funding

One of 55 foundations who provide funds from endowments (made by the government, individuals and companies) to local groups that will make a genuine local difference. The foundations have a total of £140 million to give away.
Grants average £3,000, but can be much smaller or much larger. The Foundation will support all groups in the county, not necessarily registered charities. Grants will not be given to individuals.

The Hampshire Foundation presently has three funds running -

• Sports Relief with £60,000 to be given away.

• BAT (British American Tobacco are leaving a legacy as the Southampton factory closes down). This will have £750,000 to give away. The focus of this fund will be getting people back into work and helping them overcome barriers to doing so - e.g. needing training or lack of transport.

Government funding changes from grants to contracts - The seventh edition of the 'UK Voluntary Sector Almanac', a comprehensive guide from NCVO to the financial state of the sector, has been published. [Voluntary Sector news]

Just when we thought grants were going out of fashion in favour of commissioning and SLA's it seems that each County Councillor is going to be able to award grants of £10k pa in their patch.

Extra money is always welcome, but it's maybe interesting that the primary purpose of the new scheme is to " to enhance the role of all members, particularly frontline members, in their local communities, by providing them with a budget to make grants for initiatives in their Division which will benefit the community. "

The County Council have removed £265,000 from their community education budget. This money was specifically used to subsidise the use of school premises by voluntary and community groups.

Very strong representations were made to the Leader of the County Council about this cut. It was predicted that the result would be that small groups would be priced out of the schools. It was feared that for many there would be no alternative - and this could see the closure of the group. In some cases it would mean that poorer families would not be able to afford increased fees.

This from communitycare.co.uk

Thousands of voluntary sector projects will close if the government goes ahead with reported plans to raid National Lottery funds to pay for the 2012 Olympics, according to Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Etherington told last week's NCVO annual conference that about 86,000 grassroots projects would find themselves without money from the Big Lottery Fund, if reports that the government will use £1.9bn from the fund to pay for the spiralling costs of the games are proved to be accurate.

List here on the Big Lottery web site

This is Cllr Thornbers response to letter which may be found here

21 February 2007 

Dear Mr Riley

CHILDREN'S SERVICES BUDGET

Thank you for your letter dated 8 February 2007 and I am somewhat concerned about its contents.

I am not sure why our budget papers have taken time to come to your notice and would ask you to let me know how budget papers are normally revealed to you and what might have happened in this context.

An Alliance of children's and young peoples voluntary sector organisations say that "Hampshire's across the board cuts in grant funding and drastic reductions in subsidies for the use of school facilities threaten the future of many valuable community services provided by the voluntary sector"

They are also alarmed that these cuts are being proposed without proper consultation with the sector- against the spirit of working arrangements only recently put in place.

Local press quickly picked up on proposed cuts in the Children's Services funding which threatened Stubbington Study Centre. In response Leader of the County Council, Cllr Ken Thornber found an extra £95,000 to give the Centre a year's reprieve.

Connexions have now issued invitations to tender. See previous post for detail.

Further information can be seen on Connexions web site www.connexions-soutcentral.org. Click on the exchange button at the foot of the page. Sign in with "vcs" and password "pass"

Save the Children and British Gas have announced the next funding round of the here to HELP Awards - up to £1,000 for projects by young people that help make their communities healthier, more engaging, safer places to be. The next deadline for completed applications is FRIDAY 23 MARCH 2007 - with funded projects expected to take place between June and September 2007.

Their website has full details of the here to HELP Awards - and there is an online application process, or the option to download a hard-copy of the application form.