Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is an innovative five-year programme that aims to invest £10 million into the local communities of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest, supported by retail destination Westfield Stratford City.
This flagship project will provide new jobs, learning, training and educational programmes through arts, culture, innovation, public realm and creative placemaking.
The programme aims to transform and catalyse the lives and careers of people in East London by putting funding, resources and support straight into local people’s hands.
Our community grant strand offers the following grant schemes:
For years 1-4, now closed:
Each year we have evolved the programme’s design with feedback from our impact evaluation and our ever-growing capacity building network.
Due to this, the application process for successive years is continually modified to ensure the outcomes and impact have a stronger focus on area needs and take a participatory awarding approach.
The Year 5 Community Grant Scheme aims to support local diverse-led organisations and individuals in creating new jobs, learning, skills, training, and educational programmes in arts, culture, innovation, public realm, and creative placemaking.
Unlike previous years, Year 5 community grants have combined previous grant schemes (Small, Medium and Large) into one scheme with a simplified Expressions of Interest (EOI) process.
We will accept EOIs for Year 5 for applications up to £20,000. There is a total pot of up to £200,000. The portal for EOI opens on Monday 22 July 2024 and closes at noon on Friday 20 September 2024.
To be eligible, all projects must address at least one of four key themes:
Applicants must demonstrate at least three short-, medium-, or long-term outcomes aligned to the impact framework initially developed by the Foundation’s grantee partners and local community members. Successful grantees will also participate in peer-led training, networking, and evaluation workshops.
Year 5 community grant-funded projects must run 6-12 months from January to December 2025.
For Year 5 of our Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, we are once again hosting a Capacity Building Programme, in partnership with award-winning social entrepreneur Lisa Stepanovic MBE.
The Foundation aims to make the fund as accessible as possible. If you haven’t signed up for the Capacity Building Programme, this popular programme is free for all new and previous applicants. It can make a significant difference for applicants in terms of application advice, practical support, and sharing of best practices.
The programme offers free workshops and a Whatsapp network and is open to anyone living, working or studying in Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets or Waltham Forest.
We encourage you to join this programme by emailing capacitybuilding.ffl@outlook.com
Tuesday, 14 January, 2025 · 6 – 7:30pm GMT
Join Lisa Stepanovic MBE, Capacity Building lead, for this interactive, hands-on bid writing workshop
In this session, you’ll learn the fundamentals of bid writing. Lisa will share top tips and proven methods of bid writing.
In this session, you’ll learn the fundamentals of bid writing. Lisa will share top tips and proven methods of bid writing using The National Lottery Awards for All application as an example. She will share step-by-step guidance with example answers. This workshop is designed for people new to writing funding applications or who want refresher training on writing successful ones. We will take you through step-by-step guidance and open up for a Q&A.
” I implemented the learning and went on to secure winning bids. Highly recommend this workshop!” – Participant
Tuesday, 21 January, 2025 · 6 – 7:30pm GMT
Join us for this interactive networking session and explore future collaborations and meaningful partnerships.
Networking is key. Whether you work in the youth sector, intergenerational, the arts, or well-being, you will have an active breakout room you. You’ll be able to meet others in your sector, share challenges, and explore collaborations.
All events are free and open to individuals, organisations and businesses working and living across the local communities in the London Boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. See all our events on Eventbrite
For access support please contact grants@future.london
We have easy-to-read versions of our Guidance Notes on our grant scheme pages.
To find out our funding news and opportunities, please sign up for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/gF6X3z.
For all four of the community grants schemes, at the heart of your project there must be a core commitment to one or more of the following:
We appreciate these four overarching areas are a broad spectrum, so to aid understanding of outcomes expected through the grants, we have developed a user-centred process.
Outcomes are the project’s short, medium or long-term goals that will lead to a meaningful impact for communities in the local boroughs. Applicants will be asked to identify a set number of outcomes that their project will achieve. The number of outcomes expected will be based on the grant scheme you are applying for.
We have provided a list of 13 short, medium and long-term outcomes to be selected.
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If you are a Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund grantee, we have a Marketing and Press Guidance section, which has further information and download links for logos.
Download our WEBCFF Impact Framework, co-designed by the Fund’s grantees.
Watch our latest film featuring our Year 2 grantees Eastside, Loop Labs and True Cadence.
The film was produced and directed by Chris Baker with Editor Will Cole and Colourist Harvey Gibson.
In December 2023, we awarded a total of £560,000 to 26 projects.
This includes:
In January 2023, we awarded a total of £668,711 to 37 projects.
This includes:
In 2022, we awarded £786k to 11 Capital Grant Scheme projects.
Year 2 of the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund saw the following grants awarded:
The Fund awarded a total of £1,351,194 to 82 community projects from the Fund’s community strand, consisting of the Small, Medium, Large and Capital Grant Schemes.
Year 2 was designed with evaluation and feedback from Year 1 grantees to ensure that the process is accessible, transparent and allows applicants to make informed decisions, follow a simple applications process and gain additional support when needed.
Year 1 of the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund saw the following grants awarded:
The Fund awarded £660,000 to 36 community projects from the Small, Medium and Large Grant Scheme, benefiting over 7,000 people.
Create opportunities for people of East London
