Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is an ambitious 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 the means of 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.
Year 3 is now closed.
For Year 3, the community grant strand is again made up of Small Grant Scheme, Medium Grant Scheme, and Large Grant Scheme and is expected to be as competitive as previous years.
The Small Grant scheme has a pot of £100,000 and will award 20 to 22 grants.
The Medium Grant scheme pot is £200,000 and will award 10 to 13 grants, and the Large Grant scheme has a pot of £300,000 and will award five to six grants.
Please note, the Capital Grant Scheme is now closed.
For help and advice on making an application, please contact our Capacity Building Programme lead Lisa Stepanovic on capacitybuilding.ffl@outlook.com. Please also see upcoming workshops and sessions for practical support.
To find out when Year 4 will open and to find out about our other funding opportunities, please sign up to 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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For Year 2 and Year 3 of our Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund, we are hosting a Capacity Building Programme, in partnership with award-winning social entrenpeneur Lisa Stepanovic.
We want to ensure the Capacity Building Programme reflects the needs of grantees and future potential grantees. We will be reaching out over the duration of the programme to grantees and community groups to ensure that any workshops developed are beneficial and provide what is needed.
“These sessions are essential for anyone who needs to get their plans on paper without the headache of pages and pages of business planning. It’s helped me to identify the current status of my businesses and enabled me to forecast a realistic vision in terms of future impact, customers, and social value.” – Participant
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For information on upcoming programme and workshops please email:
Capacitybuilding.ffl@outlook.com
For access support please contact
We have an Easy to Read versions of our Guidance Notes on our grant scheme pages.
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:
In Year 2, the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures 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:
In Year 1, the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund awarded £660,000 to 36 community projects from the Small, Medium and Large Grant Scheme, benefiting over 7,000 people.
Read our full list of Year 1 Community Strand grantees.
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.
Open to individuals and non-profits, can apply for up to £5k. Please note: this fund is now closed.
Create opportunities for people of East London
