aim of the fund is to help cultural organisations at imminent risk of closure return to financial viability. Round two will provide funding between £25,000 and £3 million to not-for-profit arts and cultural organisations in England which haven’t received funding and face collapse within twelve weeks of their application date. Up to £1 million is available to commercial organisations.
Funding will be distributed by Arts Council England. Organisations must submit a permission to apply request by 12pm on the 11 January 2022. Those eligible will then be invited to apply in full by 12pm on 28 January 2022.
Lloyds Bank Foundation – Racial Equity
Lloyds Bank Foundation supports charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £1 million with a strong track record of helping people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities overcome complex social issues. They offer a two-year unrestricted grant of £50,000 alongside development support to help your charity navigate change. No deadline.
London Community Foundation — Broadgate Community Fund
The Fund will award grants of £10,000 – £20,000 to registered charities, voluntary or community groups, and other not-for-profit organisations that provide projects or services benefitting the community in the London Boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets and the City of London with a priority on the wards of Hoxton West, Haggerston, Spitalfields, Banglatown, Weavers and Portsoken. The Fund will support projects that address wellbeing for older people, improving the lives of children and young people, and homelessness. This Fund has been established by The London Community Foundation and British Land. The deadline 12pm midday on 17 December 2021.
Mayor of London — Untold Stories: grants by the Commission for Diversity in Public Realm
The Mayor of London is offering community-led organisations funding and support to make a change in our public spaces. Whether this is creating something new, highlighting something missing or hidden, or presenting a different story to what already exists, we want to hear from you. You can apply for grants from £1,000 to £25,000 and we have a programme of workshops and extra support to help you apply. The deadline to apply is midday on 12 January 2022.
Mayor of London – New Deal for Young People Funding
Young people have been hit hard by Covid-19 and are a top priority for the Mayor and the London Recovery Board. Young Londoners have told us about the transformational impact that mentors and role models can have on their lives. The New Deal for Young People has committed that by 2024 all young people most in need of support will be entitled to a personal mentor and all young Londoners have access to quality youth activities.
They are launching funding opportunities for three programmes with a focus on mentoring:
• Leaders: 7-12 grants of between £100,000 and £500,000 to expand quality mentoring for young people and provide support to other organisations delivering mentoring
• Headstart Action: 2 grants of up to £150,000 to support local organisations to deliver mentoring and youth social action, and provide employability training and work experience opportunities for young people across London
• STEAM Mentoring: 5-10 grants of between £50,000 and £100,000 to expand quality STEAM mentoring for young people and to support STEAM employers who want to expand or introduce mentoring programmes.
The deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 17 January 2022.
The National Lottery Community Fund – Awards for All
National Lottery funding can help you to make a difference in your community. They offer funding from £300 to £10,000 to support what matters to people and communities. And with the COVID-19 pandemic still with us, they’ll continue to support people and communities most adversely impacted by COVID-19. They can support you to continue to deliver activity – whether your community needs crisis response, recovery or business as usual activity and/or change and adapt, becoming more resilient to respond to new and future challenges.
They aim to support communities to thrive by 1) building strong relationships in and across communities, 2) improve the places and spaces that matter to communities and 3) help more people to reach their potential, by supporting them at the earliest possible stage. The funding is suitable for voluntary or community organisations and there’s no deadline.
The National Lottery Community Fund – Reaching Communities
This programme offers a larger amount of funding over £10,000 for organisations that work with their community to help them thrive. We fund projects that work to make positive changes in their community – whether that is for people living in the same area, or people with similar interests or life experiences. You can apply for funding up to 5 years and there’s no deadline.
The National Lottery Community Fund — Social Enterprise Support Fund
The Social Enterprise Support Fund is open for applications for £10k to £100k grants, from social enterprises in England looking to rebuild, restart and grow their trading income following the impact of COVID-19. It is made possible by The National Lottery Community Fund and delivered by Big Issue Invest, Key Fund Investments, Resonance Limited, UnLtd and School for Social Enterprises.They’re particularly encouraging applications from enterprises led by those with direct lived experience of the social issues they are trying to solve. The first round will close on Tuesday 21 December 2021. They advise you to start your application early so that you have plenty of time to get it just right and access any support that you might need.
Nesta & others — Arts & Culture Impact Fund
A new £23 million social impact investment fund for socially driven arts, culture and heritage organisations registered and operating in the UK. Socially driven arts and cultural organisations across the UK are invited to apply for secured and unsecured loans between £150,000 and £1 million, with a maximum repayment period until May 2030.
Building on the success of the Arts Impact Fund, this new fund is the largest arts and culture social investment fund in the world and is available to organisations across the UK. The Fund is powered by Nesta, together with Big Society Capital, Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Bank of America, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Freelands Foundation.They aim to support arts, cultural and heritage organisations to become more enterprising and financially resilient. They take a relationship-centred approach, structuring finance to meet the needs of individual organisations.
Alongside the bespoke investment, investees can also benefit from additional support around better measuring and articulating their social impact. By focusing on both artistic and social outcomes, they want to promote the wider positive impact art has on society and support more organisations to benefit individuals and communities through their work.
OneTech — LIFT Access to Funding
LIFT (Leading Inclusive Futures through Technology) Access to Funding is a programme designed for existing businesses in the creative, science and digital sectors that are active and generating revenue, but unsure of how to access funding to take their operations to the next stage. The three-year programme helps underserved residents, especially women and Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, across Camden, Hackney, Islington and Tower Hamlets into good local jobs in the knowledge economy including tech, digital, sciences and creative production and supports businesses and start-ups in these sectors.
The LIFT Access to Funding is a programme designed to support existing businesses in the digital, creative and science sectors that are active and generating revenue but are unsure of how to access further funding to grow their business. The programme will provide resources, tools and knowledge of the different types of finance that are available and suited to your individual business. This is a 12 week programme starting on 1st February 2022. You will learn and engage with key strategies, in sessions delivered by experts, to best position your business to access the funding needed to accelerate your business. To access the fantastic support on offer you will need to apply by 10 January 2022.
Peabody Community Fund
The fund is able to support charities and community organisations providing ongoing/regular activities benefitting Peabody residents of all ages. Projects must align with one or more of the three fund themes: 1) Healthy – helping people with their physical and mental wellbeing 2) Wealthy – supporting people to become financially independent through employment, enterprise and education 3) Happy – helping people make the most out of their lives through active citizenship, volunteering and community involvement.
Priority will be given to:
- Organisations/projects addressing the needs of the most disadvantaged members of the community
- Peabody resident-led projects. If an applicant organisation is not resident-led, they will need to demonstrate strong connections with local residents, strong partnership working in the locality, a commitment to the locality after the proposed project is complete, and a clear understanding of community needs
- Youth-led projects up to the age of 24
- There will also be restricted funds for projects supporting Peabody residents living in Waltham Forest
- The 8 priority boroughs for 2021/22 are: Barnet, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Kensington & Chelsea, Lewisham, Newham, Wandsworth and Westminster
The deadline is 5pm on Monday 20 December 2021 for projects from late March 2022 onwards. Decisions will be released by 11 March 2022.
The People Speak — Talkaoke Skills Lab
Talkaoke Skills Lab is a hybrid cross-border creative development opportunity, exploring the question of what does a creative and socially engaged practice means in the global community, where technology plays an ever increasing role? The programme is for UK and Uganda-based artists, performers, writers, creative producers, cultural programmers and everyone who is interested in pushing the boundaries of socially engaged creative practice. The deadline for applications is 9pm GMT on 1 February.
Tower Hamlets Council- — Business Adaptation Project
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has partnered with Enterprise Nation to deliver the Business Adaptation Project, offering 215 small businesses in the borough a programme of business support and funding of up to £1,250 in match-funding.
The initiative is open to businesses with fewer than 49 employees who were trading in Tower Hamlets before 30 June 2021 and who want to adapt their businesses to the post-Covid business environment and safeguard their future.
What is future-proofing and safeguarding your business? While every business hopes for smooth sailing, it’s crucial that you’re aware of the risks that could disrupt your business – and that you take steps to prevent them. This is called ‘safeguarding’ or ‘future-proofing’.
Examples might include: reinforcing your digital security to combat cyber attacks, buying equipment to ensure you can trade outdoors if a new lockdown were to be imposed, adapting your current space to allow for better social distancing, improving your product and services, investing in training programmes, upskilling your workers so that they can deputise in your absence, taking out additional insurance policies, cashflow forecasting, or purchasing safety equipment to protect your staff and customers.
Tower Hamlets Council — Creative & Cultural Futures Project
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is working with Allia to provide grant funding to creative freelancers from the borough, which will be delivered alongside workshops and support focused on helping them to grow and develop their businesses. The Creative and Cultural Futures project provides direct support to creative and cultural industry freelancers who may not have been able to benefit from previous government supported Covid initiatives.
Grant funding will be given to freelancers so that they can adapt and develop their business, plus 1-to-1 professional support in helping them identify the most effective use of this grant. Open to all creative freelancers; you may be an artists, graphic designer, illustrator, craft person, film maker, photographer, or dancer – These are just some of the professions in this amazing space, please do not feel you need to fit into this list. The Creative and Cultural Futures concludes by 31 May 2022, but all funding will be available on a first-come-first-served basis from date of application. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and will be subject to active participation in the qualification process.
Tower Hamlets Council – Peer-to-Peer network
The Peer-to-Peer network will support Pivot Project beneficiaries to connect with other Tower Hamlets based businesses to provide an environment where they can connect, learn from, support, and do business with each other.
This network will be useful for Tower Hamlets based:
- Micro or Small businesses who have a service or product which can support another business to Pivot and who is interested in joining our Pivot Project Suppliers List
- Businesses who are seeking to connect with other local businesses to share good business practice and bounce ideas off.
Tower Hamlets Council – Pivot Project
The Pivot Project is aimed at helping companies that are struggling in the current climate but have the potential to survive and thrive if they can get the support and advice to adapt their business model. Those selected to take part will receive a detailed action plan for their business as well as further professional advice and equipment worth up to £1,000 to help with implementing changes. The support is available for micro and small businesses, employing up to 49 people, that were trading before 30 June 2021.
The council has partnered with Enterprise Nation to deliver the Pivot Project. While 150 firms will be selected for the Pivot Project specifically, council officers will ensure that any applicants that either don’t meet the eligibility criteria for this programme, will be supported to access other assistance available wherever possible.
Please note the application rounds below:
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- Round 1: October 2021 until 3 December 2021
- Round 2: 5 January 2022 to 25 February 2022
- Round 3: 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2022
Waltham Forest Council –Make it Happen Arts and Culture Grants
Make it Happen is the flagship grant programme for arts and culture projects in Waltham Forest. Building upon the legacy of Borough of Culture in 2019 they want to continue celebrating the dynamism and diversity of our local area; they are inviting proposals from artists, community groups and other collectives that bring residents together and showcase the spirit of creativity that characterises our borough. Make it Happen grants will continue to support an exciting portfolio of new projects across the Borough in 2022, but this year there will be additional funding to develop projects in Fellowship Square, the new public space outside Waltham Forest Town Hall that opened during Summer 2021. They want residents to feel a sense of ownership over the square and will therefore be accepting submissions that help activate the space with communities in Waltham Forest over the coming year.
You can bid for sums of between £1000 and £15,000 for activity taking place between March 2022 and March 2023. £100k is available in total. You will need to provide an overview of how this will be spent in your proposal. Examples of projects we could consider funding could include:
- Cultural events and festivals
- Artist residencies and exhibitions
- Theatre, dance, and other performances
- Programmes in schools, community venues and green spaces
- Photography and documentary films
- Public art and other installations
The deadline for applications is Sunday 19 December.
Disclaimer: The Foundation for Future London has published information that was correct as of December 2021. If you have further queries about the grants or opportunities, please contact the organisation directly.