Wesleyan Community Grants Fund

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The Wesleyan Foundation was established in 2017, as the charity arm of financial specialist Wesleyan.

Wesleyan is a mutual which provides specialist financial advice and solutions for doctors, dentists and teachers.

Since 1841 we’ve put our communities at the heart of all we do, supporting Birmingham factory workers and their families during the Industrial Revolution – helping to cover their most pressing needs in times of sickness and to aid funeral expenses.

Now through the Wesleyan Foundation, we aim to support those who are in need in our communities to achieve high quality lives through funding community projects and charities.

Fund Aims

In 2022, the Wesleyan Foundation aligned it’s goals with 5 United Nation Sustainable Goals.   Grants can be awarded for applications demonstrating how the project will provide services and improve outcomes in one or more of the following goals:

• Good Health & Wellbeing
• Quality Education
• Gender Equality
• Reducing Inequality
• Climate Action

Application’s activity could include one of the following:

• Projects which support Mental Health
• Projects which support Disabilities including Learning Disabilities and Autism
• Bereavement support
• Projects which are helping with the Cost of Living – Cooking workshops, community kitchens, skills or object shares
• PSE (Personal Social Education)
• Domestic Violence Support (including women’s refuges)
• Isolation / Befriending / Listening Services
• Projects which support Vulnerable and Elderly
• Projects which support Dementia / Quality of Life
• Social prescribing – alleviating the pressure from the NHS
• Employment – reskilling people, actively preparing people for a new job / new career, interview prep etc
• Education projects for any age
• Projects which are challenging discrimination / supporting BME/Gender/LGBTQ groups
• Climate Action / Environmental education projects.
• Activities to remove carbon from the atmosphere such as tree planting, heathland restoration or supporting algae farms;
• Remediating polluted areas via litter picking / clean-ups.
• Improvement of public community space to stimulate people getting more frequent access to outside space and wildlife.

Available Funding

Grants are available between £2,000 – £10,000 and must be spent within a year.

Priority Area

Grants are available to groups based within the region covered by the Wesleyan network – applications are invited from groups based or delivering projects in Nottinghamshire.

We will fund

• Groups that have been running for at least 2 years.
• Salary, equipment, or volunteer costs that are clearly budgeted and only used for the project – evidence will be required.

Grants can be made for a wide range of purposes including consumables, project or activity costs.

For example:

• Pilot projects
• The purchase of equipment and resources
• Extension and development of existing projects

Please note:

• No more than 10% of the project costs can be assigned to operational / core costs.
• Your application value must be no more than 20% of the organisation’s annual income.
• Your organisation’s income level must less than £500,000, as shown in your most recent annual accounts.

Eligibility

You can apply to this fund if you are one of the following:

• Registered Charities
• Constituted Community Groups
• Companies Limited by Guarantee with charitable aims
• Community Interest Companies
• Co-operatives – registered Community Benefit Societies and registered Industrial and Provident Societies
• Social Enterprises

** Funding to Community Interest Companies and other non-charities may include conditions to restrict funding to charitable objectives only.

Please note we are unable to fund the following:

• Individuals or sole traders
• Arts and media focused projects
• Sports clubs and societies (unless the project benefits disabled people)
• Contact sports such as boxing
• Capital Builds
• Direct replacement of statutory obligations and public funding
• Promotion of religious or political activities
• Groups with significant financial free reserves
• Organisations or charities which are solely to promote any particular religion
• Organisations who have indicated poor management of any previous grants or who present poor financial health
• Payment of deficit funding or repayment of loans
• Animal welfare, unless the project benefits people (e.g. disabled riding schemes)
• Statutory work in educational institutions
• Pure sponsorship purposes or funding purely for costs of fund-raising event

Amounts available and dates:

The grant available is between £2,000 – £10,000 and should be completed within one year.

The round is open for applications from 1st May 2023 closing on 10th July 2023.
Assessments will take place in August with grants panel making decisions in September 2023.

For a copy of the full grant criteria please read the Wesleyan Community Grants Fund Factsheet

Apply for a Wesleyan Community Grant

You will need to input a regularly used email address as the instructions on how to access and complete the application form will be sent by email.

Additional Supporting Information

All grant applicants will need to provide documentation to support their bid.  To be eligible to apply you must be able to provide proof of:

• Your organisation / company has a management committee / board of trustees / board of directors with at least 3 unrelated people as members, a list of those directors will be required showing who has bank authorisation;
• A written constitution / articles / set of rules;
• A copy of your most recent annual accounts or financial records showing your organisations balance of funds, income and reserves;
• A bank account in the name of the organisation with a least two unrelated signatories;
• A bank statement from the last 3 months;
• Copies of your safeguarding / policies (if you will be working with children or vulnerable adults);
• Equal opportunities policy;
• Quotes for capital items over £300;

• All grant applicants will need to complete an end of grant monitoring form at the end of their project and supply at least one case study;
• All grant applicants will be expected to participate in any appropriate publicity as requested by the community foundation or Wesleyan.

For more information please contact us on 01623 620202 or email enquiries@nottscf.org.uk